Actualization Theory of Entrepreneurial Opportunities
The actualization theory of entrepreneurial opportunities introduced by Ramoglou and Tsang (2016) is intended to bridge the gap between discovery and creation theories of entrepreneurial opportunity. The discovery perspective views entrepreneurial opportunities as existing out there in objective reality waiting to be found and exploited by entrepreneurs. This implies that if an opportunity does not exist, then no amount of effort to exploit it will be fruitful. One would be spinning their wheels! Denying the objective existence of opportunities is a bit like arguing that if Edison had died early, we might not have the electric world we current experience as perhaps only he could subjectively construct the notion of electric light. Clearly it is a stretch to have so little faith in multiple independent invention. The creation perspective takes the opposite view, suggesting that opportunities do not exist outside of entrepreneurs themselves and are created by their cognitions and action