How to become an excellent entrepreneur: The moderating effect of risk propensity on alertness to business ideas and entrepreneurial capabilities

- This study investigates how to become an excellent entrepreneur.
- Entrepreneurial capabilities include autonomy, innovativeness, risk-taking and proactiveness.
- Alertness led to a significantly higher level of autonomy with higher level of risk propensity.
- Alertness led to a significantly higher level of innovativeness with higher level of risk propensity.
- Alertness led to a significantly higher level of proactiveness with higher level of risk propensity.

Under the fierce pressure of the dynamic environments that characterize the emerging economies, an entrepreneur must develop capabilities such as autonomy, innovativeness, risk-taking, and proactiveness to survive the competition. This study examines how alertness to business ideas helps build entrepreneurial capabilities and its contingencies in China's emerging economy. The empirical result indicates that the effect of alertness to business ideas on innovativeness, risk-taking, and proactiveness are both positive and significant. The effectiveness of alertness to business ideas on entrepreneurial capabilities is contingent on different levels of risk propensity. In particular, the alertness to business ideas leads to a significantly higher level of autonomy, innovativeness, and proactiveness with higher level of risk propensity.