This article contributes to the emerging theory of opportunity creation by examining how organizations (including entrepreneurial ones) create and transform their niches. Using insights from contemporary evolutionary theory, the article classifies types of niche construction activities along dimensions of governance and the nature of the strategic actor. It then focuses on mechanisms of niche c…
To better understand opportunity creation, we investigate the extent to which recognition of failure impacts the new transaction commitment mindset of entrepreneurs. In a PLS model, we utilize data gathered from a sample of 220 entrepreneurs, and augment these results with an ANOVA analysis that provides a deeper exploration of the theory. In this article, we: (1) elaborate on the critical dime…
This study begins with a historical overview of the connection between risk and rationality. It then broadens beyond this historical trajectory by taking entrepreneurship as a point of departure for understanding risk and rationality. Drawing from the research of Littlechild (1986), Buchanan and Vanberg (1991), and Sarasvathy et al. (2003), this study considers three entrepreneurial processes: …
Do entrepreneurial opportunities exist, independent of the perceptions of entrepreneurs, just waiting to be discovered? Or, are these opportunities created by the actions of entrepreneurs? Two internally consistent theories of how entrepreneurial opportunities are formed - discovery theory and creation theory - are described. While it will always be possible to describe the formation of a parti…