Chance events in entrepreneurial opportunity development


Speaker


Abstract

In this paper we take a grounded theory approach to understand the development process of entrepreneurial opportunities. We analyze the detailed narratives of nine nascent or recent entrepreneurs. We derive a model that portrays opportunities development as a series of junctions. The generative mechanism at each junction involves chance events that trigger insights or commitment that in turn lead to actions (or a series of actions) that take the process forward. The chance events themselves emerge from encounters occurring in the context of the business of daily living that provide the nascent entrepreneur with new information; such information proves meaningful in the entrepreneur’s personal, work, environmental or new business context.

The Erasmus - EIM - Panteia Entrepreneurship Lectures Series is co-organized by Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM.nl) and EIM Business & Policy Research (EIM/Panteia), an independent and international research and consultancy organisation, specialised in SMEs and Entrepreneurship. EIM is part of the Panteia group.

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Contact information:
Ingrid Verheul
Email