Mateusz MOLASY
Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Wroclaw, Poland
Entrepreneurial success depends heavily on the knowledge that individuals draw upon when identifying and exploiting opportunities. Despite extensive research on entrepreneurial cognition, learning and competence, existing typologies remain fragmented and often treat knowledge domains as isolated categories. This study is motivated by the need to clarify how different forms of knowledge collectively enable opportunity-focused entrepreneurial action. The literature lacks an integrative perspective that positions opportunity-related knowledge as the central mechanism through which technological, managerial, experiential, and personal knowledge become meaningful in the entrepreneurial process.
To address this gap, the study adopts a conceptual, literature-based methodology, synthesizing theoretical and empirical contributions published between 2000 and 2025 across entrepreneurship, innovation and management research. Through thematic analysis, the review identifies the dominant knowledge constructs used in prior studies and examines how they relate to opportunity recognition, opportunity exploitation, and entrepreneurial behavior.
The study proposes an Integrative Model of Entrepreneurial Knowledge that places knowledge about opportunity recognition and exploitation at its core. Surrounding this core are seven interdependent knowledge domains: technological, industry, organizational, marketing, financial, operational, and self-knowledge, each contributing to the entrepreneur’s cognitive and behavioral capacity to transform ideas into value-creating ventures. The model shows that entrepreneurial knowledge functions as a dynamic, interconnected system shaped by learning loops linking cognition, experience, and action. This framework advances theoretical understanding of entrepreneurial knowledge integration and offers practical implications for designing opportunity-centered entrepreneurship education and future empirical research.