Working Paper: Focus! A Theory of Entrepreneurial Attention in Emerging Economies.

Entrepreneurial attention is limited and where entrepreneurs focus their attention is consequential, particularly in emerging economies where resources are scarce. While existing literature explores the consequences of attention focus, such as opportunity exploitation or action, less is known about what shapes the focus of entrepreneurs’ attention. In this paper, we examine contextual factors that shape the focus of entrepreneurial attention in emerging markets. Based on interviews as well as a large sample of longitudinal data from entrepreneurs our results show that situations of business distress shift the focus of attention towards an opportunity to receive assistance. We also find that the intensity to which this shift of attention occurs depends on motivation, attention capacity and information access – mechanisms that are influenced by the social context in which entrepreneurs are embedded. Specifically, we find that venture maturity, gender, and entrepreneurial age have important implications for shifts in the focus of attention. Our study contributes to theory by exploring the antecedents of entrepreneurial attention and by introducing the concept of cognitive consequences of scarcity more fully into the literature. more