The Framework for Identifying Entrepreneurial Opportunities in the Field of Information Technology with a Foresight Approach (Case Study: Digital health technologies in the military forces)1

The entrepreneurship process begins with identifying opportunities. Understanding the process of identifying future opportunities with the help of foresight is especially important for IT businesses. The sequential exploratory mixed method research (quantitative-qualitative) took place. The first part of the research is a systematic review of articles related to identifying opportunities and interviewing entrepreneurship and futures studies experts. Opportunity identification steps use 17 methods in three dimensions: perception, prediction, and expansion. Then, by using the SPSS24 software and analyzing the collected questionnaires, the dimensions of the framework were confirmed. The results of factor analysis revealed that the steps of foresight (input-analysis-output) are equal to the steps of opportunity identification. Finally, using the first phase of the framework (environmental analysis), they were initially identified by rating the reports on digital health technology trends for the military and their main ones were ranked so the three trends in telemedicine, patient-centered care and wearable technologies will be the most important trends over the next five years.