IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/sbusec/v28y2007i4p285-300.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Discovery of Opportunities: Extending the Economic Theory of the Entrepreneur

Author

Listed:
  • Mark Casson
  • Nigel Wadeson

Abstract

Shane ( 2003 ) [A General Theory of Entrepreneurship: The Individual-Opportunity Nexus. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar] has shown convincingly that modern theories of entrepreneurship perform reasonably well in explaining the empirical results obtained in different areas of research upon the subject. His book also shows that the cognitive aspects of entrepreneurship in general—and opportunity recognition in particular—are important areas that warrant further research. This paper argues that the concept of opportunity is closely related to the concept of a project, as an opportunity is essentially a project that would prove beneficial if it were exploited. It is suggested that modelling individual search across potential projects, and the screening of projects by the use of symptoms, holds the key to the successful modelling of entrepreneurship in terms of opportunity. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2007

Suggested Citation

  • Mark Casson & Nigel Wadeson, 2007. "The Discovery of Opportunities: Extending the Economic Theory of the Entrepreneur," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 28(4), pages 285-300, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:sbusec:v:28:y:2007:i:4:p:285-300
    DOI: 10.1007/s11187-006-9037-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11187-006-9037-7
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11187-006-9037-7?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nigel Wadeson, 2004. "Multi-dimensional search: choosing the right path," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(3), pages 287-301.
    2. Pindyck, Robert S., 1993. "Investments of uncertain cost," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 53-76, August.
    3. Alwyn Young, 1993. "Substitution and Complementarity in Endogenous Innovation," NBER Working Papers 4256, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. David B. Audretsch & Max Keilbach, 2006. "Entrepreneurship, Growth and Restructuring," Papers on Entrepreneurship, Growth and Public Policy 2006-13, Max Planck Institute of Economics, Entrepreneurship, Growth and Public Policy Group.
    5. Mark Casson & Nigel Wadeson, 1998. "Communication Costs and the Boundaries of the Firm," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(1), pages 5-27.
    6. Alwyn Young, 1993. "Substitution and Complementarity in Endogenous Innovation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 108(3), pages 775-807.
    7. Gifford, Sharon & Wilson, Charles A, 1995. "A Model of Project Evaluation with Limited Attention," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 5(1), pages 67-78, January.
    8. Lippman, Steven A & McCall, John J, 1976. "The Economics of Job Search: A Survey," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 14(3), pages 347-368, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. He, Yong, 2013. "Does China's trade expansion help African development? — an empirical estimation," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 28-38.
    2. Gancia, Gino & Zilibotti, Fabrizio, 2005. "Horizontal Innovation in the Theory of Growth and Development," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 3, pages 111-170, Elsevier.
    3. d’Artis Kancs & Boriss Siliverstovs, 2020. "Employment effect of innovation," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 59(3), pages 1373-1391, September.
    4. Ozan Hatipoglu, 2012. "The relationship between inequality and innovative activity: a S chumpeterian theory and evidence from cross‐country data," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 59(2), pages 224-248, May.
    5. McMahon, Walter W., 1998. "Education and Growth in East Asia," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 159-172, April.
    6. Chen, Hong & Wang, Xi & Singh, Baljeet, 2018. "Can private domestic investment lead Chinese technological progress?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 186-193.
    7. Arnold, Lutz G., 1998. "Growth, Welfare, and Trade in an Integrated Model of Human-Capital Accumulation and Research," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 81-105, January.
    8. Rodríguez-Pose, Andrés & Haus-Reve, Silje & Fitjar, Rune, 2019. "Does combining different types of collaboration always benefit firms? Collaboration, complementarity and product innovation in," CEPR Discussion Papers 13622, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    9. Ozan Hatipoglu, 2007. "A Demand Based Theory of Income Distribution and Growth," Working Papers 2007/08, Bogazici University, Department of Economics.
    10. Chung Tse, 2001. "The distribution of demand, market structure, and investment in technology," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 73(3), pages 275-297, October.
    11. Ciccone, Antonio & Matsuyama, Kiminori, 1996. "Start-up costs and pecuniary externalities as barriers to economic development," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 33-59, April.
    12. Yong He, 2011. "Does China's Trade Expansion Help African Development? - A South-South Trade Model Approach," CERDI Working papers halshs-00552190, HAL.
    13. Madureira, Nuno Luis, 2012. "The iron industry energy transition," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 24-34.
    14. Raphael Auer & Philip Sauré, 2011. "Spatial Competition in Quality, Demand Induced Innovation, and Schumpeterian Growth," DEGIT Conference Papers c016_067, DEGIT, Dynamics, Economic Growth, and International Trade.
    15. Boucekkine, Raouf & de la Croix, David, 2003. "Information technologies, embodiment and growth," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 27(11), pages 2007-2034.
    16. Chol-Won Li, "undated". "Stochastic Variety Innovation in a Growth Model," Working Papers 9818, Business School - Economics, University of Glasgow, revised Nov 1998.
    17. Hollanders, Hugo & Weel, Bas ter, 1999. "Skill-Biased Technical Change: On Endogenous Growth, Wage Inequality and Government Intervention," Research Memorandum 013, Maastricht University, Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    18. Hatipoglu, Ozan, 2008. "Patent, Inequality and Innovation-Driven Growth," MPRA Paper 7855, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Chol-Won Li, 1998. "Growth, Knowledge Structure, and Qualtiy-Varierty Innovations," Working Papers 9705, Business School - Economics, University of Glasgow.
    20. Rahman, Ahmed S., 2013. "The Road Not Taken: What Is The “Appropriate” Path To Development When Growth Is Unbalanced?," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 17(4), pages 747-778, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    opportunity; project; discovery; L26; M13;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship
    • M13 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - New Firms; Startups

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:sbusec:v:28:y:2007:i:4:p:285-300. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.