“What Is an Opportunity?”: From Theoretical Mystification to Everyday Understanding
研究借鉴维特根斯坦哲学，分析创业研究中“机会”概念的理论困境，通过考察企业家日常用语中的“机会”用法，提出一种更贴近实际的理解，以消解理论神秘化并澄清创业学概念基础。
Expressions about opportunities are used unproblematically in everyday contexts. Yet, the question “What is an opportunity?” has posed a difficult riddle in the academic study of entrepreneurship. Drawing on the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein, we explain that such perplexities are common when words are removed from ordinary language and intellectuals try to grasp what they name. Approaching the opportunity riddle differently, we ask, “How do entrepreneurs use the word ‘opportunity?’” and elucidate an actualization theory of entrepreneurship attuned to the everyday understandings that underlie the meaningful use of the word. Bringing implicit understandings to the foreground contributes to (a) dissolving the mystification over the nature of “opportunity”; (b) clarifying the conceptual foundations of entrepreneurship theory; and (c) reorienting the field toward more conceptually precise ways of thinking about Knightian uncertainty, entrepreneurial success, and the entrepreneurial process. This paper also contributes to the methodology of management studies by demonstrating how attention to the logic of ordinary language can alert us to theoretical dead-ends and enable the development of theory that bridges academic and everyday understandings.