【正文】 inear) based on causal reasoning and the logic of prediction. Our explication of entrepreneurship, however, rests upon creative action based on effectual reasoning and the logic of control.We have elsewhere identified the subject matter of entrepreneurship as having to do with the exploitation of opportunities for creating hitherto nonexistent economic artifacts (Venkataraman, 1997。 Shane and Venkataraman, 2000。 Sarasvathy, 2001). Depending upon the pleteness and/or consistency of the larger environment, entrepreneurial opportunities may have to be recognized or discovered or created. In this chapter, we first examine these three types of action connected with entrepreneurial opportunities through a framework based on the preconditions for their existence. Thereafter, we explore the four fundamental issues of strategic management listed above from an entrepreneurial opportunity perspective. ENTREPRENEURIAL OPPORTUNITIES This section summarizes our more detailed exposition titled Three views of entrepreneurial opportunity.The Oxford English Dictionary defines opportunity as “a time, juncture, or condition of things favorable to an end or purpose, or admitting of something being done or effected.” As is clear from this definition, at the minimum, an opportunity involves an end or purpose, and things favorable to the achievement of it. An entrepreneurial opportunity consists of the opportunity to create future economic artifacts and as such, involves a demand side, a supply side and the means to bring them together. Therefore, in the case of an entrepreneurial opportunity, the “things favorable” consist of two categories: (a) beliefs about the future。2. Demand side: One or more ends – may be subjective (endogenous) aspirations or objective (exogenous) goals or both。 and,4. Possible implementations of those ends through the creation of new economic artifacts. At this point, it is important to note that entrepreneurial opportunities exist at all levels of the economy – individual, corporate, and macroeconomic. For example, the invention of the internet not only led to the identification and creation of entrepreneurial opportunities for individuals and firms, but also opportunities for the US economy as a whole in terms of more effective globalization. Similarly, Adam Smith39。 and before there are markets, there are human aspirations. Creative outputs of the human imagination in every realm of human action be it the arts or the sciences, sports or philosophy, bee inputs for the economic domain. It is an empirical fact that profits for the individual and the firm, and welfare for the economy e as much from Jerry Seinfeld’s jokes and Michael Jordan’s baskets, as from great technological inventions and the tearing down of the Berlin wall. Similarly, human aspirations may range from career goals and individual prosperity to freedom and justice and the good life for all and peace on earth. These aspirations have to be transformed into demand functions and markets for specific economic artifacts such as particular goods, services and firms. Entrepreneurship consists in matching up the products of human imagination with human aspirations to create markets for goods and services that did not exist before the entrepreneurial act. In fact, most entrepreneurial opportunities, be they supply based or demand based, do not originate in the economic domain at all. For example, the internet was developed as a way to facilitate munication between defense scientists and remained out of the economic domain for several years. The mere existence of the internet did not guarantee the development of emerce. Rather, this artifact created to solve a political problem (namely, defense), had to be transformed through several intentional and unintentional activities to bee a universe of entrepreneurial opportunities in the economic domain. To cite another example, entrepreneurs such as Robert Lucas transform literary and artistic endeavors into the Star Wars marketing empire by matching up creations of the human imagination with human aspirations such as the desire to participate in the triumph of good over evil. That is why if we are to understand entrepreneurial opportunities, we have to delve into the preconditions for their existence ., the preconditions for the existence of demand and supply binations that constitute entrepreneurial opportunities. This leads us to a simple typology of entrepreneurial actions in relation to opportunities as follows: 1. Opportunity RecognitionIf both sources of supply and demand exist rather obviously, the opportunity for bringing them together has to be recognized and then the matchup between supply and demand has to be implemented either through an existing firm or a new firm. Examples include arbitrage and franchises. For example, through its first successful coffee shop, Starbucks proved the existence of a demand for specialty coffees as also a viable and effective way to satisfy that demand. Thereafter, each Starbucks franchisee only has to recognize potential geographic locations for extending that demand and supply bination. They do not have to invent sources of supply, or induce demand for a pletely new product.2. Opportunity DiscoveryIf only one side exists in an obvious manner and the other side either does not exist or is so latent as to be virtually nonexistent for most people ., demand exists, but supply does not, and vice versa then, the nonexistent side has to be discovered before the matchup can be implemented. In other words, when demand exists。 then demand has to be discovered. The history of technology entrepreneurship is strewn with solutions in search of problems. Xerox had the technology for the Macintosh puter, but it took Jobs and Wozniak to discover and exploit its potential demand.3. Opportunity CreationIf neither supply nor demand exist in an obvious manner, one or both have to be