Competitive advantages and entrepreneurial opportunities

In Chapter 8, I connect ideas from effectuation to current debates in strategic management and entrepreneurship. Sustainable competitive advantage has for a long time been the holy grail of strategic management; and opportunities have become a recent obsession in entrepreneurship. An effectual logic has relevant contributions to both - and I explore them in this chapter. Effectuation emphasizes the role of exit as a strategic tool. This is not a well-studied area and merits further attention, particularly given the substantial role of entrepreneurship both as cause and effect of strategic exit for individuals as well as for firms. Similarly, effectuation also highlights a key under-researched problem in entrepreneurship - namely, the origin of opportunities. Current theories appear to assume that opportunities exist and that the entrepreneurial function consists in their discovery. But the ideas in this book suggest that opportunities themselves originate through the effectual process. This sets up a curious puzzle as to when and under what circumstances we need to take opportunities as given.