The Opportunity-based Approach to Entrepreneurial Discovery Research (original) (raw)

OPPORTUNITY DEVELOPMENT: AN ADAPTIVE OPPORTUNITY FRAMEWORK

2008

This paper challenges the traditional "weakly held" assumptions in entrepreneurship that hold opportunities constant, introducing an alternative, developmental framework for opportunities. I propose that Kirzner's "opportunity discovery" models and the enacted, Schumpeterian models of opportunity creation are not mutually exclusive, but rather static conceptions of opportunities at different points in time. I propose an opportunity development framework as an iterative process view where opportunities are both discovered and created. The key stakeholder in this framework is the enterprising individual who, in purposively guiding opportunity development, engages in Marchian exploration/exploitation strategies. Thus, the entrepreneur facilitates the opportunity's adaptation to the environment.

Outcome Implications of Opportunity Creation / Discovery Processes

Research on the processes for detecting and developing entrepreneurial opportunity remains relatively undeveloped. The existing literature relies on a conceptual base in which opportunities are a result of environmental conditions, or alternatively the result of individual actions. Thus, based on earlier theoretical work we have identified four distinct opportunity detection/development processes: (1) proactive search, (2) problemistic search, (3) fortuitous discovery, and (4) opportunity creation. This research is part of a larger study that will attempt to create a taxonomy of opportunity detection/development processes and show that the process is influenced by the resource base of the entrepreneur and has an influence on the subsequent opportunity development and exploitation process. In this phase of the research we use in-depth interviews to produce grounded theory that will more adequately allow us to determine whether opportunity detection and development processes can be ef...

Composite definitions of entrepreneurial opportunity and their operationalizations: Toward a typology

Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research, 2009

We examined 19 years of conceptual and operational definitions of entrepreneurial opportunity and opportunity-related processes (recognition, discovery, etc.). We found 56 articles in 6 entrepreneurship-focused publications, with 23 conceptual and 6 operational definitions of opportunity as well as 25 conceptual and 24 operational definitions of opportunity-related processes. Among those definitions, we identified 25 distinct definitional elements and 12 operational elements of opportunity as well as 48 definitional elements ...

Developing and validating opportunity creation as a construct: a preliminary study

J. for International Business and Entrepreneurship Development

In this research, we develop and validate the construct, opportunity creation. We outline the theoretical foundations of opportunity creation. A review of research on opportunity creation gave rise to 21 manifest variables and three potential dimensions: 1) action and reaction; 2) individual differences; 3) socially created. These variables were subjected to various validity tests using entrepreneurs from Nigeria. Initial data from 231 entrepreneurs from Nigeria was used to conduct exploratory factor analysis and identify the dimensions of opportunity creation and their items. In order to validate the construct and its dimensions, data was collected from 360 entrepreneurs from Nigeria and was subjected to confirmatory factor analysis. Based on the findings, we argue that opportunity creation is a reflective construct with three dimensions and 13 variables.

Identifying the Elements of Entrepreneurial Opportunity Constructs: Recognizing What Scholars Are Really Examining

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, 2016

There is plenty of debate in the entrepreneurship literature regarding entrepreneurial opportunity. There also has been a lack of construct clarity. These two issues have combined to stifle progress in understanding this important phenomenon. We believe that across these debates there are many underlying commonalities and potential for more clear constructs. In this paper we review how scholars have defined and operationalized entrepreneurial opportunity and opportunity-related processes in order to better understand what they really mean when they say ‘opportunity’. We found a total of 102 definitions and 51 operationalisations from 105 articles published in leading entrepreneurship and management journals. A total of 81 elements were identified across the definitions and operationalisations and compiled into an integrated process model. The model incorporates what seemed to be disparate views into a single unifying model. Comparison between conceptual definitions and operationalisations reveals many elements that are missing either conceptual or empirical attention. The model will help scholars more easily identify and build upon prior research. To that effect, numerous suggestions for future research are discussed and are summarized in a table.

Opportunity discovery, entrepreneurial action, and economic organization

Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 2008

This paper reviews and critiques the "opportunity discovery" approach to entrepreneurship and argues that entrepreneurship can be more thoroughly grounded, and more closely linked to more general problems of economic organization, by adopting the Cantillon-Knight-Mises understanding of entrepreneurship as judgment. I begin by distinguishing among occupational, structural, and functional approaches to entrepreneurship and distinguishing among two influential interpretations of the entrepreneurial function, discovery and judgment. I turn next to the contemporary literature on opportunity identification and argue that this literature misinterprets Kirzner's instrumental use of the discovery metaphor and mistakenly makes "opportunities" the unit of analysis. I then describe an alternative approach in which investment is the unit of analysis and link this approach to Austrian capital theory. I close with some applications to organizational form and entrepreneurial teams.

Opportunities and Entrepreneurship

Journal of Management, 2003

This article extends and elaborates the perspective on entrepreneurship articulated by Shane and Venkataraman (2000) and Venkataraman (1997) by explaining in more detail the role of opportunities in the entrepreneurial process. In particular, the article explains the importance of examining entrepreneurship through a disequilibrium framework that focuses on the characteristics and existence of entrepreneurial opportunities. In addition, the article describes