Modern Management: concepts and skills, 14/e

Types of Opportunities

In his classic formulation of entrepreneurial opportunities, Schumpeter described five different types.12 First, opportunities arise from the creation of new products or services. When a new type of medical device is created, for example, an opportunity exists in the form of convincing doctors to use the new device in their practices. The invention of the heart stent became an entrepreneurial opportunity for companies like Boston Scientific and Abbott Laboratories. Stents help doctors open a patient’s arteries and keep them open, which in some cases enables the patient to avoid open-heart surgery altogether. Today, an estimated 1 million Americans per year undergo the stent procedure.14

Figure A2.1 Stages of the entrepreneurship ...