"We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations."
~ Charles R. Swindoll.
What is Entrepreneurial Opportunity?
Many definitions on opportunity include references to three
characteristics:
1. Potential economic value (capacity to generate profit)
2. Newness (products, services or technology that did not
exist previously)
3. Perceived desirability (moral and legal acceptability of
the new product or service in society)
Opportunity can be perceived as means of generating economic value (profit) that has not been exploited and is not currently exploited by others.
Opportunity recognition which is also termed as opportunity discovery can be defined as cognitive
process through which individuals conclude that they have identified an
opportunity. However, opportunity recognition is only the initial step in a
continuing process and is distinct both from detailed evaluation of the
feasibility and potential economic value of identified opportunities and from
active steps to develop them through new ventures. It is developed in a gradual
manner.
Business opportunity can be identified through many ways
including public information such as magazines, newspapers, trade publications
and through personal contacts.
A cognitive capability possessed by individuals which
includes high intelligence and creativity is the first foundation of
entrepreneurial alertness. They help individual entrepreneurs to identify new
solutions to market and customer needs in existing information and to imagine
new products and services that do not currently exist. Moreover, Intelligence
has been found in several investigations to be linked to founding new ventures.
Entrepreneurial opportunity is not the result of problem solving activity but readiness to recognize disequilibrium (market gaps) at the market place.
