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4144Entrepreneurial opportunity is the core construct of entrepreneurship research. It is an urgent research issue to clarify the relationship between entrepreneurial opportunity and its embedded entrepreneurial context. However, the mechanism of the relationship between entrepreneurial opportunity and entrepreneurial context has not been clearly explained in the extant research, which has become a major obstacle to the development of entrepreneurial theory. Based on the connotations of entrepreneurial opportunity and entrepreneurial context, this paper reviews the research on the relationship between entrepreneurial opportunity and entrepreneurial context from such three views as opportunity discovery, creation and integration, and puts forward the limitations of the extant research. Thus, this paper integrates the discovery view and creation view to clarify the relationship between entrepreneurial opportunity and the essence of entrepreneurial context — uncertainty, and based on this, creates an integrated framework of interaction between entrepreneurial opportunity and entrepreneurial context uncertainty from the perspective of multi-actor interaction. In this regard, first of all, this paper argues that instead of debating whether the nature of entrepreneurial opportunity is discovery or creation, it is better to focus on the actual decisions and actions of entrepreneurs, and distinguishes discovery opportunity from creation opportunity by results of actions. Then, this paper proposes that discovery opportunity and creation opportunity can be transformed along the entrepreneurial process, and the entrepreneurial process includes both discovery and creation. Finally, from the perspective of multi-actor interaction, this paper proposes that the interaction between objective entrepreneurial context and cognitive entrepreneurial context uncertainty is an important force to promote the transformation of entrepreneurial opportunities. The theoretical contribution of this paper is mainly reflected in the following aspects. Firstly, this paper proposes to classify the entrepreneurial context uncertainty from such two dimensions as goals and means, which provides a new way to explore the relationship between entrepreneurial opportunity and entrepreneurial context uncertainty. Secondly, this paper analyzes the mechanism between objective entrepreneurial context uncertainty, cognitive entrepreneurial context uncertainty and discovery/creation opportunity, which provides a deeper understanding of the relationship between entrepreneurial opportunity and entrepreneurial context. Thirdly, this paper breaks through the limitations of single-actor perspective and static research, and reveals the dynamic mechanism that entrepreneurial opportunity interacts with entrepreneurial context uncertainty to promote the transformation of entrepreneurial opportunities from the perspective of multi-actor interaction.
/ Journals / Foreign Economics & Management
Foreign Economics & Management
LiZengquan, Editor-in-Chief
ZhengChunrong, Vice Executive Editor-in-Chief
YinHuifang HeXiaogang LiuJianguo, Vice Editor-in-Chief
Entrepreneurial Opportunity and Entrepreneurial Context: An Integrated Framework
Foreign Economics & Management Vol. 44, Issue 04, pp. 18 - 33 (2022) DOI:10.16538/j.cnki.fem.20211102.101
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References
Summary
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Cite this article
Cai Yiru, Cai Li, Chen Ziying, et al. Entrepreneurial Opportunity and Entrepreneurial Context: An Integrated Framework[J]. Foreign Economics & Management, 2022, 44(4): 18-33.
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