The Relationship between Factors Affecting the Attitude Towards Economic Opportunities by Small and Medium-sized Business’ Owners in Fars Province

The decision to start or develop a new business is influenced significantly by the overt and covert context of the business environment and consequently how individuals and entrepreneurs perceive those plans and contexts. Because a collective understanding of a particular field creates a culture that forms the basis of entrepreneurial activities. In this study, according to the study context and Iranian governmental economy, the effect of good governance on how entrepreneurs perceive and attitude towards economic opportunities with respect to the mediating role of the knowledge-based economy has been investigated. For this purpose, a sample of 366 small and medium business owners in Fars province was extracted using a stratified sampling method. The results indicate that the good governance variable has both a direct (0.414) and an indirect (0.318) effect through the mediation of the knowledge-based economy variable on how to perceive economic opportunities. So, the partial mediating effect of the knowledge-based economy variable in the relationship between good governance and understanding of economic opportunities is confirmed. Therefore, it is expected that by strengthening the factors of good governance, it will be possible to create a suitable platform for the development of a knowledge-based economy and a proper understanding of economic opportunities and, consequently, suitable conditions for the development of small and medium-sized businesses. The results show that investing in establishing the rule of law and controlling corruption, as well as building trust and social cohesion can create a better understanding of the business environment and, of course, the exploitation of economic opportunities among entrepreneurs and SMEs owners in the Fars province. The results, also indicate that good governance as a macro and cognitive sector of social capital has a great impact on improving the understanding of economic opportunities of entrepreneurs SMEs’ owners in Fars province because, in total, the variables of good governance and knowledge-based economy are able to explain 62% of the changes in the variable of perception of economic opportunities.