Identification and Prioritization of business opportunities in Aras free trade zone

Identification and Prioritization of business opportunities in Aras free trade zone

Opportunity is a central concept within the entrepreneurship field, and there is now a critical mass of literature centered on the concept. Entrepreneurial opportunity emerges at the nexus of individual aspirations with economic and social conditions perceived as favorable to create a new product or service, either in an existing market or a new one. The concept of an ‘entrepreneurial opportunity’ is central for the study and theory of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs are individuals who pursue entrepreneurial opportunities. Without entrepreneurial opportunities, therefore, there will be no ‘entrepreneurship’, conceptually speaking. The most important exception is the literature in management and organization theory on opportunity discovery or opportunity identification, or what Shane (2003) calls the "individual–opportunity nexus." Opportunity identification involves not only technical skills like financial analysis and market research, but also less tangible forms of creativity, team building, problem solving, and leadership. While value can, be created not only by starting new activities but also by improving the operation of existing activities, research in opportunity identification tends to emphasize new activities. These could include creating a new firm or starting a new business arrangement, introducing a new product or service, or developing a new method of production. Investment on one hand is one of the most important factors in economic growth and development in every country and on the other hand, investing is not a casual phenomenon, identification and prioritizing the investment opportunities in every country and region could improve the economic growth and development in addition to attracting the investors. Aras Free Trade - Industrial Zone (abbreviated as AFZ) is located in the Northwest of Iran at the border point with neighboring Armenia, Azerbaijan and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. AFZ is located in semi dry and semi cold North-West part of Iran. Annual rain fall is about 225 to 400 milliliters per year and average temperature is about 15 degree Celsius. The AFZ is in very close reach of high mountains ranges, which have a cold climate. Facilities include railways and roads, electricity network, irrigation and water distribution network, gas distribution network, communication network, branches of all major banks and insurances, border terminals, customs warehouses, airport (Tabriz), government offices and ministerial branches, hotel, motel and restaurants. The AFZ have different business opportunities in the fields of economy, agriculture and tourism. This study has been done to identify and Prioritization business opportunities in the Aras free trade zone.

This research is a descriptive survey. Research population consists of 150 people. The mixed exploratory method has been used in data collection. In mixed exploratory methods researchers first conducted to collect qualitative data. Then, based on findings from qualitative data, the quantitative data collected to be more generalizability of the findings. Data analysis was done using SPSS statistical software. As for describing qualitative characteristics was calculated percent and frequency distribution. And for describing quantitative characteristics were calculated central and dispersion indexes using one-sample t-test. Finally for test and prioritization of variables, Friedman nonparametric test was used. The study carried out a qualitative paradigm and the case study method. Using purposive sampling, 10 experts in the field of Entrepreneurship in the Aras free trade zone were interviewed. After data collection, business opportunities in the Aras free trade zone in five category including agriculture, tourism, trade and industry was identified and Prioritization. In order to data analysis, at first all Recorded dialogues were converted to written texts. In the next step, using Sentence by sentence strategy, Important statements and related to the subject were identified. Finally, in order to data interpretation in this study, Constant comparative analysis method or open coding and axial was used. And also to determine the questionnaire reliability of the present study, Cronbach's alpha technique was used.

The results of encryption, 41 general categories (coded optional) and business opportunities is identified in Aras Free Zone, The opportunity is classified in five general areas: agribusiness, tourism, commercial, industrial and service. The results showed that between different category, commercial and agriculture part were placed in the first and last priority, respectively. The difference observed between the different domains is a significant error level of less than 0.05. Also in the parts of trade business opportunity in building export terminals and trade, services business opportunities in the integrated health and medical tourism services, industrial business opportunities in the solar heating systems (solar hot water), tourism business opportunities in the construction of hotel and tourism business opportunities and in the field of agriculture business opportunities in sorting and packaging fruit have the first rank.

Developing any factor in countries requires investing in economic sectors and activities in that country. One cannot expect to increase employment, production and economic welfare without investing in infrastructure plans. Establishing and promoting free zones can act as a fast policy and a shortcut for achieving the goals such as attracting foreign and home investments and rapid industrialization in order to develop non-oil export. So the business opportunities in the field of trade and tourism will specially be attention in the area. Thus, with respect to the special position of Aras Free Zone, relevant authorities given more attention to identify opportunities and create new opportunities with investing in this area, to improve the economic situation and job creation. Moreover, considering the obtained priority in decision-making for investment can cause providing facilities and infrastructures, accelerating in infrastructure and construction affairs, developing economic growth, investment and increasing general revenue, creating healthy and productive employment, adjusting the labor market and goods, presence at international and global markets, production and export and finally will be in line with free zone goals.