OPPORTUNITIES AS ATTRIBUTIONS: CATEGORIZING STRATEGIC ISSUES FROM AN ATTRIBUTIONAL PERSPECTIVE

This study explores the label 'opportunity' in the strategic issue literature as a point of departure for offering an attributional framework for categorizing opportunities entrepreneurs offer as they undertake efforts to start businesses. The strategic issue literature broadly labels opportunities as being positive and controllable and involving potential gain. We demonstrate that this is similar to an attribution theory approach. In preparing this article, the authors analyzed open-ended questions from the Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics (PSED). Entrepreneurs were more likely to offer attributions about their opportunities that can be categorized as dependent on their abilities (internal and stable attributions) and efforts (internal and variable attributions). Copyright (C) 2009 Strategic Management Society.