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Entrepreneurial opportunities as propensities: Do Ramoglou & Tsang move the field forward?

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  • Davidsson, Per

Abstract

Ramoglou & Tsang's (R&T) article “A realist perspective of entrepreneurship: Opportunities as propensities” is a recent, potentially influential addition to the literature on “entrepreneurial opportunities”. This short communication argues that R&T's intellectual exercise largely fails to move matters forward on the two most central problems with prior research on “entrepreneurial opportunities”, namely 1) lack of construct clarity and 2) slow progress regarding how characteristics of “entrepreneurial opportunities” give shape to entrepreneurial action and outcomes. I suggest that entrepreneurship researchers should avoid the detour of conceptually dichotomizing complex and empirically non-tractable sets of external circumstances into “opportunities” vs. “non-opportunities” and instead direct attention to multi-dimensional and continuous variation in “those [evolving] entities which entrepreneurs actually evaluate and [sometimes] act upon” (and which should not be mislabeled as “opportunities”). For this endeavor, the notion of “agency-intensity” is the primary take-away from R&T's study.

Suggested Citation

  • Davidsson, Per, 2017. "Entrepreneurial opportunities as propensities: Do Ramoglou & Tsang move the field forward?," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 7(C), pages 82-85.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jobuve:v:7:y:2017:i:c:p:82-85
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbvi.2016.02.002
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Sharon A. Alvarez & Jay B. Barney & Philip Anderson, 2013. "Forming and Exploiting Opportunities: The Implications of Discovery and Creation Processes for Entrepreneurial and Organizational Research," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(1), pages 301-317, February.
    2. Jeffery S. McMullen & Dimo Dimov, 2013. "Time and the Entrepreneurial Journey: The Problems and Promise of Studying Entrepreneurship as a Process," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(8), pages 1481-1512, December.
    3. Ronald K. Mitchell, 2011. "Increasing Returns and the Domain of Entrepreneurship Research," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 35(4), pages 615-629, July.
    4. Ilídio Barreto, 2012. "A Behavioral Theory of Market Expansion Based on the Opportunity Prospects Rule," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 23(4), pages 1008-1023, August.
    5. Dimo Dimov, 2011. "Grappling with the Unbearable Elusiveness of Entrepreneurial Opportunities," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 35(1), pages 57-81, January.
    6. Davidsson, Per, 2015. "Entrepreneurial opportunities and the entrepreneurship nexus: A re-conceptualization," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 674-695.
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    Cited by:

    1. Stratos Ramoglou & William B. Gartner, 2023. "A Historical Intervention in the “Opportunity Wars†: Forgotten Scholarship, the Discovery/Creation Disruption, and Moving Forward by Looking Backward," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 47(4), pages 1521-1538, July.
    2. Xiaoti Hu & Susan Marlow & Angelika Zimmermann & Lee Martin & Regina Frank, 2020. "Understanding Opportunities in Social Entrepreneurship: A Critical Realist Abstraction," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 44(5), pages 1032-1056, September.
    3. Salvi, Esther & Hechavarria, Diana M. & Gimenez-Jimenez, Daniela, 2025. "Opportunity amidst explosions: How armed conflicts spark informal entrepreneurship in emerging economies," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 23(C).
    4. Mark D. Packard & Per L. Bylund, 2025. "Truth, knowledge, and entrepreneurship theory: arguments for a rationalist scientific epistemology," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 65(1), pages 381-405, June.
    5. Andronikidis, Andreas & Karolidis, Dimitrios & Zafeiriou, Georgia, 2021. "Reflections on grounding firm innovation and viability," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 2-8.
    6. Ramoglou, Stratos, 2021. "Knowable opportunities in an unknowable future? On the epistemological paradoxes of entrepreneurship theory," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 36(2).
    7. Gabriel A. Giménez Roche & Didier Calcei, 2021. "The role of demand routines in entrepreneurial judgment," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 56(1), pages 209-235, January.
    8. Fellnhofer, Katharina, 2022. "Entrepreneurial alertness toward responsible research and innovation: Digital technology makes the psychological heart of entrepreneurship pound," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    9. Davidsson, Per, 2022. "McBride and Wuebker's Socially Objective Opportunities: Do they move the field forward?," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 18(C).
    10. Davidsson, Per, 2017. "Opportunities, propensities, and misgivings: Some closing comments," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 8(C), pages 123-124.
    11. Moroz, Peter W. & Branzei, Oana & Parker, Simon C. & Gamble, Edward N., 2018. "Imprinting with purpose: Prosocial opportunities and B Corp certification," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 117-129.
    12. Tahseen Anwer Arshi & Asfia Ambrin & Venkoba Rao & Swapnil Morande & Kanwal Gul, 2022. "A Machine Learning Assisted Study Exploring Hormonal Influences on Entrepreneurial Opportunity Behaviour," Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Emerging Economies, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, vol. 31(3), pages 575-602, November.
    13. Ramoglou, Stratos & Tsang, Eric W.K., 2017. "Accepting the unknowables of entrepreneurship and overcoming philosophical obstacles to scientific progress," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 8(C), pages 71-77.
    14. Halberstadt, Jantje & Schwab, Anne-Kathrin & Kraus, Sascha, 2024. "Cleaning the window of opportunity: Towards a typology of sustainability entrepreneurs," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    15. Esther Salvi & Frank-Martin Belz & Sophie Bacq, 2023. "Informal Entrepreneurship: An Integrative Review and Future Research Agenda," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 47(2), pages 265-303, March.
    16. Wood, Matthew S., 2017. "Continued misgivings: A response to Davidsson on dismantling the opportunity construct," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 7(C), pages 77-81.
    17. Bennett, Daniel L., 2019. "Infrastructure investments and entrepreneurial dynamism in the U.S," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 1-1.
    18. Per Davidsson, 2023. "Ditching Discovery-Creation for Unified Venture Creation Research," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 47(2), pages 594-612, March.

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