Entrepreneurial processes and the social construction of opportunity

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 recognised 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 inquiry 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 utilised 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 reconceptualised as relationally and communally constituted - an emphasis which is important for widening our theoretical understanding of the activities we label entrepreneurship