Principal Topic

Recent literature recognizes the central role Opportunity Recognition (OR) plays in the practice and study of entrepreneurship (Timmons, 1999). Not surprisingly, many entrepreneurs see their own recognition of opportunities as a learning process (Hills and Schrader, 1998), reminiscent of Kirzner’s (1985) evocative description of “a continuous discovery process” through which the entrepreneur “attempts to grasp opportunities . . . as . . . through a fog of uncertainty.”

We extend this line of inquiry by exploring the dynamic, self-organizing elements of OR and observe pivotal turning points in the history of four leaders of the office furniture industry (Herman Miller, Steelcase, Haworth, and HON) at a critical period in the industry’s evolution. In each instance the entrepreneurs fundamentally misunderstood the turning points and the opportunities they represented. At the same time, their actions changed the opportunities they sought to discern while they and their companies also were changed. Often the changes brought outcomes far different—and better—than the actors had predicted. In at least one case, HON, the changes initiated by the company took the company in exactly the opposite direction intended.

Method

We examine the dynamic, self-organizing elements of OR and the dynamic interaction and changes that occur across time between the entrepreneur and the opportunity being observed as one waits for the proverbial “fog to lift.” We use a history and case-study methodology (Yin, 1984) that includes focused interviews with many of the principals involved in the above-turning points, along with interviews with industry contemporaries and industry observers. We also examined relevant company archives and conducted a review of all available published literature on the above-four companies.

Implications

The events examined in this study support a dynamic, self-organizing view of OR where both the entrepreneur and the opportunity change as a consequence of their interaction. This view differs substantially from earlier representations of the entrepreneur as the one undergoing much of the change, while the opportunity itself only awaited discovery and the “lifting of the fog.” Further studies call for additional longitudinal studies and qualitative methodologies that capture the dynamic, self-organization nature of the phenomenon of interest in ways that surveys and cross-sectional designs probably cannot.