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In exploring entrepreneurial action as a response to opportunities, this paper uses signalling theory to provide new insights as the entrepreneur moves from perception to recognition to enactment. We adopt a dynamic approach to how entrepreneurs perceive opportunities and form initial opportunity beliefs, recognizing that, over time, beliefs change. The perceived potentialities from the signals arising from opportunities also change. Strength of the initial opportunity beliefs, morph-ability of opportunities, frequency of opportunity appearances, multiple interpretations of opportunity, latency of opportunity, observability (intensity, visibility, strength and clarity), distortions of opportunity and false opportunity are topics that are not sufficiently addressed in research on entrepreneurial opportunities. We argue that the signalling effects open new avenues of inquiry related to the central role of opportunity in the entrepreneurial process. Instead of seeing opportunity from either the discovery or creation approaches, opportunity should be viewed as an artifact with embedded perceived potentialities. Implications are drawn for the developmental context.

This study investigates how project-specific factors, the project creator, and campaign signals influence crowdfunding success in France. Analysing 424 projects from the KissKissBankBank platform, the research employs Generalised Linear Models to identify significant success factors. The findings reveal that signals such as publications, geographical location, project category, the creator’s past experience, the number of backers, and the funds raised positively affect campaign success. Contrary to our research hypotheses, signals related to factors such as video, the length of the project description, fundraising duration, and goal amount negatively impact success. Additionally, signals related to factors such as comments, readability of the project description, facial trust, and gender were found to be insignificant. This study provides valuable insights for young entrepreneurs, helping them identify crucial signals for crafting effective crowdfunding strategies, thereby enhancing the likelihood of their campaign success. It also serves as a resource for potential backers, enabling them to make informed investment choices before committing to crowdfunding projects.