The creative catalyst: Developing student competency in opportunity recognition

Abstract

This paper adopts a cross-disciplinary approach to opportunity recognition competence development. Prior research suggests that opportunity recognition is a relatively neglected area in enterprise and entrepreneurship education. Increasingly, there are calls to look to the creative disciplines for pedagogies that could enhance the creativity required to engage with entrepreneurship. Due to the creative nature of opportunity recognition, this research explores the potential for design education pedagogies to enhance opportunity recognition competence. Informed by the lived experience of design educators, the findings highlight that design education enables many of the attributes, behaviours and skills associated with opportunity recognition. The resultant opportunity recognition education framework suggests that, with the aid of four key enablers, opportunity recognition competence can be developed, moving students from dependence to independence over time.