A Comment on Developing the Field of Entrepreneurship Through the Study of Opportunity Recognition and Exploitation

Abstract

The author comments on an article concerning entrepreneurship research and the definition of entrepreneurial opportunities. He states that the use of terms often associated with entrepreneurship can only be applied post hoc once either initial business movers have created a market and data reveals there is support for future opportunities, or the venture becomes successful. The author mentions an example of this with the overnight parcel delivery service Federal Express, which other mail carriers had felt had no market and thus failed to capitalize on the opportunity. He comments on problems with conceptions of opportunity as other confounding variables are interconnected with opportunity constructs.