The formation and development of entrepreneurial opportunities in the digital ecosystem: A social capital-based inquiry

Abstract: It is not clear how the nature of entrepreneurial opportunities have been changed which caused differences in formation of entrepreneurial opportunities under the background of digital entrepreneurship. Set in the context of digital ecosystem, this paper analyzes how social capital accumulated by the affordances of digital ecosystem could affect the formation and development of entrepreneurial opportunities. While opportunity is measured from both the desirability dimension and content dimension, the moderating effects of the path are also tested from the cognitive monitoring of entrepreneurs and the digitization degree of new ventures. Expanding the application of social capital theory in the context of digital entrepreneurship, this paper deepens the research of entrepreneurial opportunities in digital ecosystem, which also helps to improve the quality and efficiency of opportunity identification, and to guide "destructive creation" by entrepreneurs in digital platform, and promotes the construction of entrepreneurial ecosystem at last. "