Materiality and felicitous opportunity

Although the topic of opportunity recognition and exploitation is crucial to entrepreneurship research, the field still lacks a coherent theoretical account of the processes involved. Certain philosophical questions persist: what is the ontological status of an undiscovered opportunity? Does a failed exploitation still constitute an opportunity? Existing accounts of opportunity recognition emphasise the agency of the entrepreneur, and pay little attention to the role of material objects in determining entrepreneurial opportunity. A Honduran family business case study is analysed and illustrates that opportunities are constructed ex nihilo by complex and contingent networks of actors. It suggests that opportunities may be considered felicitous when these actor-networks combine in ways that support the exploitation of an opportunity, and infelicitous when networks fail to support exploitation.