Social Constructionism and Entrepreneurial Opportunity

Abstract

Social constructionism as an underlying philosophical approach offers much potential in entrepreneurship research. This chapter introduces social constructionism, explains the underlying philosophy that guides approaches of this nature and highlights prior approaches using a social constructionist frame of reference. The first part of the chapter aims to introduce the reader to this approach to research and explains its value. In the second part the chapter focuses on one particular area of debate in the entrepreneurship domain and provides a constructionist viewpoint. The focus during this part is to explore how entrepreneurial opportunities are currently conceptualized. The chapter unpicks views about entrepreneurial opportunity based on a ‘discovery’ versus ‘creation’ perspective.