Original Research

Potential entrepreneurs’ assessment of opportunities through the rendering of a business plan

Melodi Botha, Claire Leanne Robertson
South African Journal of Economic and Management Sciences | Vol 17, No 3 | a524 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/sajems.v17i3.524 | © 2014 Melodi Botha, Claire Leanne Robertson | This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 07 February 2013 | Published: 29 May 2014

About the author(s)

Melodi Botha, University of Pretoria, South Africa
Claire Leanne Robertson, University of Pretoria, South Africa

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Abstract

In the field of entrepreneurship and especially during start up, much emphasis is placed on the business plan with regard to entrepreneurship education and training, funding from external investors, business plan competitions and government development agencies in the Small, Medium and Micro Enterprise (SMME) sector. In many earlier studies of well-known entrepreneurship educators, the formulation of a business plan was identified as being the most important feature of any entrepreneurship programme or course. However, the relevance of a business plan has been a topic of intense and unresolved debates in more recent literature. This paper contributes to the literature with regard to the value a business plan adds to potential entrepreneurs.  Furthermore it increases the understanding of how a detailed business plan (such as the approved business plan template of the University of Pretoria approved business plan) can enable a potential entrepreneur to assess opportunities. The paper conducts a comprehensive analysis of business plans and the methods of assessing opportunities, in order to reveal similarities between the business plan and opportunity assessment. Based on descriptive statistics and inferential statistics such as ANOVA, and Kruskal-Wallis tests, the findings support the hypotheses that potential entrepreneurs distinguish between ideas and opportunities and develop opportunities through the formulation of a detailed business plan. The pertinent academic and practical significance of this paper is that it highlights statistically significant differences proving that a detailed business plan is a tool that enables potential entrepreneurs to assess opportunities. From a practical point of view, this should help potential entrepreneurs to establish more viable business ventures; however, this would have to be statistically tested in further research. Finally, the study re-establishes the importance and purpose of a business plan in the field of entrepreneurship.



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Crossref Citations

1. Business plan competitions and nascent entrepreneurs: a systematic literature review and research agenda
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International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal  vol: 19  issue: 2  first page: 863  year: 2023  
doi: 10.1007/s11365-023-00838-5