Yes, now we can: Technological change and the exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities Rögnvaldur J. Saemundsson a, ⁎, Magnus Holmén b,1 a Reykjavik University, Menntavegur 1, IS-101 Reykjavik, Iceland b Chalmers University of Technology, SE-412 96 Göteborg, Sweden article info abstract Available online 1 October 2011 The paper investigates how technological change in an industry influence which individuals will identify and exploit entrepreneurial opportunities. We propose that the introduction of new development tools will change knowledge-barriers to entry because they enable the ab- straction of specialized knowledge that was previously needed for development. Empirically we test the argument using data from the web design industry in a Nordic country during the period 1992–2003. We compare the education and experience of founders before and after the introduction of web administration tools in 1998 and find a significant difference, which supports the main thesis of our argument. © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Entrepreneurship Technological change Entrepreneurial opportunities New ventures New technology-based firms Capital goods of development Web design industry Development tools 1. Introduction Within entrepreneurship research the nexus of opportunities and individuals has received a lot of attention (Eckhardt & Shane, 2003; Sarason, Dean, & Dillard, 2006; Shane, 2003; Shane & Venkataraman, 2000; Venkataraman, 1997). Instead of focus- ing separately on the enterprising individual or the opportunities that are generated by environmental change the emphasis has been on the importance of investigating the interaction of the individual and opportunities. A central tenet within this line of research is the importance of prior knowledge for identifying and exploiting opportunities (Shane, 2000). Previous experiences and accumulated knowledge are believed to shape what opportunities individuals will dis- cover and how they are further developed into a viable business. Such an approach implies that external knowledge development, for example the introduction of new technologies, will affect which individuals are likely to identify and exploit entrepreneurial opportunities (McMullen & Shepherd, 2006). This is certainly not a new insight. Even if not formulated in the same manner this view is clearly shared by the economists that have stressed the role of entrepreneurs as change agents in the economy. This is particularly evident in the works of econ- omists sharing the common ancestry to the Austrian economist Carl Menger, such as Joseph A. Schumpeter (1934, 1939, 1942) and Israel M. Kirzner (1973, 1997). Research following the tradition of Schumpeter have studied the linkage between innovation and the development of technology but have not stressed the role of the individual (e.g. Klevorick, Levin, Nelson, & Winter, 1995). Studies following more closely the subjective tradition of Menger, such as Kirzner (1973, 1997), have stressed the importance of individual action in the economic system, but have never given much attention to knowledge as a phenomenon (Lewin, 1996). This means that there is a dearth of studies dealing with in what ways technological change affects which individuals discover, create, evaluate and exploit entrepreneurial opportunities. Journal of High Technology Management Research 22 (2011) 102–113 ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: + 354 599 6294; fax: + 354 599 6201. E-mail addresses: rjs@ru.is (R.J. Saemundsson), magnus.holmen@chalmers.se (M. Holmén). 1 Tel.: +46 31 772 1206; fax: +46 31 772 1237. 1047-8310/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.hitech.2011.09.003 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Journal of High Technology Management Research