Chapter 2: Inside the Entrepreneurial Event: Creating Schemata of Opportunity for New Business

Vesa Puhakka
University of Oulu, Oulu Business School
Department of Management and International Business
Finland
1. Introduction
My wife and I argued about what kind of film we would watch on Saturday evening. We were at a
movie rental and were browsing through the selection  Hollywood action, romantic comedies,
psychological thrillers and a few British dramas. I suddenly remembered that I had purchased the
previous day two movies from a sale: a psychological drama about repressing a child and the evil in the
world by an Italian director, and a documentary-style filmed drama about the relationship of two
brothers and their attitude towards their youngest brother’s cancer  difficult subjects and serious films. The
reason for our argument was that my wife doesn't want to relax in her free time by watching movies
on the dark and tragic side of human nature. She particularly would like to avoid them in movies,
because life is hard enough without having the movies we watch emphasize it. I myself tried to explain
that one can learn things from them, that one can live lives that one cannot otherwise experience and one can
feel emotions with them that one would not normally experience. I was not terribly satisfied with my own
explanations. I felt, however, I was on the right track, but I could not put my thoughts and feelings into words.
How does this relate to entrepreneurship? Entrepreneurship is a very personal and emotional matter. It is
difficult to explain and present logically, like when I was trying to put into words that watching a film can be
more than just a light-hearted nine-day wonder. Please note that this is my interpretation of my world
and from my wife's world the situation looks completely different. In the same way I am bothered by the way
entrepreneurship is handled using rational logic as if we had the possibility of defining entrepreneurship
using one method in order to satisfy our research needs so that we can research phenomena more
efficiently, productively and better. From my perspective this perhaps possesses the biggest danger to
entrepreneurship research, that we are too hastily "engraving into stone" what entrepreneurship is and at
the same time proclaiming how it should be researched, where it should be discussed and who really
knows about it. This study approaches entrepreneurship from the angle that nothing is more common than the
most personal (see Rogers 1989). This research is my interpretation of entrepreneurship and the objective is
to discuss the nature and concept of entrepreneurship. When I present my personal interpretations of
entrepreneurship, I hope that it touches as many as possible and so would be as prevailing as possible. But
not so that my view is "The" definition of entrepreneurship, rather that it would arouse
discussion and diverseness in entrepreneurship research and especially in the creation of new business
activities amongst businesses, and would support the possible doubts and thoughts of others, which
there no doubt is, and so would support the diversity that has prevailed in entrepreneurship research. I
admire the work of many leading researchers of the field, through which they have been able to
redirect entrepreneurship research, but I also suspect that something valuable is being thrown away.
As the conception of entrepreneurship unifies, the questioning, recreating, alternativeness and
the testing of new ideas decreases. Entrepreneurship researchers should perhaps perceive that this
may be part of the field’s evolution and that unity is on some time frame dangerous to the vitality of research. A
need amongst researchers to reach equilibrium is interacting in the background, even though the phenomenon
of research is usually seen as being continually out of balance – there is a significant conflict between
the two. I am purposely approaching the research topic in a structurally different manner – as a
pondering essay. How a scientific article is normally written is in a specified form and is precisely
defined. The normal form of an article is to reflect the rational requirements of efficiency, sense of
direction and transferability of information. These are, of course, understandable goals, but at the same
time they reflect the impression of doing something, which is the opposite of entrepreneurship – creating
something from nothing. Thus, in a way when we write about entrepreneurship in such a manner as we
usually do, we are anti- entrepreneurs. Every one of us knows that writing is creative problem solving in
that moment and place one happens to be. One tries to manage that place where one is and has to give space
and time to what the end result is and to the form it takes. From my perspective entrepreneurship is
fundamentally about this kind of activity. Entrepreneurship is not a product nor should entrepreneurship
research be an average product, which has been made sleek, true to shape and predictable. This research
essay flows as it was created: raw, genuine and untidy, complete with mistakes and flaws. The content
is however the most essential element in scientific writing and next I shall begin creating my own view on
entrepreneurship. The aim of this research essay is to examine and present a conceptual frame for
studying entrepreneurship as a creative activity.

2. What then is entrepreneurship – a definition for a common foundation Let us think of Aki Kaurismäki's
film "The Man Without a Past", where the main character losses his memory and has to rebuild his
life from scratch – he has no past, no future ambitions and no goals. Instead in his present moment
where he currently is and with the people he bumps into, he starts to process the present and future. He
starts with a clean slate and creates a new life as he goes along. The situation demonstrates well the kind of
social- cognitive processing of information, which is at the core of entrepreneurship. I do not mean that the
person who acts as an entrepreneur is simple or starts from the clean slate but rather that the activity
creating entrepreneurship is constructive. In entrepreneurship initial situations and goals are created as
you go along (Sarasvathy 2001). Now you must be wondering what has a European filmmaker Aki
Kaurismäki got to do with this research and what has he got to do with entrepreneurship? Aki Kaurismäki is
one of Europe's most well known and individual directors, but to Hollywood he is relatively unknown.
He is a very important reformer of films and an idiom re-molder, but unfamiliar to the masses even though
he has won many of the most important film prizes. I use this analogy because entrepreneurship is
like Aki Kaurismäki. Entrepreneurship is creative activity where new activity is created without knowing
precisely what the goal is or what is the initial situation, but still new activity is created (see
van Eijnatten 2004). Entrepreneurship is a renewable force, which questions the existing, but which
has not gained the attention deserved while in the crush of rational business logic. The concept of
entrepreneurship has changed drastically over the past ten years (e.g. Eckhardt and Shane 2003; Shane
2003; Alvarez and Barney 2007). Entrepreneurship was long seen as the leading of a small business or
a business's owner-management. However entrepreneurship does not directly relate to these concepts,
rather entrepreneurship is context free (see Alvarez and Barney 2007). Entrepreneurship is noticeable in big
companies’ renewal efforts, in identifying new markets and technologies and also in public organization
development projects. The core to entrepreneurship is creating new opportunities and implementing
them irrelevantly to the contexts in which they take place (see Carlsson and Eliasson 2003).
Entrepreneurship is creative activity, where the goal is not clear and nor is often the initial situation,
instead both of these are created as one goes along. This happens because there is no one right and best
solution and often the initial situation is so complex and continuously changing that it is impossible to
analyze in a broad and reliable enough manor. The traditional view on entrepreneurship has
unnecessarily bounded research, the development of knowledge and the transfer of information for the
use of businesses and people. Entrepreneurship is an everyday occurrence in every organization,
but gratuitously glorified to be a characteristic and behavior of heroic business people (Christensen and
Raynor 1997). One of the most important research findings relates just to this, it has been reliably shown
that entrepreneurship is not anyone's or any thing's property (e.g. Gartner 1990). The view that
entrepreneurship cannot be learnt because self-confidence or energetic traits are so heavily involved is also a
myth. Entrepreneurship is today that same sort of myth that creativity was a few decades ago when creativity
was linked to genius. The latest empiric research on entrepreneurship has shown that entrepreneurship is
episodic, especially in the use of resources, in the level of commitment and in risk taking (e.g. Sarason, Dean
and Dillard 2006). Entrepreneurship is also about taking affordable expenses (Sarasvathy 2001). That
means doing things in the beginning that if fail, can be endured. The gradual weaving of ambitions
and goals as one goes along is also key to entrepreneurship. An important way of accomplishing this
is by building strategic partners in order to understand the market place, the customers and the
technology and to create trade. So, it is the building of understanding with the stakeholders, and
convincing them of the correct direction. Entrepreneurship also seems to be about the tolerance of
surprising events and seeing them as possibilities – without surprises there is no entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurship is the opposite of a goal-directed world-view, in which case every surprise is dangerous
because they interfere with reaching the goal and what one does and the way the business has to adapt in order
to get back on the path to the set goal. Entrepreneurship is more about creativity, of which rational decision-
making is not part of. Entrepreneurship does not work or at least most often does not work by analyzing
the customers and competitors, by defining segments, manufacturing products for these segments
and test marketing (see Sarasvathy 2001). Entrepreneurship is not most often so rational in existing
businesses, although that is how new business activity is wanted to be perceived or how it is imagined
to be. It works if the market can be clearly seen, what we have to offer and what others do not have
is precisely known, and it is known how to get the demand and supply to meet (Sarasvathy, Dew,
Velamuri and Venkataraman 2003). Rarely is the situation so clear. The traditional rational model works here,
but it is based on the idea that knowledge of the markets is available to everyone if you are prepared to spend
time analyzing it. This way the market gap is definable and a solution can be developed. Very often
businesses, developers and financiers think that new business activities and ideas are born like this. This is one
of the biggest mistakes in our way of thinking and it has long roots (e.g. Sarasvathy 2004). A second possibility
is that either the goal is unknown but the initial situation is known, or that the initial situation is unknown but
the goal is known (Sarasvathy et al., 2003). So, either there are no markets but the offering is ready, or there are
markets and demand but there is no offering to serve them. (For example, on the Internet how one can charge
for such minor use of computer programs that 20 cents could be charged. However there is no technology for
this where the costs would be smaller than the revenue per instance of use. If more were to be charged, no one
would use it, which is why e.g. demos are distributed for free.) This is the chance to invent an opportunity. It is
strategic thinking where gradually through trial and error the "correct" ways of working are found. The third
possibility – genuine entrepreneurship – is the creation of opportunities where both the initial and end
situation are unknown (Sarasvathy et al., 2003). Markets are created and supply is created. These are not
things that just happen by creating a business plan in the beginning (as important as it is), instead the
business plan is created as one goes along. It is known that with entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship
that the goals constantly change as you go along. Decisions are quickly made and tried without great
analyses or research because it cannot be known in advance whether things are being done, that could
cause the whole business to crash, so they could be endured. Partners are quickly found with whom things
can be pondered and done. So, commitments are created, potential customers are quickly gone to, even
to sell products that do not exist yet, and to look and ask what the customers may need, because the
customers either cannot perceive what they need and want in today's hectic world. That is the ability to see
surprises as being part of normal life and even seeking surprises because they kick things into a new direction
and rather than engrave things into stone, as changes always take place. In the centre there is a quick
commitment to activity with potential customers, so that mistakes can be endured, the quick
finding of partners in order to create understanding and in order to take surprises. Here I propose that
entrepreneurship does not compose of a teleological view of life or processes. It is a creative
activity where the route is created as you go along. Entrepreneurship is creative processing –
entrepreneurship is the creation of impressiveness in that instance in which we live, and the prediction of the
future and the setting of goals to be secondary. Entrepreneurship thus identifies with the opportunities of
creating business, which consists of ideas, beliefs and needs that evolve along the journey to the goal
(Sarasvathy et al., 2003). Thus, entrepreneurship is at its strongest as its actors in a way, enter the (“entré”)
business condition, in which there is no clue what-so-ever about what is going on, what kind of trade is desired
and what it is we are pursuing (see Hjorth 2003). It does not matter whether a new company is born from it,
trade grows or a new market is conquered. It is about a problem- solving situation where the rules, solutions
and goals have to be created as one progresses. In this kind of situation the right and best solution cannot
be logically derived. In this situation the core content of actions is related to the possibility of creating
and perceiving new opportunities, and the creativity of entrepreneur is a functional aid. This is the
phenomenon that entrepreneurship is about and this phenomenon is what researchers should determine.
Once this stage has gone beyond and one steps into the "prendre" stage which is about
implementing, managing and marketing the new trade, it is not fundamentally any more about
entrepreneurship, even though it is always there (see Hjorth 2003). The original French term "entreprendre"
reflects very well what entrepreneurship is fundamentally about (see Hjorth 2003). It is stepping into a
space were it is known that new business is wanted, but what kind is not known and it is perceiving the
character of new business as well as leaving with a business opportunity that is then implemented using
moulds (e.g. leadership, marketing) by others. What happens inside this space is a very interesting
phenomenon and this research will try to shed light on it. If we think of this space and creating an
entrepreneurial opportunity in it, it is in not detached from its surroundings nor is it a closed internal
process from which business ideas emerge. This space, which is being talked about, is a process
where the mental creation and surroundings of the entrepreneur are in strong and continuous
interaction with each other. Inside this entrepreneurial space something is happening that is
absorbing influences from the present business activities and that is causing chaos and irregularity as a
result. What an entrepreneurial opportunity is it that causes dynamics in the economy?

3. The core of an entrepreneurial opportunity An entrepreneurial opportunity can be understood as an

individual's or a group's schemata. Thus, in other words the intellectual and abstract interpretation of
hints from reality (see Weick 1979). In this research I am interested in the individual; hence we will
talk about the cognitive of the individual entrepreneur, remembering however that an entrepreneurial
opportunity can also be a collective cognition. A cognition of an entrepreneurial opportunity
means that the opportunity is a mental outcome. It is the entrepreneur's intellectual product based on
numerous internal and external information signals. An entrepreneur constructs an opportunity based
on observations of his surroundings and previous experience. An opportunity is the product of
creative- cognitive process where a new entirety is built from small fragments of information (e.g. Ardichvili,
Cardozo and Ray 2003). Vesper (1991) described an opportunity as a message from which the rules of
interpretation are missing, a jigsaw puzzle or an untold story. In this way an opportunity is like an
unsolved problem for which there are no rules or instructions. An entrepreneur's creative intelligence is
needed to solve the cognitive puzzle. The solutions thereby cannot be found, they have to be created because
there are no ready-made rules or answers. The game, rules and result have to be created in that situation, and
that is why creating an opportunity is so difficult. There are no ready-made opportunities but they have to be
created. In this sense an opportunity is a product of imagination. So, an opportunity is not a jigsaw, it is an
entirely new game. Solving the problem – understanding and winning the game – creates a new
opportunity. However, an opportunity is also a vision of time. It is a vision of what kind of an
opportunity will bring the best result. Some entrepreneurs see their visions in past light. They imagine
that a possibility that has previously worked is still today a current vision. Visions from the past are simple,
distinct and predictable. They merely strengthen previous activities and have very little novelty value.
However there are also business visions that are present day oriented. An entrepreneur examines the
present and creates business visions based on that. Present-day visions are more ambiguous and
intricate because the present can be read in many ways. These visions work as a target for allocating
resources and are relatively novelty. In addition to the previous, there are also visions that are directed to the
future. They are based on a belief of future events. These future visions are by nature novel and abstract.
Their purpose is to catalyze new and new- like business activities. If we combine the thoughts of above, an
opportunity is a creative schemata of the business situation and which is a current vision of the past,
present and future. How then does this complex cognitive schemata then become concrete in an
entrepreneur's mind? What this dynamic is like, has been left unclear. In the next chapter we will try
to outline how creativity reflects into an individual’s talent to create something new.
4. Creativity – an individual talent at creating something new The core from an entrepreneur's standpoint can be
pondered by asking what is creativity to an individual – or maybe even better; what is creativity in an
individual. What is it that happens in an individual, when creativity is born? What forces, desires and
intentions is one being pushed or pulled by? Or is it even about this? Maybe creativity is an everyday event in
an individual and maybe it is human activity that just happens to create something new. Or is just creativity that
is human activity – activity that sets us apart from purely biological organisms and the initial human situation
between spirit and material that has been a cause of arguments for hundreds of years. Or is creativity
returnable back into a biological, chemical and/or electrical activity from which current neurologists
would better understand it. An individual's creativity raises many questions and probably more than can be
answered here. Still it is interesting and essential to this study that one can ponder what at the end of the day is
creativity. In this research self-fulfillment is chosen as a starting point when depicting what creativity is as an
individual's personality. This basis was chosen because it best describes humans as a conscious being. An
individual tries to consciously gain something for which an inner need is felt. A creative personality has
inner ambitions that fulfill their personal dreams. Fulfilling one's self is the goal of a creative
personality. Where are the "building blocks" drawn from to reach this goal? The presumption is that it
is drawn from the inner structures of personality. Creative personality is able to cross the border
between pre- awareness and awareness and even the border of unawareness and use this "symbol
reservoir" as a source material for fulfilling one's self. So, a creative personality tries to consciously,
within the control of consciousness, seek one's inner ambitions and is capable of utilizing pre-acknowledged
and unconscious inner structures when seeking content for creativity. However, a creative personality has
also got to be able to make their thoughts concrete, express them and behave in their environment.
That is why a creative personality has certain clearly distinctive characteristics to use as tools. He or
she is amongst other things energetic, has a diverse interest, attracted to aesthetics and complexity,
independent and self-reliant, independent at decision making, initiative, aware of relativity and understands
that he or she is creative. With these features an individual works in their environment and fulfils themselves
and their dreams as well as the potential creativity in their inner structures. Finally, it can be thought
that an individual needs "tools" with which they can transfer the occurred creativity for the next
use, partly as pre-acknowledged and unconscious symbolic structures. This tool is learning. A creative
personality knows how to learn from itself and use it to its advantage the next time. If summarized,
creativity is an individual's personality fulfilling one's self and where the contents for this are gathered
from resources within an individual's inner structures. They are realized with concrete personal
characters and which transfer to the next creative event as source material. A creative personality reflects
creative goals, sources, tools and transferability. But how does this happen and what kind of event is it?
Creativity requires the potential active realization of personality. This activity is outlined next with a
cognitive creative process. With a creative process an individual can seek to fulfill one's self. It is a
process that realizes the possibility created by a creative personality. So, a creative personality in itself
does not yet create anything. A creative personality creates a goal, something that fulfils an individual's inner
needs, grants a source from which contents can be drawn, tools with which to work with and
equipment with which experiences can be transferred to a source of creativity. But even after this, a concrete
process, where an individual does something that is needed and where creativity is realized. A creative
process has usually been seen as a cognitive event. A creative process can be divided into process
stages and process assumptions, based on previous research. The process stages, or episodes, through
which creativity gradually becomes concrete are: defining the problem, gathering information, creating a
solution, making a choice, and the creative product. The method of how these stages are to be realized
is essential. By definition it looks like a normal process, but for it to be creative it needs certain
special features. Related to this process is the creative individual’s way of thinking, which is fluent, flexible,
original, complex and lateral. By essence a creative process is unexpected and unpredicted regardless of
the fact that usually certain stages can be separated. It has been noticed that these stages have to be
completed one way or another in order to reach a concrete result. In order for the result to be creative, the
process must be by nature lateral. So an individual can make an irregular leap in thinking and divert from a
logically concludable path. However the process is fluent and flexible. If a certain way of thinking doesn't seem
to work, a creative individual changes their method of thinking and seeks a suitable solution. It is also
essential that the process is original and complex which assures that the result is not conventional. As a
summary: Defining a problem, seeking information, creating a solution and choice, and creating a result, are
parts of a creative process. These stages are however can be found in all human thought and which aren't
directly involved with creativity. The essence of the process makes it creative, an essence which is fluent,
flexible, original, complex and lateral. Due to this unpredictability and unexpectedness, an individual can
process creative results through stages of logical process. With a creative process it isn't so much about
stages because they can be thought to be common to all an individual's thought processes. The question
is more about the quality of the process; what is it like. Until now the following were noticeable in the
descriptions of a creative essence: creativity is affected by a creative personality, which is an active factor
that creates creativity. The creative goal of this factor is self-fulfillment. In order to fulfill it's self an
individual has to seek material from its inner structures. On the other hand he or she exploits
the characteristics of their personality to use as tools with which to create creativity. To he or she
learning is a tool with which one can transfer what one has learned into building blocks. This however does not
fulfill creativity; rather a creative process is needed. With a creative process an individual converts potential
creativity into real creativity. This process in question includes stages where the problem is defined,
information about the problem area is collected and the solution(s) as well as the final product is evaluated.
Even this however is not enough to define the core of creativity because creativity does not happen in a
vacuum. The creativity of an individual has an environment where it happens. This will be examined next. A
creative environment is a context where the phenomenon takes place and which affects a person and his or her
processes. The environment also ranks what is creative and what not. Even if creativity is creative to the
individual, it is not necessarily creative to the context. Only the environment decides the real quality
of the creativity. As it was told earlier, the environment affects an individual. An individual’s social
relationships, contextual factors and their own personal history create an environment that affects what
goal an individual sees self filling, what his inner structures are like, into what his characters have formed and
what and how he learns and has learned, as well as what and how he processes. The environment thus
affects everything in an individual. A creative environment comprises of three partial environments: social,
contextual and historic. It can be thought that the historical environment has the largest effect. It
comprises of an individuals own experience of life and these directly affect on what the individual. l is
like and what he does. A social environment, in other words other people, has a great impact. A social
environment affects as an evaluation, as anticipation, as a role model, and as a reward or punishment-
system. Contextual factors have less of a direct influence. They create frameworks which if unsuccessful
can inhibit creativity. These factors are culture, the physical environment, the atmosphere and limitations.
Here creativity's core environment sort of ignites and extinguishes an individuals desire to act
creatively. It doesn't realize creativity, but causes an individual to fulfill creativity. Creativity is a
way for an environment to renew and stay vibrant. Through creativity the environment utilizes an
individual's potential and develops through individuals’ creativity. So what is the core of creativity? There
is no short and simple answer to this, or at least not in this research because this research tries to
make a compilation of previous points view on creativity, which of course brings multi-dimensions to the
core. This kind multidimensional heart for creativity is however justifiable, as creativity is clearly an
elaborate phenomenon and so it cannot be understood from just one point of view. So, what is the
heart of creativity? Firstly it comprises of three elements: a creative personality, a creative
process and a creative environment. Of these elements a creative personality is built on an individuals
need to fulfill one's self using the resources, the characteristics made possible by goal-oriented work,
and a learning method that can transfer experience, all found in the psychological inner structures. A creative
process on the other hand is made up of interconnected stages and quiddity which are: the defining the problem,
the gathering of information, creating a solution, evaluating the solution and the creative product, and fluency,
flexibility, originality, complexity and lateral nature. A creative environment is built on historic, social and
contextual partial environments. Secondly, the heart of creativity works as a system by the environment
igniting or extinguishing creative personality. It activates characteristics in a personality to pursue
creativity. When an individual’s personality has been awoken and gone to seek creativity, the creative process
begins. So a creative personality activates a creative process. When a creative process has achieved a creative
product, it shifts to be part of the creative environment at the same time as activating the creative environment
to function either for or against creativity.

5. Developing the frame of reference Above we presented that the heart of creativity is the entirety of a
creative personality, process and environment. The idea was that a creative environment ignites a
creative personality, which in return activates a creative process, the product of which transfers to be part of
the creative environment and so further increasing the advancement of creativity. And so these elements
make up a system. How does this system work, in other words how is creativity processed in an
entrepreneur? What role does creativity have in an entrepreneur? These questions are to be examined
next.
5.1 The environment ignites the personality What causes an entrepreneur as an individual to create something
new? Is someone pushing him or her foreword or is he or she completely self to blame. The idea here is that an
environment that supports creativity, ignites a desire to behave creatively. An entrepreneur is presumed to be
an intentional and self-guiding being, but only partly. He or she is in interaction with their
environment, affecting, acting, perceiving, and seeking feelings, knowledge and impressions. So the
environment doesn't directly cause an individual to become creative, rather the creativity of an individual is
enabled by the interaction between environmental features and individual factors. Still there is something
in the environment that ignites creativity. The presumption here is that an individual despite their potential
isn't roused into creativity if the environment doesn't inspire. So the idea is that an environment affects an
individual. An individual's social relations with the environment, their own historic experiences and
contextual factors, and above all culture, give an individual picture of their attitude towards creativity, and
providing the individual has adequate personal features, these features can be enabled due to positive
support from the environment. The presumption is then that an individual has features for creativity, which
become active and begin to "control" in a suitable environment. The environment doesn't create
creativity in an individual, but it devolves talent already present.
5.2 The personality ignites the process What happens when an individual's personality starts seeking creativity?
It starts to look for activity that could fulfill its personality caused need for creativity. A personality
creates activities through which it can create something new. So personality in itself is not yet activity.
It is being inspired or focusing on activity. A creative personality inspires to make creativity concrete when
supported by a suitable environment. A creative personality is motivated to fulfill itself using inner
structures, features and by learning, but this is only just wanting. The wanting process happens through a
creative process, which only is born when the personality has been enabled to creativity. So a creative
personality in turn ignites a creative process. A creative process is an entrepreneur’s mental road to
realize personality. In a creative process self-fulfillment is fulfilled. It can be thought that when a
personality is extremely tuned to creativity, the process is very favorable for creativity, but when a
personality for some reason or other doesn't tune into creativity, the process is anything but creative, rather
mediocre. In order for a creative process to create concrete creativity, creative personality is needed, which is
enabled for creativity, and which has sufficient characteristics needed for creativity. So a process
doesn't work properly, if the personality hasn't got the necessary characteristics needed for creativity
and if these characteristics haven't been enabled. A creative process is prevented by missing characteristics
or their insufficient activation, which in turn is caused by the environment. A creative process also
reflects back and affects personality. It is presumable that if an individual's process works, it further
increases an individual’s personality to seek creativity, digging up even the deepest characteristics into
action. At the same time the situation can be opposite. If an individual isn't capable of a creative
process or if he or she isn't inspired, then the creative process fades even more.

5.3 The process ignites the environment The environment also needs "fuel" in order to promote
creativity. Providing an entrepreneur's creative process produces concrete creative products into the
environment, the positive changes may further stimulate creativity. It is even possible that an
environment's characteristics further improve and actually support creativity even better than before. So
an environment's creative advancement is dependent on the entrepreneurs' action in that environment.
If entrepreneurs don't actively bring creativity into the environment and demonstrate the importance
of creativity, then the environment can't notice creativity to be so important, nor can it continue to support
these activities. Entrepreneurs also have to function actively themselves on behalf of their own creativity, so the
environment can notice how best to support creativity. By functioning actively with one's own creative
processes, an individual can affect how the environment relates to creativity, and so gradually change the
creative environment. This of course doesn't happen quickly and one individual’s contribution is small, but
every individual's contribution is needed so that the environment can become and continue to be a
supportive environment for creativity. Based on that, I conclude that an entrepreneur’s creative process
stimulates the environment to promote creativity, because the environment notices creativity to be
beneficial to itself.
6. Discussion In this research, the creative process is regarded as a system through which entrepreneurs,
as members of their organizational environments, interpret the evolutionary potential offered by their
environment's business dynamics and take action to create outcomes that the market values. A burning
desire to pursue perceived business opportunities is either ignited or extinguished by the
organizational community. In the former case, the entrepreneurial personality first channels its
motivation and energy to understanding and interpreting the business situation and then focuses on
giving a concrete shape to the opportunities. Creating a business opportunity involves three different types
of activity. Firstly, it includes social activity, because entrepreneurs are embedded in their own social
communities, drawing from it influences, ideas, operational models, resources and encouragement.
Moreover, this social community offers a forum for exchanging ideas on what kind of business is
being conducted and what the current needs are and creating visions and dreams for business.
Secondly, the creation of a venture opportunity involves cognitive activity with the entrepreneurs
attempting to understand ideas about entrepreneurship and business in their organizational environment and
cultural heritage. In effect, they are striving to control and manage complexity. The third type of activity
intrinsic to the creation of business opportunities is entrepreneurial actions. Entrepreneurs perform pragmatic
tasks in searching for and devising the best possible solution to their problem. In absolute terms, this solution,
a business opportunity, may not be the most innovative or best, but for a particular entrepreneur in a
particular situation and organizational setting, it is the most viable and valid option. Entrepreneurship as
creativity isn't simple and logical, because an opportunity needs creative insight and sensitivity on what
combines all fragmented information. If it were only the arrangement of information, everyone would
notice his or her opportunity. However, this is not the case. For example, with a jigsaw puzzle, we
know we are putting together a jigsaw and that every piece has its own place. By diligently and
systematically trying the pieces, the puzzle is solved. An entrepreneurial opportunity is not this kind of
puzzle. Instead of a jigsaw, imagine a situation where you have some pieces of sorts, but have no
concept of what you should do with them. You have to based on your own creativity, conceive what it
is about, work out what the pieces are linked to, conceive a solution, conceive in what way the pieces bring
about a solution, and understand what is the trick of it all is. An opportunity is more about creating a
meaning based on scattered and ambiguous information, rather than deriving a decision within a limited
decision space and being based on exact information.