A temporal typology of entrepreneurial opportunities: implications for optimal timing of entrepreneurial action: Implications for the optimal timing of entrepreneurial action
A temporal typology of entrepreneurial opportunities: implications for optimal timing of entrepreneurial action: Implications for the optimal timing of entrepreneurial action
Entrepreneurial opportunities emerge and dissipate over time, yet little is known about how and why they vary in their ephemerality and what the implications of temporal variance are for the optimal timing of entrepreneurial action. Building on the actualization theory of opportunity and signal processing theory, we propose that profit possibilities exist in the convolution of consumer desire, technical feasibility, and economic viability of an innovation. Conceiving consumer desire – a necessary ingredient of any profit opportunity – as consisting of fleeting or enduring consumer preferences and fixed or variable consumer expectations, we identify four possible distributions of consumer desire over time. We then show how the interaction of these distributions with technical feasibility functions produces a temporal typology of entrepreneurial opportunities. Our analysis suggests that, despite sharing conceptual similarities in structure, each type of opportunity emphasizes a different form of asymmetry across opportunity categories, which is likely to differentially affect the optimal timing of entrepreneurial action. We conclude by pointing out how considerations of time facilitate the move away from fruitless philosophical debates and toward a more theoretically nuanced and empirically informative view of the concept.
Actualization, Entrepreneurial action, Third-person opportunities, Time, Timing
McMullen, Jeffery S.
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Fitzsimmons, Jason R.
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Shetty, Khyati
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Ramoglou, Stratos
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January 2024
McMullen, Jeffery S.
d2374544-f8a3-4f6c-b5f9-159d4144e28a
Fitzsimmons, Jason R.
7980eb43-7444-4522-89d3-ea2c5ca89804
Shetty, Khyati
340d8e93-af7b-4567-832a-423755a4e8bb
Ramoglou, Stratos
f3fffbf5-0f1f-46e1-93af-a13e18945610
McMullen, Jeffery S., Fitzsimmons, Jason R., Shetty, Khyati and Ramoglou, Stratos
(2024)
A temporal typology of entrepreneurial opportunities: implications for optimal timing of entrepreneurial action: Implications for the optimal timing of entrepreneurial action.
Journal of Business Venturing, 39 (1), [106356].
(doi:10.1016/j.jbusvent.2023.106356).
Abstract
Entrepreneurial opportunities emerge and dissipate over time, yet little is known about how and why they vary in their ephemerality and what the implications of temporal variance are for the optimal timing of entrepreneurial action. Building on the actualization theory of opportunity and signal processing theory, we propose that profit possibilities exist in the convolution of consumer desire, technical feasibility, and economic viability of an innovation. Conceiving consumer desire – a necessary ingredient of any profit opportunity – as consisting of fleeting or enduring consumer preferences and fixed or variable consumer expectations, we identify four possible distributions of consumer desire over time. We then show how the interaction of these distributions with technical feasibility functions produces a temporal typology of entrepreneurial opportunities. Our analysis suggests that, despite sharing conceptual similarities in structure, each type of opportunity emphasizes a different form of asymmetry across opportunity categories, which is likely to differentially affect the optimal timing of entrepreneurial action. We conclude by pointing out how considerations of time facilitate the move away from fruitless philosophical debates and toward a more theoretically nuanced and empirically informative view of the concept.
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Accepted/In Press date: 6 September 2023
e-pub ahead of print date: 3 October 2023
Published date: January 2024
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© 2023 Elsevier Inc.
Keywords:
Actualization, Entrepreneurial action, Third-person opportunities, Time, Timing
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 482049
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/482049
ISSN: 0883-9026
PURE UUID: d6b1aeb5-c59e-488d-98f4-799c480c9546
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Date deposited: 18 Sep 2023 16:40
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 03:27
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Contributors
Author:
Jeffery S. McMullen
Author:
Jason R. Fitzsimmons
Author:
Khyati Shetty
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