Title: Creating entrepreneurial opportunities: an organisational and social constructive phenomenon in the creation of new businesses

Authors: Antti Kauppinen, Vesa Puhakka

Addresses: Department of Management, University of Oulu, P.O. Box 4600, University of Oulu, 90014, Finland. ' Department of Management, University of Oulu, P.O. Box 4600, University of Oulu, 90014, Finland

Abstract: This conceptual study approaches the creation process of new businesses from the perspective of organisational creativity and imagination in entrepreneurial opportunity process. Currently, organisational creativity and imagination have been linked to the creative view or creation theory in the entrepreneurial opportunity process field of research. We argue that our theoretical illustration concerning the dialectical creation process of entrepreneurial opportunities describes an early phase of the creation of new businesses. According to our theoretical illustration, entrepreneurs create new unknown effects from the given means or tools (the logic of effectuation) in the creative space (called in-between). In this manner, the creative space including subject, object and community (i.e., neutral opportunities) is empty at the beginning of the entrepreneurial opportunity process, and it is completed by elements of business environment (i.e., intension-driven entrepreneurial opportunities) such as rules, tools, signs and division of labour.

Keywords: creative view; creative space; effectuation logic; neutral opportunities; intention-driven entrepreneurial opportunities; human activity structure; organisational creativity; entrepreneurship; new ventures; new business creation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEV.2010.032542

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing, 2010 Vol.1 No.4, pp.432 - 448

Published online: 06 Apr 2010 *

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