Entrepreneurship: Opportunities, Strategies, and Personal Reflection

This report provides a comprehensive overview of entrepreneurship, beginning with an introduction to entrepreneurial opportunities and the distinction between their creation and discovery. It explores how businesses can exploit these opportunities through various strategies, including customer engagement, networking, and alliance formation. The report also delves into the five dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation: autonomy, competitive aggressiveness, proactiveness, innovativeness, and risk-taking. A personal reflection highlights the author's alignment with proactiveness, risk-taking, and competitive aggressiveness. The report concludes by summarizing the key concepts discussed, emphasizing the importance of understanding and applying these principles for entrepreneurial success. References and an appendix with a CV are included.

Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice

Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Entrepreneurial Opportunities.........................................................................................................3
Creation and Discovery of entrepreneurial opportunities............................................................3
Similarities of Creation and Discovery........................................................................................4
Differences between Creation and Discovery.............................................................................4
Introduction to opportunity exploitation..........................................................................................5
Discussion of how three entrepreneurial strategies can assist firms............................................6
Five Dimensions of Entrepreneurial Orientation.............................................................................7
Personal Reflection on three Dimensions....................................................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References........................................................................................................................................9
Appendix: CV................................................................................................................................12

Introduction
Entrepreneurship is an essential aspect in the current business world, and in the current report,
the various aspects of entrepreneurship are briefly explained. The report will be dealing with the
entrepreneurial opportunities and the dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation. Also, personal
reflection based on the current topic is included in the report.
Entrepreneurial Opportunities
Entrepreneurial opportunities can be defined as situations that allow an individual or an
organisation to sell products or services at a higher price to gain profits. Zaefarian et al. (2016)
mentioned that opportunities are usually identified from potential customers and competitors.
Therefore, it can be identified that exploring entrepreneurial opportunities need more analytical
skills. Entrepreneurial opportunities can be termed as the fundamental part of entrepreneurship.
The opportunities provide more job offers for the job seekers and also a profit for the company.
Del Vecchio et al. (2018) opined that entrepreneurial opportunities are usually discovered or
created by skilful entrepreneurs.
Creation and Discovery of entrepreneurial opportunities
Suddaby et al. (2015) mentioned that there are two major and fundamental theories of
entrepreneurial opportunities, namely, discovery and creation. According to the creation theory,
opportunities are always created by entrepreneurs. On the other hand, the discovery theory
argues that the opportunities are existing already, and hence they are only identified by the
individuals. Foss and Klein (2017) commented that the creation is the process of developing new
entrepreneurial opportunities by identifying a potential gap in the needs of the society. In
contradiction to this, discovery theory reveals that entrepreneurs only establish the adequate
decision-making process to select the appropriate opportunity. Hence the opportunities are

independent of the entrepreneur actions based on the discovery theory. At the same time, the
creation theory argued that opportunities are created based on the actions of the entrepreneur. It
is found that the total growth will be faster in the case of discovery theory because appropriate
decisions are already made while selecting the opportunity. In contradiction to this, the creation
theory is found to be more uncertain regarding decision making.
Similarities of Creation and Discovery
Both the theories of creation and discovery of entrepreneurial opportunities explains the various
methods of exploring entrepreneurial opportunities. However, there is a great difference between
the theories than the similarities. Part et al. (2017) opined that both the theories deal with the
identification and exploitation of existing opportunities in the market. Also, it is found that both
the theories adequate information about the exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities.
Moreover, both theories help to improve the abilities and potential of entrepreneurs for gaining a
better profit. Besides, both theories have described the decision-making process and also about
the risk.
Differences between Creation and Discovery
As per the observation of Maine et al. (2015), dependency on the entrepreneur is the most
significant between the creation and discovery of opportunities. It is found that the creation
theory is purely based on the actions of the entrepreneur. At the same time, the discovery theory
illustrates that entrepreneurial opportunities are independent of entrepreneurial actions. In
addition, the decision-making process regarding entrepreneurial opportunities is uncertain in the
case of opportunity creation. At the same time, Wilson and Martin (2015) commented that in the
case of opportunity creation, the decision-making process is much riskier. In addition, it is found
that the opportunities are already existing and the entrepreneurs only need to identify the right

opportunity. On the other hand, the creation theory opines that an excellent effort is needed from
the entrepreneurs to create the opportunities to full fill the gaps in society. Prandelli et al. (2016)
disclosed that the creative view of the entrepreneurial opportunities is associated with creating
new realities and also new ways. In contradiction to the discovery, the view explains the solution
making process through the discovery of suitable option. Besides, Wilson and Martin (2015)
disclosed that the discovery theory is present-oriented while the creation theory is future-
oriented.
Introduction to opportunity exploitation
From the observation of Minniti and Lévesque (2010), commercialisation of ideas is essential for
the socio-economic development of the economy. The success and failure of any business
depend upon the way the entrepreneur exploits the opportunity. The opportunities are widely
open for the new entrepreneurs and even for the existing business to expand their business.
Discovering business opportunities will not create any value. Exploitation of the discovered
opportunity in a creative way that makes value for economic growth. Wetherly and Otter (2014)
state that to exploit the opportunity, firstly, discover the opportunity through SWOT, PESTLE,
or any other environmental analysis. Then should identify and analyse the viability of the
opportunity.
There are several approaches to exploit the opportunity, including implementing technological
advancement in a new or existing business, introducing new product lines in the existing
business to extend the target customers, and attracting new customers. Introducing new product
or service and commercialisation of new idea for the purpose to make profit creatively. The
existing companies sometimes restructure their business; it may be internal restructure or
external restructure. The external restructuring is mainly including merger and acquisition
(Pamphilis, 2019).
Amire and Amire (2016) illustrate that external restructuring takes place mainly to exploit the
opportunities in business surroundings. two or more organisation join together and form a new
entity in a different name is called merger. This is to pool the resources, mainly financial human

resources technology, etc. In acquisition one company acquire another company may be because
the acquired comapny fasing huge loss or court order. Under this concept the business will exist
in the name of the acquiring company. This type of restructuring is undertaken mainly to enjoy
economies of scale, minimise competition, resources pooling, etc.
Discussion of entrepreneurial strategies
Gans et al. (2019) opinions that entrepreneurs are an asset to the economy; they are mainly from
different background with different goals. According to Muramalla et al. (2019), each of the
strategies is followed by each entrepreneur for the success of their existing or to start a new
business. Customer engagement, networking, entrepreneurial marketing orientation, alliance
formation legitimacy are the main strategies. Social media like LinkedIn, Facebook, twitter,
Instagram are the main networking platforms in the world.
Ford and Mouzas (2013) state that networking is an important skill important for entrepreneurs.
This helps to build good relationship with a long period of time. Conducting business events like
conference, seminars, and award events also helps to create networking. Customer engagement
through emails, direct phones, and social networks also acts as a strategy that helps to the
business's success (Pansari and Kumar 2017). Alliance formation mainly uses the existing
business by sharing the resources and capabilities under a contract to enjoy a competitive
advantage. Legitimacy is the values systems in the social settings to the smooth function of the
business operations. The values and systems should strictly follow the entrepreneurs (Goes and
Brugni, 2014).
Discussion of how three entrepreneurial strategies can assist firms
From the discussed strategies legitimacy networking, customer engagement strategies have an
important role in understanding and achieving the business opportunity successfully. Even if
start a new business or expanding the existing business the legitimacy is essential to follow.
Legitimacy are the certain values and rules if the existing company expanding their business
should consider the socio-cultural values. Following legitimacy attract customers and increase
the business's image and helps to the growth and success of the business (Goes and Brugni
2014).
Networking is the strategy that highly helps create and maintain strong relations with the public,
mainly the customers, by interacting with different social media platforms like Instagram and

LinkedIn. Twitter, etc., even through email and direct phone calls. This will helps the new
entrepreneurs or existing entrepreneurs strengthen their business contact and increase the
entrepreneur's credibility f the entrepreneur or entrepreneurship. Improve the overall image and
reputation the connection helps to maintain relationship and this improve the credibility. The
credibility enhances the trust level, making it easy to source the resources, including finance or
capital, or materials, and human resources (Ford and Mouzas 2013). In the highly competitive
customer-oriented business world, customer satisfaction is the prime motive. So this can be done
by adopting different customer engagement programs. Highly engaged customers promote more,
buy more, and demonstrate more and they will be loyal customers. It can be possible by
providing personalised services, reply to customer reviews, and identify customer drives.
Wishing customers on a particular day is also one of the customer engagement tool.
Five Dimensions of Entrepreneurial Orientation
According to the viewpoint of Shan et al. (2016), entrepreneurial orientation can be defined as
the process and practices and also the diction making tyle that a form or an individual or aa team
act entrepreneur. The entrepreneurial orientation helps an individual or the organisation to
identify the various opportunities for achieving profit. Lumpkin and Dess (2015) disclosed that
autonomy, competitive aggressiveness, proactiveness, innovativeness, risk-taking are the major
five dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation. When a company or an individual had a highly
competitive attitude towards other competitors, and they establish the same in the entrepreneur
aspects, it can be termed as the competitive aggressiveness dimension. On the other hand, the
organisation gives the freedom for the employees to develop various creative ideas for the
betterment of the company; it can be termed as autonomy. For example, Microsoft is an
organisation that gives great freedom to the employees regarding innovativeness. Innovativeness
can be termed as the dimension that is associated with the tendency to creation and
experimentation. Lumpkin and Dess (2015) opined that when an organisation or the entrepreneur
is ready to take considerable risks for developing and establishing new ideas, it can be

considered as the risk-taking dimension. Moreover, proactiveness has purely based on the cations
that are needed for future needs. The most useful and effective dimension for society is
proactiveness, and at the same time, competitive aggressiveness is more beneficial for the
organisation and the entrepreneur.
Personal Reflection on three Dimensions
As a part of establishing my assignment, I was able to understand the fact that my characters
match with proactiveness, risk-taking and also competitive aggressiveness. Because of the
various experience during my academic and also professional life, I had been concerned about
the competitors. Moreover, I had a habit of comparing my achievements with others and try to
gain more benefits and even marks the next time. It was clearly identified when I was assigned as
the captain of the Calicut university cricket team. I have been encouraging my team to establish a
better performance than the other team. Moreover, I had participated in the flood relief program
in Kerala, in my home town, which indicates that in certain situations, I was able to able any risk
to save my people. In addition, I had also participated in the National Cadet Corps India;
therefore, proactiveness can also be seen in characters. I hope I will be able to develop my skills
and thus will be able to be a more efficient entrepreneur in the future. However, from my
personal experience, the competitive aggressiveness was found to be more appropriate for my
character.
Conclusion
The current report has critically evaluated the concepts of entrepreneurial opportunities and the
dimensions of entrepreneurship. It is found that the opportunities can be explored either by
creation or discovery. Various dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation are also briefly

explained in the current report. Moreover, a personal reflection about the three major dimensions
of entrepreneurial orientation is also provided in the present report.

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Appendix: CV