A Constructivist Approach for Technology-based Entrepreneurship

Abstract

This article examines how entrepreneurs transform technology-based ideas into entrepreneurial opportunities through an inductive field study of six ventures. The observed difficulties of entrepreneurship promotion policies to spur technology-based ventures, has opened a debate on the need of tailored support mechanisms. Dominant perspectives of entrepreneurship that assume the ability of entrepreneurs to accurately plan the opportunity exploitation process, contrast with the limited certainty of technological ideas. This research uses the constructivist view to deepen in the complementary processes that are seen to support technology-based entrepreneur’s conceptualization of the opportunity into an objective reality. The results show how the iteration with knowledgeable peers and consensus building efforts are an essential part of the emergence of the opportunity, changing both entrepreneur's and stakeholders' perception of the initial idea. Consequently, results support the suitability, regardless of the context, to take appropriate measures to introduce social construction support mechanisms to foster technology-based entrepreneurship.