Epilogue: Opportunity Development in Business Networks

This book project was initiated by thoughts on firms’ growth and development on one hand and networks on the other. The connection is based on the belief for a need for deeper notion to understand network dynamic. Dividing the network relationship into the standardized/institutionalized which pertains to stability and the new uncertain interactions which relates to change and fluidity, the book relates entrepreneurship to the business network study. Entrepreneurship, creating new ventures, is generally assumed to be the central element in the dynamics of the market economy. The point of departure was, as Penrose (1959) states, that firms’ business activities are of two kinds, standardized and entrepreneurial. The first is to administrate the prevailing business and generate stability and the second concerns the business dynamic and change in the firms’ activities. The first one administrates market uncertainties and the next one creates new ones. Studying such behaviour is essential to understand how firms develop new markets or positions in the market. In line with these thoughts, the book focuses on business opportunity which the contributing authors have studied from different angles launching new notions. The initial idea was that the study of opportunity development should not only concern aspects like characteristics of sole individuals, as opportunity development is driven rather by interactions between individuals, groups and organizations. Actors — firms, organizations, organizational units or individuals — have previous knowledge and contribute different resources. This process contains the interrelated phases of opportunity development: recognition and exploitation.