Attractiveness of venture ideas: a conjoint study

Abstract

Every venture starts with a venture idea; product/service, method of production, customer, market, or method of promotion etc. This study focused its attention on what factors drive entrepreneurs’ perceptions of the relative attractiveness of specific venture ideas, and how important different venture idea characteristics are for making such assessments. Based on several idea characteristics – four dimensions of newness, two dimensions of relatedness and potential financial gains – the study investigated how 32 expert entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka trade off among different levels and attributes associated with different idea characteristics. The study utilized a Conjoint Analysis to understand how entrepreneurs make preferences for different profiles of venture idea characteristics. Results suggest that entrepreneurs are highly attractive of introducing substantial improved products. They prefer to use a higher knowledge in implementing venture idea. Further, results show that entrepreneurs give higher importance for process newness in perceiving venture idea.