Entrepreneurship from Opportunity to Action

Citation

Taylor, D.W. (2008), "Entrepreneurship from Opportunity to Action", International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, Vol. 14 No. 1, pp. 61-62. https://doi.org/10.1108/13552550810852839

Rae (2007) introduces what he calls “Opportunity‐Centred Entrepreneurship”, arguing that the creation, recognition and exploitation of opportunity should be at the heart of entrepreneurial endeavour. The text sets out to explain to the reader the nature of “Opportunity‐Centred Entrepreneurship”, but its primary focus is to develop in the reader the skills, awareness and mindset needed to find, create and develop opportunity. This is a hands‐on practical text suitable for students, managers and would‐be entrepreneurs alike. Rae places the person at the centre of what is described as an active learning process that connects entrepreneurship with innovation and creativity. The text ends on a practical note by challenging the reader to do something to create their entrepreneurial future.

Rae takes the reader through four quadrants of “Opportunity‐Centred Entrepreneurship”: Personal Enterprise, Creating and Exploiting Opportunity, Planning to Realise Opportunities, and Acting on Opportunities. Chapter 1 sets the scene, introduces the key concepts and outlines the approach taken in the remainder of the text. The chapter includes a list of all the activities in the text and highlights the usefulness of each activity to the different reader groups: students, managers and entrepreneurs. The chapter ends with an “Opportunity‐Centred Entrepreneurship Map” that clearly illustrates each of the four quadrants of ‘Opportunity‐Centred Entrepreneurship’. These quadrants are discussed in detail in chapters 3 to 7. Chapter 2 forms part of an extended introduction for academic readers who may need to locate the ‘Opportunity‐Centred Entrepreneurship’ within the wider academic literature.

Chapter 3 covers the first quadrant of ‘Opportunity‐Centred Entrepreneurship’. It explores how people can learn to work in entrepreneurial ways and how this learning is connected to the opportunities the entrepreneur selects. Rae, at different points, links this process with both action learning (Pedler, 1997) and experiential learning (Kolb, 1984). Readers are also directed to the end of text toolkit where readers can complete self‐assessments to establish their entrepreneurial and management capabilities. Chapters 4 and 5 cover opportunity exploration and assessment, the second quadrant of “Opportunity‐Centred Entrepreneurship”. These chapters demonstrate how entrepreneurial opportunities can be created, identified, assessed and evaluated. Chapter 4 offers a creative approach to opportunity generation whilst chapter 5 takes a more analytical approach in relation to opportunity selection. Chapter 6 provides a practical, action‐based guide to creating a venture‐plan that outlines the steps needed to make an idea a reality. It discusses project planning, opportunity maps, the storyboard approach, and the presentation of the business proposal to a range of stakeholders. Chapter 7 covers “Acting on Opportunities”, the final quadrant of “Opportunity‐Centred Entrepreneurship”. It is suggested by Rae that the existing entrepreneurship literature is limited in this regard and he suggests that a more insightful understanding of this stage of the process can be gained if sensemaking (Weick, 1995) and action‐learning (Pedler, 1997) theories are incorporated into an understanding of entrepreneurial action.

After discussing the four quadrants, in Chapter 8 Rae moves on to provide illustrations and cases of “Opportunity‐Centred Entrepreneurship” in action. Chapter 9 broadens the discussion to explore entrepreneurial career options at different life stages, and proposes a number of emerging themes in entrepreneurship: female entrepreneurs, international ventures, multi‐cultural approaches, public sector and environmentally sustainable entrepreneurship, and the informal business sector.

Each chapter has clear upfront learning goals, activity boxes and a wide choice of case material covering a diverse range of business disciplines and industries (airline, broadcast, business incubation, construction, food, interior design, engineering, lighting, marketing, opticians, radio, and recycling), and ends with a number of critical questions to encourage the reader to revisit the key issues covered in the chapter. These cases are provided in mini boxes and practically illustrate how the themes under discussion are implemented. The text ends with a skills toolkit that includes: self‐assessment tools, a career planning tool, opportunity assessment questionnaire, opportunity selection model, venture planning template, finance planner with cash‐flow projection, profit and loss forecast, balance‐sheet forecast and key financial ratios, and extensive further reading and references.

The real strength of Rae (2007) is practical advice that encourages the development of entrepreneurial skills, which are relevant to students, managers and would‐be entrepreneurs, who want to better understand the small business start‐up process, to set up in business, to grow an existing business, or to engage in an enterprise programme such as Flying Start(2007) (www.flyingstart‐ncge.com). This text would perfectly complement more traditional venture/business planning texts such as Burns (2007) and small business start‐up guides such as Williams (2007). Its contribution is that Rae more clearly outlines the entrepreneurial process, but it does lack much of the information needed to start‐up and manage a business. One other omission is the influence of social learning, structures and networks in the entrepreneurial process. Nevertheless, Rae provides a practical and useful text for his target audience.