Title: On the nature of technological opportunities: concept, origin and evolution

Authors: María-Teresa Aceytuno; F. Rafael Cáceres

Addresses: Department of Economics, University of Huelva, Plaza de la Merced 11, 21071, Huelva, Spain. ' Department of Applied Economics I, University of Sevilla, Avda. Ramón y Cajal 1, 41018, Sevilla, Spain

Abstract: This paper studies in depth the concept of technological opportunity. Our first step is to identify a valid concept of entrepreneurial opportunities, since technological opportunities make up a kind of them. From this, we draw up a definition of technological opportunity. Our definition implies that to generate new opportunities – once the capacity to generate opportunities from existing knowledge is exhausted – new scientific or technological knowledge have to be introduced into the economy. From this idea, we identify cycles in the evolution of technological opportunities, derived from the cyclical evolution of knowledge.

Keywords: entrepreneurial opportunities; technological opportunity; opportunity life cycles; entrepreneurship.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEV.2012.046519

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing, 2012 Vol.4 No.2, pp.168 - 180

Received: 12 Nov 2010
Accepted: 17 Mar 2011
Published online: 31 Jul 2014 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article