Entrepreneurial processes and the social construction of opportunity

Abstract

In contrast to structurally-determinist and cognitive/agency-oriented views of opportunity recognition, it is argued that opportunity formation is relationally and communally constituted — an insight that is not recognized in descriptive or linear process models of opportunity recognition. To arrive at this claim, use is made of social constructionist ideas. These ideas have been frequently applied in entrepreneurship studies but less attention has been given to the relational aspects of social constructionist thinking particularly with regard to opportunity formation processes. To aid this line of enquiry an analysis is undertaken of a sibling-autobiographical account of a high-profile business venture, Coffee Republic. This account has been crafted by the sibling partnership with a particular audience in mind (the would-be entrepreneur) with guidelines and principles on how ‘anyone can do it’. However, it is not utilized here as a good specimen of business venturing to be probed for particular (hidden) meanings. Instead, the account is evaluated in order to illustrate how individualistic statements about opportunity discovery can be reconceptualized as relationally and communally constituted – an emphasis which is important for widening our theoretical understanding of the activities that we label entrepreneurship.

Keywords:

• opportunity formation
• social construction
• relational processes
• Coffee Republic
• entrepreneurial processes

Notes

Notes

1. In entrepreneurship research, however, although many researchers adopt a cognitivist orientation (Manimala 1992, Hill and Levenhagen 1995, Busenitz and Barney 1997, Baron 1998, Shane and Venkataraman 2000) they are not necessarily constructivist in philosophical orientation.

2. Copyright permission from Capstone Publishing Limited, Chichester, W. Sussex.