Entrepreneurship and opportunity are closely equated survivability among entrepreneurs. Many researchers have debated whether entrepreneurial opportunities are discovered or created. However, researchers have often
overlooked the importance of the various factors that stimulate and shape the process of entrepreneurial opportunity. Adopting a case study method, this thesis includes in-depth interviews with nine biotech entrepreneurs to understand how they shape their activities in the event to create potential business opportunities.
This study employs sensemaking theory with an interpretive approach to data analysis. Theoretically, the study demonstrates that individual, institutional support and socio-cultural forces affect the process by which profit opportunities are recognized and created. Three specific lessons learned from the case. First lesson is the importance of passion in influencing the desires, thoughts, plans, and behaviours and that persist over time, regardless of cost, external obstacles and moral objections towards achieving entrepreneurial success.
Secondly, prior knowledge and career experience enable entrepreneurs to identify niche opportunities, build up networks of contacts and develop skills, and consequently they confer an ability to recognize the value of new information, to learn, and to apply it to new commercial ends. The regulatory dimensions of an institutional forces consists of regulations and government policies that provide support for new businesses, reduce the risks for individuals starting a new company and facilitate entrepreneurs’ efforts to acquire resources. The theoretical framework of this study makes it possible to see the link between entrepreneurs' ability to utilize
limited resources to gain access to valuable key information and decisions, and their creation of sensible actions to recognize business opportunities. Hence, this study is expected to contribute significantly to the wealth of academic literatures in the subject of entrepreneurial
opportunity. Thirdly, this study also plays an essential role to provide recommendations for policy makers to foster and encourage entrepreneurship through targeted and specific policy initiatives by fully understanding the elements that contributes to the success of entrepreneurial opportunity creation process in Malaysia.
