eckhardt and shane (2003) argue that when taking the path of entrepreneurship, one of the most important indictors for future entrepreneurship is the skill of finding the business opportunity. this is seen as the lynchpin around which the promise of entrepreneurial venture is to be built . shane and venkataraman state that individuals must possess prior knowledge and the cognitive properties necessary to value such knowledge in order to identify the new opportunity. this normally allows a triggering of the opportunity which can then move forward to scoping and validation.