CREATING CONTEXT – ENTREPRENEURIAL OPPORTUNITIES IN A CONSUMER MARKET SETTING

Abstract

This paper focuses on entrepreneurial opportunities in a consumer market setting. The purpose is to explore how the corporate branding process influences emerging entrepreneurial opportunities. The empirical results show the importance of symbols and images influencing emerging opportunities, rather than isolated product innovations. Here the importance of examining all the people involved in the entrepreneurial process, rather than just focusing on the entrepreneur or the entrepreneurial organization, is emphasized. The case illustrates the intensity and the devotion invested in the creation of a context that holds the Nav products. In this process the interplay between identity and image is described in a corporate branding perspective. I show how, by whom, and where, the creation of context becomes distinct. Introducing the creation of context to entrepreneurship theories change the opportunity discussion from a situation where organizational aspects are primarily focused on, to a situation also emphasizing the consumer market side of entrepreneurial opportunities. The theoretical results illustrate how branding theory and marketing/entrepreneurship interface theories shift the interest from organization aspects to market related aspects of the entrepreneurial process. The overall conclusions are that branding aspects of the entrepreneurial process are becoming more challenging in a society and on a market generally characterized by fragmentation.