Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

We develop arguments against the objective opportunity construct and argue that “opportunities” should be understood as wholly and fundamentally subjective. We define and elaborate “opportunities” as expectations attainable only through intervening action, with requisite propositional attitudes of both desirability and feasibility. These revisions imply a fundamental shift in the foundations of entrepreneurship theory. Such a shift prompts us to rethink the nature of entrepreneurial cognition, allows us to elaborate the myriad—indeed endless—ways “opportunities” can manifest, and engenders clearer and more specific theorizing on the processual navigation of reality’s unfolding vis-à-vis “opportunity” expectations and consequent entrepreneurial plans.

Keywords

subjectivism interpretivism entrepreneurial opportunities expectation judgment

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Alvarez

S. A.

Barney

J. B.

(2007). Discovery and creation: Alternative theories of entrepreneurial action. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 1(1–2), 11–26.

Alvarez

S. A.

Barney

J. B.

(2010). Entrepreneurship and epistemology: The philosophical underpinnings of the study of entrepreneurial opportunities. Academy of Management Annals, 4(1), 557–583.

Alvarez

S. A.

Barney

J. B.

(2020). Has the concept of opportunities been fruitful in the field of entrepreneurship? Academy of Management Perspectives, 34(3), 300–310.

Alvarez

S. A.

Barney

J. B.

Anderson

(2013). Forming and exploiting opportunities: The implications of discovery and creation processes for entrepreneurial and organizational research. Organization Science, 24(1), 301–317.

Angus

R. W.

Packard

M. D.

Clark

B. B.

(2023). Distinguishing unpredictability from uncertainty in entrepreneurial action theory. Small Business Economics, 60, 1147–1169.

Archer

M. S.

(1995). Realist social theory: The morphogenetic approach. Cambridge University Press.

Berger

P. L.

Luckmann

(1991). The social construction of reality: A treatise in the sociology of knowledge. Penguin.

Berglund

(2015). Between cognition and discourse: Phenomenology and the study of entrepreneurship. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, 21(3), 472–488.

Berglund

Bousfiha

Mansoori

(2020). Opportunities as artifacts and entrepreneurship as design. Academy of Management Review, 45(4), 825–846.

10.

Berglund

Dimov

(2023). Visions of futures and futures of visions: Entrepreneurs, artifacts, and worlds. Journal of Business Venturing Insights, 20, e00411.

11.

Berglund

Dimov

(2025). Grounding and developing the design perspective on entrepreneurship: From individual–opportunity Nexus to artifact-centered triad. Journal of Management Inquiry, 34(3), 272–285.

12.

Bhaskar

(2008). A realist theory of science. Harvester.

13.

Bhaskar

(2009). Scientific realism and human emancipation. Routledge.

14.

Bjørnskov

Foss

N. J.

(2016). Institutions, entrepreneurship, and economic growth: What do we know and what do we still need to know? Academy of Management Perspectives, 30(3), 292–315.

15.

Bosma

Sanders

Stam

(2018). Institutions, entrepreneurship, and economic growth in Europe. Small Business Economics, 51(2), 483–499.

16.

Bradley

S. W.

Klein

(2016). Institutions, economic freedom, and entrepreneurship: The contribution of management scholarship. Academy of Management Perspectives, 30(3), 211–221.

17.

Bruyat

Julien

P.-A.

(2001). Defining the field of research in entrepreneurship. Journal of Business Venturing, 16(2), 165–180.

18.

Burnell

Stevenson

Fisher

(2023). Early-stage business model experimentation and pivoting. Journal of Business Venturing, 38(4), 106314.

19.

Burrell

Morgan

(1979). Sociological paradigms and organisational analysis: Elements of the sociology corporate life. Heinemann.

20.

Bylund

P. L.

Malone

(2024). Understanding the role of perceptions in opportunity evaluation: A discrete choice experiment. Entrepreneurship Research Journal, 14(2), 759–796.

21.

Bylund

P. L.

Packard

M. D.

(2022). Subjective value in entrepreneurship. Small Business Economics, 58, 1243–1360.

22.

Byrne

R. M. J.

(2005). The rational imagination. MIT Press.

23.

Carnap

(1936). Testability and meaning. Philosophy of Science, 3(4), 419–471.

24.

Carnap

(1967). The logical structure of the world. ( George

R. A.

Trans.). University of California Press.

25.

Carver

C. S.

Scheier

M. F.

(1981). Attention and self-regulation: A control-theory approach to human behavior. Springer-Verlag.

26.

Chiles

T. H.

Bluedorn

A. C.

Gupta

V. K.

(2007). Beyond creative destruction and entrepreneurial discovery: A radical Austrian approach to entrepreneurship. Organization Studies, 28(4), 467–493.

27.

Chiles

T. H.

Elias

S. R. S. T. A.

Zarankin

T. G.

Vultee

D. M.

(2013). The kaleidic world of entrepreneurs: Developing and grounding a metaphor for creative imagination. Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management, 8(3), 276–307.

28.

Cornelissen

J. P.

(2013). Portrait of an entrepreneur: Vincent van Gogh, Steve Jobs, and the entrepreneurial imagination. Academy of Management Review, 38(4), 700–709.

29.

Cornelissen

J. P.

Clarke

J. S.

(2010). Imagining and rationalizing opportunities: Inductive reasoning and the creation and justification of new ventures. Academy of Management Review, 35(4), 539–557.

30.

Davidsson

(2015). Entrepreneurial opportunities and the entrepreneurship nexus: A re-conceptualization. Journal of Business Venturing, 30(5), 674–695.

31.

Dimov

(2007). From opportunity insight to opportunity intention: The importance of person-situation learning match. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 31(4), 561–583.

32.

Dimov

(2010). Nascent entrepreneurs and venture emergence: Opportunity confidence, human capital, and early planning. Journal of Management Studies, 47(6), 1123–1153.

33.

Dimov

(2011). Grappling with the unbearable elusiveness of entrepreneurial opportunities. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 35(1), 57–81.

34.

Dimov

(2020). Opportunities, language, and time. Academy of Management Perspectives, 34(3), 333–351.

35.

Dimov

(2021). From “opportunity” to opportunity: The design space for entrepreneurial action. Journal of Business Venturing Design, 1(1–2), 100002.

36.

Dimov

Johnsen

C. G.

Sørensen

B. M.

(2025). The future within: Commitment, hope, and values in entrepreneurship. Journal of Business Venturing Insights, 23, e00543.

37.

Eckhardt

J. T.

Shane

S. A.

(2003). Opportunities and entrepreneurship. Journal of Management, 29(3), 333–349.

38.

Elert

Henrekson

(2017). Entrepreneurship and institutions: A bidirectional relationship. Foundations and Trends® in Entrepreneurship, 13(3), 191–263.

39.

Epstein

(2015). The Ant Trap: Rebuilding the Foundations of the Social Sciences. Oxford University Press.

40.

Fauchart

Gruber

(2011). Darwinians, communitarians, and missionaries: The role of founder identity in entrepreneurship. The Academy of Management Journal, 54(5), 935–957.

41.

Felin

Koenderink

Krueger

J. I.

(2017). Rationality, perception, and the all-seeing eye. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 24(4), 1040–1059.

42.

Felin

Zenger

T. R.

(2017). The theory-based view: Economic actors as theorists. Strategy Science, 2(4), 258–271.

43.

Fodor

J. A.

(1975). The language of thought. Harvard University Press.

44.

Fodor

J. A.

(1981). Imagistic representation. In Block

(Ed.), Imagery (pp. 63–86). MIT Press.

45.

Foss

N. J.

Klein

P. G.

(2020). Entrepreneurial opportunities: Who needs them? Academy of Management Perspectives, 34(3), 366–377.

46.

Foss

N. J.

Klein

P. G.

Bjørnskov

(2019). The context of entrepreneurial judgment: organizations, markets, and institutions. Journal of Management Studies, 56(6), 1197–1213.

47.

Fraassen

B. C. V.

(1980). The Scientific Image. Clarendon Press.

48.

Gartner

W. B.

(1988). “Who is an entrepreneur?” is the wrong question. American Journal of Small Business, 12(4), 11–32.

49.

Garud

Gehman

Giuliani

A. P.

(2014). Contextualizing entrepreneurial innovation: A narrative perspective. Research Policy, 43(7), 1177–1188.

50.

Gloria-Palermo

(2002). Discovery versus creation: Implications of the Austrian view of the market process. https://www.elgaronline.com/edcollchap/9781840644746.00012.xml.

51.

Goodell

(2011, January 17). Steve Jobs in 1994: The rolling stone interview. Rolling Stone. https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/steve-jobs-in-1994-the-rolling-stone-interview-231132/.

52.

Guala

(2007). The philosophy of social science: Metaphysical and empirical. Philosophy Compass, 2(6), 954–980.

53.

Hastings

Packard

M. D.

(2025). Venture mode. Amplify.

54.

Haynie

J. M.

Shepherd

D. A.

McMullen

J. S.

(2009). An opportunity for me? The role of resources in opportunity evaluation decisions. Journal of Management Studies, 46(3), 337–361.

55.

Kimjeon

Davidsson

(2022). External enablers of entrepreneurship: A review and agenda for accumulation of strategically actionable knowledge. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 46(3), 643–687.

56.

King

(1999a). The impossibility of naturalism: The antinomies of Bhaskar’s realism. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 29(3), 267–288.

57.

King

(1999b). Against structure: A critique of morphogenetic social theory. The Sociological Review, 47(2), 199–227.

58.

Kirzner

I. M.

(1973). Competition and entrepreneurship. University of Chicago Press.

59.

Kirzner

I. M.

(1995). The subjectivism of Austrian economics. In Meijer

(Ed.), New perspectives on Austrian economics (pp. 11–25). New York: Routledge.

60.

Kirzner

I. M.

(1999). Creativity and/or alertness: A reconsideration of the Schumpeterian entrepreneur. The Review of Austrian Economics, 11(1), 5–17.

61.

Klein

P. G.

(2008). Opportunity discovery, entrepreneurial action, and economic organization. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 2(3), 175–190.

62.

Klein

P. G.

Bylund

P. L.

(2014). The place of Austrian economics in contemporary entrepreneurship research. The Review of Austrian Economics, 27(3), 259–279.

63.

Korsgaard

Berglund

Thrane

Blenker

(2016). A tale of two Kirzners: Time, uncertainty, and the “nature” of opportunities. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 40(4), 867–889.

64.

Lachmann

L. M.

(1977). Capital, expectations, and the market process: Essays on the theory of the market economy ( Grinder

W. E.

Ed.). Sheed Andrews and McMeel, Inc.

65.

Lachmann

L. M.

(1986). The market as an economic process. Blackwell.

66.

Liubertė

Dimov

(2021). “One tiny drop changes everything”: Constructing opportunity with words. Journal of Business Venturing Insights, 15, e00242.

67.

Lounsbury

Gehman

Ann Glynn

(2019). Beyond homo entrepreneurus: Judgment and the theory of cultural entrepreneurship. Journal of Management Studies, 56(6), 1214–1236.

68.

Lounsbury

Glynn

M. A.

(2019). Cultural entrepreneurship: A new agenda for the study of entrepreneurial processes and possibilities. Elements in Organization Theory. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108539487.

69.

Lüthje

Herstatt

von Hippel

(2005). User-innovators and “local” information: The case of mountain biking. Research Policy, 34(6), 951–965.

70.

MacFarlane

(2003). Future contingents and relative truth. The Philosophical Quarterly, 53(212), 321–336.

71.

MacFarlane

(2014). Assessment sensitivity: Relative truth and its applications. Oxford University Press.

72.

Madjdi

Packard

M. D.

Zolfaghari

(2024). Entrepreneurial opportunities as expressions of personal identities: Interpretative engagement through personal value structures. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 36(5–6), 681–706.

73.

Madjdi

Zolfaghari

(2023). Individuating: How founder’s social identities shape their evaluation of opportunities. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, 29(11), 58–80.

74.

Marcus

R. B.

(1975). Dispensing with Possibilia. Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association, 49, 39–51.

75.

Martens

M. L.

Jennings

J. E.

Jennings

P. D.

(2007). Do the stories they tell get them the money they need? The role of entrepreneurial narratives in resource acquisition. Academy of Management Journal, 50(5), 1107–1132.

76.

Martin

(2015). Austrian methodology: A review and synthesis. In Boettke

P. J.

Coyne

C. J.

(Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Austrian Economics (p. 13). Oxford University Press.

77.

McBride

Packard

M. D.

Clark

B. B.

(2024). Rogue entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 48(1), 392–417.

78.

McBride

Wuebker

(2022). Social objectivity and entrepreneurial opportunities. Academy of Management Review, 47(1), 75–92.

79.

McMullen

J. S.

(2015). Entrepreneurial judgment as empathic accuracy: A sequential decision-making approach to entrepreneurial action. Journal of Institutional Economics, 11(3), 651–681.

80.

McMullen

J. S.

Dimov

(2013). Time and the entrepreneurial journey: The problems and promise of studying entrepreneurship as a process. Journal of Management Studies, 50(8), 1481–1512.

81.

McMullen

J. S.

Fitzsimmons

J. R.

Shetty

Ramoglou

(2024). A temporal typology of entrepreneurial opportunities: Implications for the optimal timing of entrepreneurial action. Journal of Business Venturing, 39(1), 106356.

82.

McMullen

J. S.

Ramoglou

(2023). An opportunity to profit from recent entrepreneurship theory. Journal of Business Venturing Insights, 20, e00409.

83.

McMullen

J. S.

Shepherd

D. A.

(2006). Entrepreneurial action and the role of uncertainty in the theory of the entrepreneur. Academy of Management Review, 31(1), 132–152.

84.

Menger

(2007). Principles of Economics. Ludwig von Mises Institute.

85.

Mises

L. von

. (1998). Human Action: A treatise on economics. Ludwig von Mises Institute.

86.

Mitchell

J. R.

Mitchell

R. K.

Randolph-Seng

(2014). Handbook of entrepreneurial cognition. Edward Elgar Publishing.

87.

Nabisaalu

J. K.

Bylund

P. L.

(2021). Knight, financial institutions, and entrepreneurship in developing economies. Journal of Institutional Economics, 17(6), 989–1003.

88.

Pacherie

(2006). Towards a dynamic theory of intentions. In Pockett

Banks

W. P.

Gallagher

(Eds.), Does consciousness cause behavior? (pp. 145–167). MIT Press.

89.

Packard

(2022). Entrepreneurial valuation: An entrepreneur’s guide to getting into the minds of customers. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG.

90.

Packard

M. D.

(2017). Where did interpretivism go in the theory of entrepreneurship? Journal of Business Venturing, 32(5), 536–549.

91.

Packard

M. D.

(2018). Why I am not a performativist (yet). Journal of Business Venturing Insights, 9, 39–44.

92.

Packard

M. D.

(2019). Entrepreneurship: Toward the Nirvana state of rest. Mises Journal, 7(3), 523–543.

93.

Packard

M. D.

Burnham

T. A.

(2021). Do we understand each other? Toward a simulated empathy theory for entrepreneurship. Journal of Business Venturing, 36(1), 1–16.

94.

Packard

M. D.

Bylund

P. L.

(2021). From homo economicus to homo agens: Toward a subjective rationality for entrepreneurship. Journal of Business Venturing, 36(6), 1–15.

95.

Packard

M. D.

Bylund

P. L.

(2025). Towards an entrepreneurial judgement theory: Building the cognitive microfoundations of entrepreneurial judgement. International Small Business Journal, 43(1), 53–75.

96.

Packard

M. D.

Bylund

P. L.

Klein

P. G.

(2021). Human action and human design: An Austrian approach to design science. Journal of Business Venturing Design, 1(10003), 1–12.

97.

Packard

M. D.

Clark

B. B.

(2020a). On the mitigability of uncertainty and the choice between predictive and non-predictive strategy. Academy of Management Review, 45(4), 766–786.

98.

Packard

M. D.

Clark

B. B.

(2020b). Probability logic fails in immitigable uncertainty, but strategic logic does not. Academy of Management Review, 45(3), 704–707.

99.

Packard

M. D.

Clark

B. B.

Klein

P. G.

(2017). Uncertainty types and transitions in the entrepreneurial process. Organization Science, 28(5), 840–856.

100.

Perry

T. S.

Wallich

(1985, October 1). Xerox Parc’s engineers on how they invented the future. IEEE Spectrum. https://spectrum.ieee.org/xerox-parc.

101.

Pruss

A. R.

(2002). The actual and the possible. In Gale

R. M.

(Ed.), The Blackwell Guide to Metaphysics: 317–333. Wiley Online Library.

102.

Quine

W. V.

(1948). On what there is. The Review of Metaphysics, 2(5), 21–38.

103.

Ramoglou

(2021). Knowable opportunities in an unknowable future? On the epistemological paradoxes of entrepreneurship theory. Journal of Business Venturing, 36(2), 106090.

104.

Ramoglou

Gartner

W. B.

Tsang

E. W.

(2020). “Who is an entrepreneur?” is (still) the wrong question. Journal of Business Venturing Insights, 13, e00168.

105.

Ramoglou

McMullen

J. S.

(2024a). “What is an opportunity?”: From theoretical mystification to everyday understanding. Academy of Management Review, 49(2), 273–298.

106.

Ramoglou

McMullen

J. S.

(2024b). “Clipping an Angel’s Wings”: On the value and limitations of philosophy in management research. Academy of Management Review, 49(2), 466–471.

107.

Ramoglou

Schaefer

Chandra

McMullen

J. S.

(2025). Artificial intelligence forces us to rethink Knightian uncertainty: A commentary on townsend et al.’s “are the futures computable?” Academy of Management Review, 50(2), 471–473.

108.

Ramoglou

Tsang

(2016). A realist perspective of entrepreneurship: Opportunities as propensities. Academy of Management Review, 41(3), 410–434.

109.

Ramoglou

Tsang

(2018). Opportunities lie in the demand side: Transcending the discovery-creation debate. Academy of Management Review, 43(4), 815–818.

110.

Ramoglou

Tsang

E. W. K.

(2017). In defense of common sense in entrepreneurship theory: Beyond philosophical extremities and linguistic abuses. Academy of Management Review, 42(4), 736–744.

111.

Richard

(2017). Propositional Attitudes. In Hale

Wright

Miller

(Eds.), A companion to the philosophy of language (pp.324–356). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

112.

Rindova

V. P.

Martins

L. L.

(2022). Futurescapes: Imagination and temporal reorganization in the design of strategic narratives. Strategic Organization, 20(1), 200–224.

113.

Russell

(1905). On denoting. Mind, 14(56), 479–493.

114.

Russell

(1910. Knowledge by acquaintance and knowledge by description. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 11, 108–128.

115.

Russell

(1920). Introduction to mathematical philosophy. Macmillan.

116.

Sarasvathy

S. D.

(2001). Causation and effectuation: Toward a theoretical shift from economic inevitability to entrepreneurial contingency. Academy of Management Review, 26(2), 243–263.

117.

Schön

D. A.

(1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. Basic Books.

118.

Schön

D. A.

(1984a). Design: A process of enquiry, experimentation and research. Design Studies, 5(3), 130–131.

119.

Schön

D. A.

(1984b). Problems, frames and perspectives on designing. Design Studies, 5(3), 132–136.

120.

Searle

J. R.

(1983). Intentionality: An essay in the philosophy of mind. Cambridge University Press.

121.

Searle

J. R.

(1995). The construction of social reality. Free Press.

122.

Searle

J. R.

(2010). Making the social world: The structure of human civilization. Oxford University Press.

123.

Sergeeva

Bhardwaj

Dimov

(2021). In the heat of the game: Analogical abduction in a pragmatist account of entrepreneurial reasoning. Journal of Business Venturing, 36(6), 106158.

124.

Sergeeva

Bhardwaj

Dimov

(2022). Mutable reality and unknowable future: Revealing the broader potential of pragmatism. Academy of Management Review, 47(4), 692–696.

125.

Shackle

G. L. S.

(1949). Expectation in economics. University Press.

126.

Shackle

G. L. S.

(1955). Uncertainty in economics. Cambridge University Press.

127.

Shackle

G. L. S.

(1969). Decision, order, and time in human affairs (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/010003432.

128.

Shackle

G. L. S.

(1979). Imagination and the nature of choice. Edinburgh University Press.

129.

Shackle

G. L. S.

(2009). Epistemics and economics: A critique of economic doctrines (3rd ed.). Transaction Publishers.

130.

Shane

(2000). Prior knowledge and the discovery of entrepreneurial opportunities. Organization Science, 11(4), 448–469.

131.

Shane

S. A.

(2003). A general theory of entrepreneurship: The individual-opportunity nexus. Edward Elgar Publishing.

132.

Shane

Venkataraman

(2000). The promise of entrepreneurship as a field of research. The Academy of Management Review, 25(1), 217–226.

133.

Shepherd

D. A.

Patzelt

(2018). Entrepreneurial cognition. Palgrave Macmillan.

134.

Shepherd

D. A.

Williams

T. A.

Patzelt

(2015). Thinking about entrepreneurial decision making: Review and research agenda. Journal of Management, 41(1), 11–46.

135.

Taeuscher

Rothe

(2024). Entrepreneurial framing: How category dynamics shape the effectiveness of linguistic frames. Strategic Management Journal, 45(2), 362–395.

136.

Taylor

S. E.

Pham

L. B.

Rivkin

I. D.

Armor

D. A.

(1998). Harnessing the imagination: Mental simulation, self-regulation, and coping. American Psychologist, 53(4), 429.

137.

Thompson

E. R.

(2009). Individual entrepreneurial intent: Construct clarification and development of an internationally reliable metric. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 33(3), 669–694.

138.

Triumph of the Nerds. (1996). Triumph of the nerds. PBS.

139.

Urbano

Aparicio

Audretsch

D. B.

(2019). Institutions, entrepreneurship, and economic performance. Springer.

140.

Vargo

S. L.

Lusch

R. F.

(2004). Evolving to a new dominant logic for marketing. Journal of Marketing, 68(1), 1–17.

141.

Welter

(2011). Contextualizing entrepreneurship—Conceptual challenges and ways forward. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 35(1), 165–184.

142.

Wood

M. S.

McKelvie

Haynie

J. M.

(2014). Making it personal: Opportunity individuation and the shaping of opportunity beliefs. Journal of Business Venturing, 29(2), 252–272.

143.

Wood

M. S.

McKinley

(2010). The production of entrepreneurial opportunity: A constructivist perspective. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 4(1), 66–84.

144.

Wood

M. S.

McKinley

(2020). The entrepreneurial opportunity construct: Dislodge or leverage? Academy of Management Perspectives, 34(3), 352–365.

145.

Wright

Phan

(2020). Opportunity: Is there a future in the construct? Academy of Management Perspectives, 34(3), 297–299.

146.

Zadeh

L. A.

(1965). Fuzzy sets. Information and Control, 8(3), 338–353.

147.

Zellweger

Zenger

(2023). Entrepreneurs as Scientists: A pragmatist approach to producing value out of uncertainty. Academy of Management Review, 48(3), 379–408.

148.

Zhao

Seibert

S. E.

Lumpkin

G. T.

(2010). The relationship of personality to entrepreneurial intentions and performance: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Management, 36(2), 381–404.

149.

Zuzul

Tripsas

(2020). Start-up inertia versus flexibility: The role of founder identity in a nascent industry. Administrative Science Quarterly, 65(2), 395–433.