SIGNAL DETECTION THEORY AND THE ENTREPRENEUR: CLARIFICATION, EXTENSION, AND FUTURE

Gaglio’s work on opportunity recognition (Gaglio, 1997; Gaglio & Katz, 2001) represents an important contribution to the literature and has generated considerable scholarly attention. Therefore, it is with great pleasure that we respond to her commentary on our recent chapter (McMullen & Shepherd, 2003). Central to Gaglio’s commentary is a discussion about the appropriateness of our critique of the literature and a proposed alternate use for signal detection theory in building entrepreneurship theory. Responding to this commentary provides us the opportunity to better articulate our main arguments and to build on Gaglio’s ideas for an alternative application of signal detection theory.