Identification of Factors Affecting the Determination of Entrepreneurial Opportunities of Iran's Handmade Carpet

Persian handmade carpet is regarded as one of the most important sources of foreign exchange income to the country and an important export product of Iran. Unfortunately, a breaking down recession in export of handmade carpet has been occurred in the past decade. This is mainly because of lack of exploring entrepreneurial opportunities in this industry. The present study with the aim of investigating the most effective factors on determining entrepreneurial opportunities has been conducted in order to provide the basis for developing the exploration of entrepreneurial opportunities for exporters of handmade carpets. Prior knowledge, perceived self-efficacy, mentors, regular search for the opportunities, social communication networks, information flows, creativity, social learning, entrepreneurial Alertness and expediting forces are the factors considered in this research. This research is done through a mix method. The population of the study included about 50 carpet exporters from Esfahan and via snowball sampling method 42 carpet exporters were selected. The results showed that social communication networks, entrepreneurial Alertness, expediting forces, perceived self-efficacy, prior knowledge and mentors are more effective than the other factors in exploring entrepreneurial opportunities in exporting Esfahan handmade carpets.