A Staged Theory of Entrepreneurial Opportunity (original) (raw)

Each opportunity has a primary (or raw) stage and a secondary (or developed) stage. Entrepreneurs invest time and efforts to turn a profit-neutral primary opportunity into a potentially profitable secondary one, fulfilling a mini-evolution process. While developing opportunities, the mini-evolution also changes entrepreneurs: they will develop a sense of " owning " the opportunity, ready to make it private goods in the end of secondary stage. Based on whether the raw opportunity can enter the second stage and whether any entrepreneur is committed to it, there will be four types – Raw opportunities, solo opportunities , pending opportunities and full opportunities – listed in the order of increasing desirability for entrepreneurship. Combining the two stages, every opportunity is " found " and " made, " objective and subjective, exogenous and endogenous. We then evaluate the debate between " Creation " and " Discovery " schools and make three recommendations for future research: Considering entrepreneurial uniqueness and similarity with business activities ; studying opportunities and entrepreneurship through ecosystems and thinking of philosophical grounds and also practitioner ground.

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