The present study focuses on the construct of entrepreneurial alertness, investigating the external antecedents of the construct, responding to the call for more research pledged by Tang, Kacmar, and Busenitz (2012). Namely, we examine how receiving feedback, awards and collaboration offers in relation to an individual’s hobby activity influences the development of entrepreneurial alertness dimensions. Additionally, we make a contribution by testing the effect of these external factors in a non-entrepreneurial context of homebrewing communities, that is individuals producing beer at home as a hobby. In line with other form of craft activities, this context has demonstrated a high potential for business start-up development due to the increasing number of new small brewing businesses in North America run by entrepreneurs that were previously homebrewers (Carroll & Swaminathan, 2000). We test our tenets within the complexity theory, where configurations of antecedents are examined in order to gain deeper understanding of the possible outcome (Woodside, 2014), using 213 completed questionnaires. We apply fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA, Ragin 2000; 2008) to achieve a holistic overview of the examined interrelationships (Ordanini, Parasuraman & Rubera, 2015). We find that high feedback is a sufficient condition for high scanning and search, association and connection, as well as evaluation and judgement activities of entrepreneurial alertness. Without feedback, people at the hobby stage engage in their leisure activities solely because they like it. However, receiving feedback in relation to their hobby outcomes provides an opportunity for individuals to develop and experience additional motivations beyond enjoyment, where they understand that the hobby could be commercialized and bring monetary rewards. Moreover, we find that an individual receiving low amount of awards but high amount of collaboration offers may also have high entrepreneurial alertness. Since individuals receive rewards related to the excellent performance in their leisure activity, it may not provide any cue for a potential transformation into a business. However, the more collaboration offers people receive, the more likely they get involved in scanning and search, association and connection, and evaluation and judgement activities of entrepreneurial alertness. Therefore, they are likely to conduct additional search, connect bits of available information and evaluate this business opportunity (Gaglio & Winter, 2009). The findings of this study could help entrepreneurs reflect on their decisions and behaviours during the business start-up planning process, and measure their entrepreneurial alertness and the extent of readiness to engage in business venturing.

Researches based on the pattern of planned behavior holds that the three variables of entrepreneurial attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavior control influence each other and influence entrepreneurial intentions respectively. However, there are also different, even conflicting research conclusions that continue to emerge. Researches based on the pattern of alertness, believe that profit opportunities and individuals’ pursuit to truth are the driving forces. Many scholars have demonstrated the impact of individual entrepreneurial alertness on entrepreneurial intentions. However, as an exogenous causal agent, profit opportunities have a logical problem: if there are no other assumptions, the mere existence of opportunities does not adequately explain entrepreneurial alertness. To address this gap, this study considered samples from mainland China, where entrepreneurial activities are very active currently, to test the role that entrepreneurial alertness is assumed to play in the planned behavior model. The results show that the three dimensions of alertness, individually partly intermediate the influence of entrepreneurial attitude on entrepreneurial intention, the influence of subjective norms on entrepreneurial intention, and that of perceived behavior control on entrepreneurial intention. This article studied the production of entrepreneurial intention by integrating the two patterns of planned behavior and alertness through empirical analysis, and opened up a new field for subsequent research on entrepreneurial intention.