Journal of

Background and Aim: Identification of entrepreneurial opportunities in the field of nutrition counseling is a central issue in employing nutrition consultants and meeting the needs of patients with chronic diseases better. To this end, the present survey has been conducted in order to analyze the supply and demand trends of diabetes nutrition counseling as a basic step toward identifying the entrepreneurial opportunities for nutrition consultants in Tehran.

Materials and Methods: To implement this descriptive-survey study, a questionnaire based on Likert scale was sent by email to 80 active professionals in the field of nutrition counseling services in Tehran, of whom 48 responded to its questions. Then, using SPSS11.5, the mean values of participants' responses were calculated and compared with one another.

Results: The findings obtained based on participants' responses revealed that the need for "nutritional counseling in the form of a treatment team" was mostly not met in different age, education and income groups of diabetic patients

Conclusion: "Nutrition counseling in the form of a treatment team" can be considered as a suitable field for entrepreneurial activities.

Background and Aim: Nowadays, because of the intense competition between nutrition consultants and rapid changes in patients' demands for nutrition counseling, application of the concepts such as "Entrepreneurial Opportunities Recognition" in this field seems unavoidable. One of the most commonly used methods for recognition of entrepreneurial opportunities is "Strategic Analysis of External Environment". Present survey has been conducted in order to study the impact of nutrition consultants' educational level on their strategic analysis about entrepreneurial opportunities.

Materials and Methods: This analytical survey was implemented based on the data (nutrition consultants' educational levels and their responses regarding the supply and demand for nutrition counseling services) which was collected during a previous study entitled ((Analysis of supply and demand trends in the field of diabetes nutrition counseling: A basic step towards identifying the entrepreneurial opportunities for nutrition consultants)). Also, ((Spearman's correlation test)) and ((GLM multivariate test)) were performed for the analysis of aforementioned data.

Results: Both statistical tests showed that nutrition consultants' educational levels (including 1- Bachelor of Science and 2- Master of Science and PhD) had significant relationship with two-thirds of their comments.

Conclusion: Nutrition consultants' educational level has a relative impact on their strategic analysis about the entrepreneurial opportunities.

 Background and Aim: Nowadays, entrepreneurs in different fields of health, have an important role in economic development. Prior knowledge has an effect on entrepreneurial alertness and opportunity recognition and with considering the lack of research in this important field, the aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of various aspects of prior knowledge on entrepreneurial alertness & and opportunity recognition .

 Materials and Methods: To implement this descriptive-survey study, a questionnaire based on Likert scale sent to 63 active health field managers in east of Tehran, where 52 people responded to the questions. In this study the effect of eight variables of prior knowledge were investigated on entrepreneurial alertness and opportunity recognition. Data were analyzed using SPSS 15 and Spearman correlation test.

 Results: Results showed that majori ty of perior knowledge aspects have meaningful relationship to entrepreneurial alertness and opportunity recognition . However, relationship between component of technology skills with both variables was not confirmed. Also, relationship between education level and entrepreneurial alertness, there was no.

 Conclusion: Reinforcing of prior knowledge component led to increased entrepreneurship.