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Opportunity creation: Agency, interaction and affect
OPPORTUNITY CREATION: ENTREPRENEURIAL AGENCY, INTERACTION AND AFFECT
David Goss
Surrey Business School
University of Surrey
Guildford
GU2 7XH
UK
Eugene Sadler-Smith
Surrey Business School
University of Surrey
Guildford
GU2 7XH
UK
Keywords: affect; agency; emotional energy; interaction ritual; opportunity creation
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Opportunity creation: Agency, interaction and affect
OPPORTUNITY CREATION: ENTREPRENEURIAL AGENCY, INTERACTION AND AFFECT
Abstract.
Research summary. This article addresses opportunity creation with particular focus on the interplay between social context and individual agency. Using ideas grounded in contemporary micro-sociology we offer a conceptual framework that articulates opportunity-creating agency as the outcome of socially-situated subjectivity, supportive or challenging interactions, and the circulation of emotional energy. This dynamic process is illustrated with references to entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson (founder of Virgin). Our article contributes to opportunity creation research by: offering a conception of individual opportunity creating propensities rooted in social situations and consistent with constructionist assumptions; specifying role played by affect/emotion in opportunity creation and positing a novel creative role for negative affect; and connecting opportunity creation with other areas of theoretical interest in entrepreneurship such as creativity, frustration and hubris.
Managerial summary. This article examines how social relationships and emotions can, together, influence the ways in which entrepreneurs initiate and shape opportunities. Using examples from the career of Sir Richard Branson (founder of Virgin) we suggest ways in which the emotional intensity of social interactions can motivate entrepreneurs to act decisively to initiate opportunities for business formation and development. We suggest how this may help us to understand not just opportunity creation but also key entrepreneurial issues such as creativity, frustration and hubris.
Keywords: affect; agency; emotional energy; interaction ritual; opportunity creation
Introduction
Whether opportunities are created or discovered is an issue of continuing interest for
entrepreneurship researchers (e.g., Alvarez and Barney, 2007; Alvarez, Barney and
Anderson, 2013; Foss and Foss, 2008; McMullen and Shepherd, 2006; Wood and McKinley,
2010). The creation position asserts that opportunities cannot exist independently of an
entrepreneur’s constructive agency. The discovery position, in contrast, treats opportunities
as objective features of the economic system, needing to be ‘found’ before they can be acted
upon (Ardichvili, Cardozo and Ray, 2003; Eckhardt and Shane, 2003; Ramoglou and Tsang,
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2016). As interest in social constructionism has grown within entrepreneurship so too has
concern with opportunity creation; it is to this debate that we aim to contribute. Opportunity
creation for us entails the interplay of social context and individual motivated action;
following sociological usage, we refer to the latter as agency (Barnes, 2000; Giddens, 1984;
Spreitzer et al., 2005). We explain the nature and strength of an individual’s agency in terms
of situated subjectivity and intersubjectivity, specifically ‘emotional energy’ and ‘interaction
rituals’ respectively.
Proposing this novel treatment of individual agency as a form of socially situated
subjectivity contributes to the opportunity creation debate in three ways. First, it extends the
breadth of opportunity creation research by introducing social antecedents as a necessary
underpinning for the usual focus on opportunity enactment. Second, incorporating the
construct of ‘emotional energy’ enriches opportunity creation research by aligning it with the
growing recognition of affect’s significance for understanding entrepreneurial processes.
Third, the constructionist approach to opportunity creation is strengthened theoretically by
explaining differences in agency from a relational rather than an individualist standpoint.
Following an overview of the literature on opportunity creation, agency and
entrepreneurial emotion, we introduce our approach to situated subjectivity and
intersubjectivity. We then offer a conceptual framework combining interaction ritual chains,
emotional energy (Collins, 2004) and energy-texts (Quinn and Dutton, 2005), elaborating this
with illustrations from biographies of the UK entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson, founder of
the Virgin brand. We conclude our paper with a discussion of how this approach contributes
to opportunity creation and related concerns in entrepreneurship (such as creativity,
frustration and hubris).
Opportunity creation: Social construction, agency and emotion.
Underpinning many opportunity creation approaches is the assumption that:
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Opportunity creation: Agency, interaction and affect
‘opportunities are social constructions that do not exist independently of those perceptions and human action . . . . this does not mean that “reality” is unimportant in understanding creation opportunities. After all, actors test their beliefs about an opportunity against the market—itself a social construction—and based on feedback, they refine those beliefs and continue to do so until they either give up or form an opportunity . . . .’ (Alvarez, Barney and Anderson, 2013: 306-308).
Limiting the ‘knowability’ of an opportunity in advance of the activity through which it is
constructed, this view posits that even if starting with a clear idea of a desired objective, the
very process of its realization is likely to transform it into something quite different to the
original intention (Dimov, 2007; Tocher Oswald and Hall, 2015; Wood and McKinley,
2010). Opportunities are ‘emergent’ because their realization (if not their initial conception)
is through others’ collaboration or resistance, embedded within an ongoing flow of more or
less structured social interactions. Rather than awaiting discovery by an alert individual, their
‘reality’ is an intersubjective accomplishment. It is, nevertheless, undeniable empirically that
some individuals are considerably more adept at conceiving opportunities and bringing them
to fruition than others. In short, even if opportunity creation is an intersubjective process,
individuals’ highly variable propensities towards it must be explained.
Most attention has focused on variations in entrepreneurs’ cognitive processes such as
information processing, uncertainty reduction, perceptual accuracy, adaptability, decision
making, etc. (e.g., Baron and Markman, 2003; Haynie et al., 2010; Shepherd, McMullen and
Jennings, 2007; Shepherd, Williams and Patzelt, 2015). Although much of this research
acknowledges that variations in entrepreneurial propensity involve an interaction between
cognition and an individual’s social situation, the latter usually takes a backseat to cognition’s
driving role, i.e., conceived contextually rather than causally (Clarke and Cornelissen, 2011;
Robbins and Aydede, 2009). This offers a valuable but individually-centered analysis:
variations in opportunity creating propensity are explained by the different ways in which
individuals process information from their environment (Brigham, De Castro and Shepherd,
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2007). And because ‘environment’ is usually treated as passive, it focuses on the question of
how individual’s react differently towards it, rather than why they do so.
We believe that a full understanding of the opportunity creation process needs to
address the latter question as well as the former, and to do so in a way that is consistent with
the view of opportunities as social constructions (not, for instance, by reducing difference
solely to innate capacities). This richer understanding can, we believe, be achieved by
recognizing more explicitly the social situation’s causal role in shaping differences in
opportunity creating propensity.
To avoid confusing our approach with the established literature on the role of individual
differences in entrepreneurial behavior (e.g., Allinson, Chell, and Hayes, 2000; Bird, 1988;
Brigham et al., 2007; Kickul et al., 2009) we introduce the term ‘agency’ to capture
variations in opportunity creating propensity. In sociological usage agency broadly refers to
an individual’s ability ‘to make a difference’, to exercise volition in the face of external
constraint (Barnes, 2000; Spreitzer et al., 2005). Although the subject of some debate, for
our purposes we follow Emirbayer and Mische’s (1998: 963) usage:
‘agency [is] a temporally embedded process of social engagement, informed by the past . . . . but also oriented toward the future (as a capacity to imagine alternative possibilities) and toward the present (as a capacity to contextualize past habits and future projects within the contingencies of the moment). The agentic dimension of social action can only be captured in its full complexity, we argue, if it is analytically situated within the flow of time.’
Thus, individuals will display differing degrees of agency towards opportunity creation (a
future possibility) that must be understood not just in terms of cognitive processes – although
these are important – but by reference to their previous social experiences and the ways in
which these inform ongoing interactions. Through this lens of agency, opportunity creating
propensity involves an extended process encompassing the biographical shaping of
capabilities and motivation, the imagining of future possibilities, and the attempted enactment
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of these through social engagement. This comprehensive treatment adds breadth and depth to
the study of opportunity creation which has largely focused on the process of opportunity
enactment (McMullen and Shepherd, 2006; Shepherd, McMullen and Jennings, 2007; Wood
and McKinley, 2010).
To capture the processes of social engagement within which agency is embedded, we
work within a theoretical context informed by contemporary micro-sociology (Collins, 2004;
Scheff, 1990, 1997). This has the added advantage of connecting the study of opportunity
creation with the growing recognition of affect’s role in entrepreneurship (e.g., Baron 2008,
1998; Baron and Tang, 2009; Foo, 2011; Krueger, 2008, 2009; Michl et al., 2009; Welpe et
al., 2008). However, although emotion and affect1 are ‘hot topics’ for entrepreneurship
(Cardon et al., 2012), they too have been viewed predominantly through a cognitive lens and
focused more on the consequences of affective processes (e.g., for decision making
behaviors) than with their antecedents (i.e., the processes that give rise to emotional states).
Affect has been most usually deployed to understand entrepreneurial decision making via the
process of cognition (e.g. Baron, 1998, 2004; Luthans, Stajkovic and Ibrayeva, 2000;
Mitchell et al., 2007; Mitchell et al., 2002). Baron (2008), for example, summarizes various
ways in which affect influences cognition. Broadly speaking, positive affect stimulates
entrepreneurial behaviors such as promoting opportunity identification, network building,
flexible problem solving, and stress management, whereas negative affect has the opposite
effects, i.e. militating against opportunity identification, limiting social networks,
encouraging rigid thinking, and creating a proneness to stress (Baron, 2008: 334).
Recent interest has extended into the link between affect, motivation, energy, vitality
and vigor (e.g., Shirom, 2011; Kark and Carmeli, 2009). Murnieks, Mosakowski and Cardon,
1 We treat affect as a portmanteau term encompassing ‘both moods, which are often relatively long-lasting in nature but not focused on specific events or objects (e.g., cheerfulness, depression), and emotions (e.g., anger, sorrow, joy) which are often shorter in duration and are more specifically directed toward a particular object’ (Baron and Tang, 2011: 50). Our use in this paper will depend on the context of discussion.
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(2014: 1584), for example, point to passion as an emotion that ‘energizes motivation and
inspires individuals to persist through the trials and tribulations associated with
accomplishing difficult [entrepreneurial] tasks.’ Likewise, Hahn et al. (2011) demonstrate a
relationship between ‘eudaimonic affective wellbeing’ (such as feelings of vigor and vitality)
and entrepreneurs’ use of ‘personal initiative’.
The interest in affect as a motivating force has encouraged a broader concern with its
embodied and socially situated dimensions, thus moving away from an exclusive focus on the
individual entrepreneur (Cardon et al., 2012) and towards what Jennings et al. (2014: 3) refer
to as ‘the interpersonal side of this topic; that is, about how others involved in the
entrepreneurial process perceive, respond to and potentially come to share the entrepreneur's
subjective feelings’. In this vein, Doern and Goss (2014) show how differences in power due
to state corruption can reduce entrepreneurs’ emotional energy and their business
development (see also: Doern and Goss, 2013; Goss et al., 2011). This mirrors work in
microsociology such as Lawler’s (2001) ‘affect theory of social exchange’, Scheff’s (1997)
‘deference emotion system’, Collins’ (2004) ‘interaction ritual chain theory’, and Quinn and
Dutton’s (2005) notion of ‘energy in conversation’. These approaches share the assumption
that social interaction is an inherently emotional experience which can ‘oscillate between
energizing and de-energizing’ and, in consequence, shape the direction in which subsequent
interactions unfold for individuals and groups (Quinn and Dutton, 2005: 36). As such, these
approaches are fully compatible with our adopted notion of agency as ‘a temporally
embedded process of social engagement’ and will be incorporated within our theory.
Applying the notion of embedded agency effectively to the broad field of opportunity
creation also requires a specific empirical context. For this purpose our analysis focuses on a
type of opportunity creation where differences in individual agency can be expected to be
especially relevant, namely under conditions of uncertainty where the success of a novel
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venture is difficult or impossible to predict (Knight, 1921; Runde, 1998). Normally, inertia,
indecisiveness and extreme caution are the most widespread responses among individuals
faced with such uncertain conditions (Akerlof and Schiller, 2010; McKelvie, Haynie and
Gustavsson, 2009). But there are individuals who buck this trend, who are spurred to ‘make
something happen’ in the face of others’ hesitancy. Such apparently egregious behavior is
usually attributed to individual traits such as over-confidence, hubris or achievement need,
etc. (Hayward, Shepherd and Griffin, 2006; Hayward et al., 2010; McMullen and Shepherd,
2006) but we believe our focus on embedded agency can yield a more comprehensive and
context-sensitive understanding.
In the remainder of this paper we develop an account of socially generated ‘emotional
energy’ that—along with its relational underpinnings—provides a social constructionist
account of opportunity creation and the differences in individual agency towards it. We root
our analysis in Collins’ (2004) theory of ‘interaction ritual chains’. This offers our position
the following advantages. Firstly, its core concept of the interaction ritual chain draws
attention to the socially structured but emergent nature of opportunities as processes that
consolidate or dissipate over time. Secondly, it provides an account of individual agency that
is consistent with social constructionist assumptions. Finally, it introduces an explicit role for
affect, alongside more rational cognitions, as a crucial component of opportunity creation.
Interaction ritual chain theory
A growing body of research suggests that the nature and intensity of emotion and cognition
are shaped by individuals’ involvement in social situations. Oullier and Basso (2010), for
instance, show that the physical inter-relating of bodies in social settings can create
affectively driven behaviors in business venturing settings (see also: Basso, Guillou, and
Oullier, 2010; Spreitzer, Lam and Quinn, 2012). Situated cognition (Mitchell et al., 2011;
Clarke and Cornelissen, 2011; Haynie, et al., 2010; Robbins and Aydede, 2009) and micro-
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sociological and social network theories (Scheff, 1990; Collins, 2004; Lawler, 2001; Gerbasi
et al., 2015; Baker, Cross and Wooten, 2003) also support this position. Collins’ (2004)
theory of ‘interaction ritual chains’ offers one of the most explicit and comprehensive
formulations of this intersubjective and affective grounding of individual and collective
agency.
For Collins (2004) interaction rituals (hereafter IRs) represent a way in which
encounters between two or more actors consolidate into the structured patterns of social
interaction that endure and expand over time and space (Collins, 1981). Participating in an
effective IR provides a sense of collective identity and, importantly, an individual emotional
motivation to act to further the ritual’s purpose. Collins (2004) specifies IRs as a set of
ingredients and outcome variables connected by feedback loops. Ingredients comprise: the
physical co-presence of participants; a perception of separation from non-participants; a
mutual focus of attention on an activity that becomes the object of ritual interaction; and a
shared mood among participants reflecting the level of excitement about the activity. When
successfully combined, these ingredients translate into the outcomes of: collective solidarity;
individual emotional energy; group symbols; and standards of morality (see Collins, 2004:
48; Goss, 2008). The level of positive feedback between ingredients determines the intensity
of the ritual – ‘collective effervescence’ – and the extent to which its outcomes will either
decay or consolidate over time.
One of the most critical outputs of an IR is the emotional energy (EE) which is the basis
of individual motivated action. It is important to note that EE is experienced individually but
is generated through participation in social interaction. EE is conceived as a long-term
emotional tone ranging from an up-tone of excitement and happiness to a down-tone of
depression and sadness (Collins, 2004: 102ff) and which may signal ‘approach’ or ‘avoid’
behaviors. This relatively enduring feeling of pleasantness or unpleasantness is well-
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supported in the literature (see, for example, Baker, Cross and Wooten, 2003; Boyns and
Luerie, 2015; Gerbasi et al., 2015; Lawler, 2001; Quinn and Dutton, 2005; Spreitzer, Lam,
and Quinn, 2012; Owens et al., 2016), and along with its implications for agency: ‘EE gives
energy, not just for physical activity ... but above all for taking the initiative in social
interaction, putting enthusiasm into it, taking the lead in setting the level of emotional
entrainment’ (Collins (2004: 107). An individual’s experience of gaining and losing EE
underpins the notion of interaction ritual chain history, essentially a theory of biographical
development and learning where agentive power, both in terms of direct experience and
future-oriented motivation, is shaped emotionally over time:
‘The relative degree of emotional intensity that each [interaction ritual] reaches is implicitly compared with other [interaction rituals] within those persons’ social horizons, drawing individuals to social situations where they feel more emotionally involved, and away from other interactions that have a lower emotional magnetism or an emotional repulsion.’ (Collins, 2004: xiv).
In this regard, an actor’s EE-driven attraction to or repulsion from particular sorts of
situations can be seen to motivate their sense of individual agency. The intensity of the EE
they experience and the sorts of situations within which it is generated provide both valence
and direction for their actions (Summers-Effler, 2002).
In summary, EE is generated through social interaction although, by its embodied
nature, is experienced individually. An individual whose interactions have allowed them to
accumulate high levels of EE reflects this in their subsequent interactions, through their
readiness to act, the excitement they convey through their speech and their physical
demeanor, i.e., their agency:
‘A person’s fund of EE is one of the key resources that determines his or her ability to produce further interaction rituals. Individuals who have stored up a high level of EE can create a focus of attention around themselves, and stir up common emotions among others. Such high-EE persons are sociometric stars; at the extreme they are charismatic leaders’ (Collins, 2004: 150; emphasis added).
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The common emotions stirred up by EE-charged interactions are the basis of the other output
from a successful IR (relevant to our current analysis): the emotionally-laden symbols that
come to represent group solidarity (Kangasharju and Nikko, 2009). IRs approaching high
levels of intensity encourage participants to develop symbols that capture both the
membership status of participants and the sense of solidarity evoked through participation
(Huddy and Gunnthorsdottir, 2000). These can range from totemic objects (such as team
mascots) to discourses employing the IR’s unique terminology. For participants this creates a
symbolic repertoire that carries an emotional charge (so-called ‘affective tags’) stored in
long-term memory (Slovic et al., 2004), allowing members to maintain a sense of energized
anticipation between encounters and encouraging repetition of the IR over time (Collins,
2004: 86).
To give this particular aspect of IRs greater specificity, we introduce Quinn and
Dutton’s (2005) notion of ‘energy texts’ (a construct they reference to Collins’ EE):
‘By referring to energy as “texts,” we mean that (1) a person can read his or her own energy as a bodily signal that summarizes how desirable he or she perceives a situation to be . . . and that (2) people can read another person’s expressions to interpret how much energy that person feels. . . . . People interpret felt energy and expressive gestures as texts and experience changes in their energy based on their interpretation of texts.’ (2005: 43).
In our framework energy texts (hereafter N-texts2) provide a link between the subjective
(Quinn and Dutton’s mode 1 above) and intersubjective (their mode 2) dimensions of agency,
connecting the social production of an individual’s disposition to act with the social situations
in which this can be brought to fruition. Energy texts also connect with psychological
research on interoception and interoceptive awareness, i.e. sensing physiological signals
emanating from within the body (Craig, 2002; Kandasamy et al., 2016; Sadler-Smith, 2016).
2 We use the abbreviation N-text in preference to the more obvious E-text to avoid confusion with our abbreviation for emotional energy (EE) and the tendency to read ‘E’ as ‘emotion’. N, of course, has the added advantage of providing a phonetic clue to energy (N-ergy).
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The social process of opportunity creation
Drawing from interaction ritual chain theory we offer a systematic account of individual
agency towards opportunity creation that, by incorporating social antecedents and situational
interaction, is consistent with social constructionist assumptions. Figure 1 sets this out,
making a conceptual distinction between aspects of the creation process that operate at the
individual level and those that represent the social context for the expression of these
individual feelings, thoughts and actions (in practice, the transition between the two will
appear as a seamless flow of experience for participants).
Our opportunity creation framework posits interconnected circuits through which EE
is generated, internalized, and projected as individual agency into social encounters. The
force of such agency (its valence and direction), and other participants’ compliance or
opposition with or to it, shapes the development of an IR with sufficient energy and solidarity
to support or suppress the enactment of an opportunity.
[INSERT FIGURE 1 ABOUT HERE]
Figure 1’s left hand box captures predominantly individual level processes. The
innermost circle represents an individual’s stock of EE and the propensities they have for
engaging in particular types of IR. These stocks and propensities are the outcome of previous
IRs – the individual’s interaction ritual chain history (IRCH) – and this circle can be
imagined to extend back in time, encapsulating the chain of interactions that constitute an
individual’s biography. An individual’s IRCH constructs their preferences for and aversions
to particular types of IR and provides them with an emotionally charged symbolic repertoire
reflecting this (i.e., agency’s past dimension; Emirbayer and Mische, 1998; see also Slovic et
al., 2004). The subjective playing and replaying of this is represented by Figure 1’s outer
circle, i.e., Quinn and Dutton’s ‘mode 1’ N-text. The replaying amplifies existing EE and
fosters a sense of agency directed towards whatever IR-propensity an individual’s IRCH has
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Opportunity creation: Agency, interaction and affect
formed. Together these circuits encapsulate the antecedent conditions for the enactment of
this agency. Because they incorporate previous social interactions, we refer to this box as
‘situated subjectivity’ (rather than just subjectivity) 3.
Figure 1’s right hand boxes represent situational and intersubjective processes.
Informed by an individual’s sense of agency arising from the antecedent conditions outlined
above, they engage with others who are perceived to be potential participants in the type of
IR they seek to enact. Here the individual’s subjective (mode 1) N-text is translated into a
form that can be projected to others (mode 2). The extent to which this projection meets with
support, opposition or indifference from others validates or challenges the individual’s sense
of agency and the type of emotional returns they receive from this intersubjective
engagement. In situations with little or no potential for individual decisiveness (e.g., an
established bureaucracy) such agency is likely to confront rejection, leading to a loss of EE
and (eventual) disengagement. In situations where decisive agency is viable (even if not
exercised widely, such as, e.g., an emerging market), others are likely either to support or
oppose it. In this paper we concern ourselves only with the latter situation (i.e. where
decisiveness is viable, whether supported or opposed).
Where support is encountered, the EE so-generated will carry positive affect and
feedback to strengthen agency towards the desired IR. However, where an individual with a
strong sense of agency encounters opposition to their desired outcome, we propose that EE
with negative affect will be produced. This also, somewhat counter-intuitively, feeds back to
strengthen an individual’s sense of agency, directing it antagonistically towards removing
opponents from the path of their endeavor. We elaborate the latter dynamic more fully below
as it runs contrary to the assumption in many approaches to human energy that conflict and
3 We use the term situated subjectivity in preference to situated cognition because although we recognize that cognitive processes are involved and could, in principle, be specified in detail, this is not our main concern here. Our principal interest is with the broader processes connecting social experience with agentive action.
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opposition are de-energizing rather than energizing (Baker, Cross and Wooten, 2003; Hahn et
al., 2011; Spreitzer, Lam and Quinn, 2012).
The following section applies this framework specifically within the context of
opportunity creation under conditions of uncertainty, i.e., where high levels of agency are
needed to counter others’ inertia or indifference. Illustrative vignettes are offered to help
clarify the substantive aspects of our framework rather than as rigorous tests of its validity;
these are taken from various autobiographies and biographies of the founder of the Virgin
brand, Sir Richard Branson (Bower, 2001; 2014; Branson, 2000; Brown, 1998).
Opportunity creating propensity: Interaction ritual chain history and subjective N-texts.
Starting in Figure 1’s left hand box we begin with the process whereby biographical
experience – interaction ritual chain history (IRCH) – builds an individual’s propensity to
regard uncertain situations as a potential site of opportunity creation. We propose that such a
propensity will emerge where an individual’s past interaction rituals have yielded an EE gain
through displays of decisive action: decisiveness, as inertia’s counterpoint, affords the
entrepreneur social recognition in situations where most others are reluctant initiative takers
(Akerlof and Schiller, 2010). Formatively, rituals rewarding decisiveness with EE are likely
to be articulated in terms of ‘winning’ or ‘leadership’, with others’ deference towards these
qualities providing the source of EE (Scheff, 1990, 1994, 1997). The commonest example is
competitive sport, but others could include challenges of physical or intellectual bravery
(Collins, 2004: 122ff).
Accounts of Sir Richard Branson’s early life provide several such examples. His
mother, Eve, appeared adept at engineering opportunities for her son to secure public
recognition for his initiative and daring:
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‘Neighbors recall her position under a high tree .... . . which had attracted stern warnings by all the other parents, forbidding their children to climb beyond a low height. “Right to the top,” urged Eve Branson as her son perilously balanced on the highest branches. “Higher,” shouted the woman famous for hyperactively urging, “Do something, Ricky!”’ (Bower, 2001: 13).
Branson himself describes the energizing effect of being set difficult physical challenges in
childhood (Brown, 1998: 9ff) and the emotional satisfaction of being recognized as a winner:
‘That summer [sports] day I couldn’t put a foot wrong, and my parents and [sister] sat and
clapped in the white marquee as I went up to collect every cup’ (Branson, 2000: 32).
Persistent activity and high personal energy constitute themes throughout his autobiography:
‘I always renew my search for new opportunities. . . . . I suspect this is more down to
inquisitiveness and restlessness than sound financial sense’ (2000: 203). Through
deliberately attention-grabbing situations, ranging from powerboat and ballooning record
attempts to business launches with risqué or outlandish performances, and ‘high octane’
parties for staff and journalists, Branson has demonstrated a relish for being the center of
attention and the focus for others’ expressions of deference (Bower, 2001; 2014; Brown,
1998).
Branson’s autobiography also provides numerous formulations of his personal
business credo – his subjective N-text – focusing on the excitement he feels as a decisive risk
taker, challenge-maker, and ‘fun-seeker’ (Branson, 2000). In his accounts he seems to
deploy this N-text as a way of confirming his own distinctiveness: ‘My interest in life comes
from setting myself huge, apparently unachievable, challenges and trying to rise above them .
. . . Fun is at the core of the way I like to do business and it has informed everything I’ve
done from the outset’ (2000: 219 and 490). Another dimension of this N-text is his focus on
winning, reflected in exceptionally hard-nosed (some would say ruthless) deal-making, his
willingness to challenge decisions against him, and his ready use of litigation to enforce
contracts ‘to the letter’ (Brown, 1998; Bower, 2001; 2014).
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Brown’s (1998) account of how the idea of business could energize the young
Branson (and protect him from the potentially de-energizing effects of others’ demands)
resonates strongly with our account of EE-seeking propensity: ‘Business gave him a
vocabulary, a framework and set of references he otherwise lacked, and which galvanized
him in a way normal conversation never could . . . he acquired a fluency invariably absent in
the exchange of social pleasantries, or social intimacies’ (p.130). And with this came a
striking willingness to act decisively in business. Here Branson recounts his unilateral
decision to commit—with no previous domain-relevant experience—£3m to starting a
transatlantic airline: ‘I make up my mind about whether a business proposal excites me within
about 30 seconds of looking at it. I rely far more on gut instinct than researching huge
amounts of statistics’ (Branson, 2000: 216; emphases added).
In summary, we suggest that biographical social experience shapes a propensity
towards particular types of IR and styles of engagement within them, based on their capacity
to yield EE. We identify decisiveness in the face of uncertainty as one source of EE and a
precondition for the type of opportunity creation we are interested in. N-texts are constructed
from this raw material of experience: replaying these affectively charged texts subjectively
amplifies EE and stimulates agency towards other ‘decisiveness opportunities’. But to
engage other potential collaborators, this sense of agency has to be projected beyond the
situated subjectivity of the agent, i.e., the N-text’s (mode 2) intersubjective translation.
Intersubjective N-texts and opportunity creation rituals
An N-text’s subjective component amplifies an individual’s EE, but capitalizing on the
resultant agency requires others to enlist their effort and support to the projected opportunity.
Deploying an N-text intersubjectively can help to meet this need by communicating to others
the initiator’s enthusiasm to develop an opportunity and the energy they will bring to this
project. These others’ own energy levels will change in response to this N-text (Quinn and
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Dutton, 2005: 43), as will their level of support or opposition to the project. An
intersubjective N-text’s key function is to project an individual’s EE-enthused agency into
social encounters. Grabbing attention in situations where other participants are unaware or
skeptical of decisive agency’s efficacy requires projections of considerable intensity.
Intensity can be conveyed emotionally through expressive non-verbal gestures and verbal
excitement and more rationally articulated in narrative structures (albeit with many an
emotive twist; Katz, 1999: 309ff).
An analytic distinction between bodily demeanor and patterns of vocalization allows
us to dissect these N-text projections (here focusing only on those projections accessible to
other participants rather than a scientifically trained observer). Bodily demeanor conveys
vitality and vigor, physical stamina and fearlessness, all of which can underpin the credibility
of an individual’s claims to act decisively – and effectively (Burgoon and Dunbar, 2006).
High levels of vitality and vigor are taken commonly as indicators of the capability to
perform above-the-norm (graphically illustrated in the 2016 Clinton-Trump contest; in an
entrepreneurial context, see also Goldsby, Kuratko and Bishop, 2005). Stamina too is readily
projected as a sign of persistence and the capacity to overcome obstacles—an impression
reinforced if displays of fearlessness and even controlled aggression are involved. The latter
are well established in popular entrepreneurial discourse as prerequisites for competitive
struggle (Baron, 2007; Dodd, 2002; Reid, 2016).
We noted previously that Collins sees EE as giving both physical energy (as above)
and initiative-taking energy in social encounters. Interactional dominance is one
manifestation of the latter. Invading others’ personal space, initiating unexpected or overly
intimate physical contact, and disrupting conversational turn-taking are some of the less
subtle ways in which this may appear (Burgoon and Dunbar, 2006). Often enacted, at the
expense of a ‘target’ individual, as a deliberate tactic for gaining attention from a wider group
17
Opportunity creation: Agency, interaction and affect
of spectators (Collins, 2004: 112f), such behaviors can be contrasted with those where an
individual is made the sole focus of ‘special’ attention. Here bodily engagements signaling
reassurance, encouragement or approachability can cement dominance and personal loyalty,
as Immergut and Kosut’s (2014) analysis of the ‘charismatic touch’ demonstrates in which
‘leader and followers exchange mutual recognition through verbal, visual and physical touch’
(p. 272).
Bodily demeanor in such situations also contextualizes forms of speech: eye contact
and posture when speaking and listening indicate interest or disinterest, and signal social
relatedness or distance (Goss, 2005; Dunbar and Burgoon, 2005). When perceived through
conversational speech acts, feelings of ‘relatedness’, alongside ‘autonomy’ and ‘competence’
serve as energy amplifiers (Quinn and Dutton, 2005: 45). When recipients perceive that a
speaker’s intention is to increase their relatedness, autonomy and competence, the energy
levels of speaker and listeners are likely to increase as is the latter’s willingness to contribute
their effort to the speaker’s enterprise (and vice versa). Non-verbal behaviors serve to
amplify these effects.
Examining how intersubjective N-text projections can create the ingredients for an
interaction ritual (physical co-presence; mutual focus of attention; shared mood; and barriers
to outsiders), makes it possible to establish their role in the opportunity creation process: an
IR enabling an entrepreneur’s decisive action provides a social platform for mobilizing
individual and collective agency as a means to enact a potential opportunity.
By way of illustration of this point, we focus on a key incident from Richard
Branson’s own account of the development of his Virgin Atlantic airline. After persistent
government lobbying Branson had secured a limited number of flight slots at London
Heathrow, the UK’s air transport hub, enabling him to shift the focus of operations from the
more regional London Gatwick airport. This lobbying had created the basis for a major
18
Opportunity creation: Agency, interaction and affect
opportunity for the fledgling airline, but compared to his main UK competitor, British
Airways, the limited number of slots was insufficient to establish Virgin Atlantic as a major
player. To fully realize the opportunity, Branson set about a campaign targeting tabloid press
journalists to generate publicity that could be used to bring further pressure to bear on the
flight-allocating authorities. We focus on one incident at the start of this campaign which
demonstrates the deployment of a physical and verbal intersubjective N-text to engage and
energize others in an IR that would focus their effort on furthering Branson’s opportunity
creation project.
In the wake of a lavish party to celebrate the move to Heathrow, the ‘stunt’ began at
4.00 am when Branson and some associates arrived at the airport’s main road interchange
dominated by a large statue of a British Airways Concorde jet. Using a chartered mobile
crane they covered the statue with a flag in Virgin livery. Significantly, Branson had also
bussed-in the tabloid journalists and photographers – all of whom had been lavishly
entertained at the party. He takes up the story:
‘To celebrate the occasion I was wearing a brocaded frock coat and had a stuffed parrot wobbling on one shoulder. I had a patch on one eye and a sword hanging off a sash. As the traffic started to get busier, the passing cars all paused to hoot their horns . . . I had dressed as a pirate because Lord King [BA’s chairman] had called me one. . . . One of the reasons why I dress up is to give the press photographers a good picture that will make it into the papers and promote the Virgin brand name. . . . A pleasant by-product is that it makes people smile.’ (2000: 389).
Branson’s willingness to engage in often outrageous and energized verbal and non-verbal
performances provides a clear focus of attention. Although unusual, the real key to success is
ensuring that the right audience is, indeed, physically co-present: not only do the journalists
benefit from their marketable stories and pictures, they are also part of the shared mood, an
exciting highlight to the party atmosphere. Bussing the journalists in directly from the party
creates a barrier to outsiders and defined the journalists as a chosen audience, ‘in on the
19
Opportunity creation: Agency, interaction and affect
joke’, and with privileged access to a newsworthy story. And as the quote’s final sentence
suggests Branson was keenly aware that there would be an emotional impact beyond the IR
itself in the journalists’ retelling of the event.
The success of this IR was manifest in the extensive press and media coverage that
followed as the emotionally energized journalists relayed the story to their readers. In this
they were helped by Branson’s verbal projection of his N-text in the form of an ongoing
emotive narrative portraying his attempts to create opportunities as a battle between a brave,
buccaneering underdog and a powerful and privileged bully, David vs Goliath or, in this case,
the romantic pirate challenging the complacent monopolist. Constantly repeated in party
conversations, Branson’s narrative engaged listeners, casting them as fellow campaigners for
justice: ‘I’m fighting for the consumer. BA’s arguments are bollocks. Justice is on my side’
(Branson cited by Bower, 2001: 116). As Quinn and Dutton (2005: 48) note, narratives are
usually ‘told from only one point of view at a time – making only one subject. . . . people
who perceive themselves to be adopting the role of the subject – a superordinate role – often
experience increased energy’.
Here we have an instance of an intersubjective N-text that, through the exercise of
decisive physical engagement and emotive narrative, creates the conditions for a successful
IR and projects the potential for relatedness, autonomy and competence (Quinn and Dutton,
2005). The initiator’s active excitement draws potentially relevant people into physical
proximity and creates an emotionally intense ‘happening’ (relatedness). By sharing in the
drama participants experience gains in their own personal EE (autonomy) and leave with a
tangible resource (e.g., a picture/story) relevant to their future performance (competence).
Branson’s decisive intersubjective E-text deployment, we would suggest, illustrates
how creating the right IR conditions can enhance the initiator’s own EE-level and that of
20
Opportunity creation: Agency, interaction and affect
other participants, fueling the former’s motivation to persist with the expansion of their
opportunity and the latter to contribute their support and effort to the cause.
Exercising decisive agency in this instance involves the circulation of EE with a
positive affective charge: in the illustration above, a clear sense of enjoyment and fun and
little, if any, opposition. But in our model (see Figure 1) we also recognize that decisive
agency may meet opposition, leading to a more complex emotional dynamic whereby a
contested intersubjective N-text generates EE with a negative affective charge, and turns the
IR formation process into a struggle for control and dominance as well as for the opportunity
itself.
The circuit originating in the opposition side of the ‘N-text exchange box’ in Figure 1
represents EE’s darker side. Human energy and the quality of social relations are most
usually regarded as correlating positively: strengthening relations increases energy and
weakening them decrease it (Collins, 2004; Davenport, 2015; Parker, Gerbasi and Porath,
2012; Quinn and Dutton, 2005). Boyns and Luery’s (2015) notion of ‘negative emotional
energy’ challenges this assumption by positing that conflictual social encounters can escalate
(rather than diminish) EE, giving it a negative affective charge (see also Scheff, 1990):
‘it is not simply the case that individuals who experience social alienation from salient interaction rituals lose emotional energy and become deflated because of their exclusion. Instead, they become spirited by such positional experiences and develop emotions like resentment, shame, or vengeance. Such oppositional emotions are not necessarily low emotional energy states of being …. but rather, they can produce highly energized but antagonistic experiences’ (Boyns and Luery, 2015: 158).
Figure 1 allows us to recognize how opposition to an individual’s decisive agency and its
associated intersubjective N-text acts as a source of negative EE. This is likely to be
experienced subjectively as spirited and righteous indignation, turning to angry self-
righteousness as it is recirculated as a subjective N-text. The effect is most pronounced
21
Opportunity creation: Agency, interaction and affect
where the threatened actor is motivated strongly to exercise their decisive agency. When
translated intersubjectively, this N-text projects physical and verbal hostility towards actual
or perceived opponents. Where support and opposition is divided, negative and positive
flows of EE may run together, strengthening an individual’s sense of agency and their
determination to defeat or remove opposition to the desired opportunity.
One of Branson’s most notable opportunity creations—the founding of the Virgin
Atlantic airline in 1983 with no previous experience of the industry and at a time when small
airlines were perceived as unviable—illustrates how this works. Approached by US lawyer
Randolph Fields with a proposition to start a transatlantic airline – a proposal rejected by
numerous investors before it reached him – Branson claims to have decided to finance the
venture (£3m) over the course of a single weekend. At this time Virgin Music, the company
founded by Branson but now with two other main directors, provided the bulk of his income
and would need to fund the airline investment. Creating the airline was a decision he took
unilaterally, only telling his other directors once he had made up his mind (and had even
approached Boeing about leasing a plane). He recounts his meeting with his fellow directors,
Simon and Ken, as follows:
‘I called up Simon on Sunday evening. ‘What do you think about starting an airline?’ . . . . ‘For God’s sake!’ he cut across me. ‘You’re crazy. Come off it.’ . . . ‘OK,’ I said. . . . ‘But I think we should have lunch.’ . . . . The lunch the next day was not a success. After I told them . . . that Boeing had planes to lease, they looked shocked. I think they realized I . . . . had made up my mind. They were right: I had worked myself up into a state about it. . . . Simon said . . . ‘What I’m telling you is that you go ahead with this over my dead body.’ (Branson, 2000: 219; emphases added).
In the anticipation of opposition Branson seems to have replayed a subjective N-text of
confidence in his decisiveness: ‘At times like those, the more people disagree with me, the
more obstinate I become’ (Branson, 2000: 200). That he ‘worked himself into a state’ (op
22
Opportunity creation: Agency, interaction and affect
cit., p. 219) and initiated steps to secure an aircraft indicates raised EE and intensified agency
towards the opportunity.
The negative affective tone of this EE is apparent intersubjectively in the account of the
lunch and Branson’s apparent willingness to lose acrimoniously the services of the man
(Simon), whose musical expertise was largely responsible for the success of Virgin Music,
rather than abandon ‘his’ opportunity: ‘the argument that lunchtime was a turning point in my
relationship with Simon . . . From that lunchtime onwards a tension sprang up in our
relationship that has never fully dissolved’ (Branson, 2000: 219).
A similar, but more extreme negative EE dynamic emerged shortly afterwards in a
dispute with Randolph Fields, then a director of Virgin Atlantic, which Branson claims put
their relationship ‘on a war footing’ (Branson, 2000: 226). The antagonistic and energized
nature of Branson’s ‘campaign’ against Fields is apparent from his confident disclosure to
other staff that ‘He [Fields] won’t be here much longer’ (2000: 226), the appointment of
another director to outvote Fields, and changing the locks on his office to exclude him from
the building. Within six months of floating the idea to Branson, and despite securing a court
injunction, Fields was reduced to selling his shares back to Virgin Atlantic for £1 million
(Bower, 2001: 63).
But alongside this ruthless direction of agency towards removing an opponent, Branson
was simultaneously making Virgin Atlantic a location for IRs focused on high-energy ‘fun’,
starting with the inaugural flight:
‘34,000 feet above the Atlantic . . . to the sound of Madonna’s hit, ‘Like a Virgin’, [Branson] was wearing a steward’s hat and pouring eight hundred bottles of champagne into the glasses of four hundred guests . . . The party was more than memorable, it was unique . . . a triumph of Branson’s presentational skills. His tenacity had transformed a rejected proposal . . . into a major media event. When the boisterous guests returned to London . . . the capital buzzed that flying Branson was fun.’ (Bower, 2001: 60)
23
Opportunity creation: Agency, interaction and affect
Branson’s Virgin Atlantic venture illustrates an opportunity that was created (not discovered)
under uncertain conditions by the exceptional agency of a single entrepreneur. Many others
contributed indispensable ideas, expertise and resources, but it is unlikely these would have
been brought together or given the necessary focus without Branson’s energy, initiative and
persistence. We have argued that this extreme form of agency towards opportunity creation
can be understood in terms of chains of IRs within which EE is generated and given direction
through the interplay of subjective and intersubjective processes. The apparently single-
minded determination of such agency, we would suggest, arises from the combination of
positive and negative EE, the former creating intersubjective attachment and enthusiasm
among supporters, the latter directing interpersonal antagonism towards perceived opponents
and ‘clearing the path’ for decisive agency.
Discussion and contributions
This article has set out a framework for understanding opportunity-creating
entrepreneurial agency in terms of interaction rituals and emotional energy. We now discuss
three areas where we believe additional research opportunities can be created or expanded
within entrepreneurship –hubris; creativity; and frustration – prior to summarizing our
approach’s contribution to the general field of opportunity creation research.
Hubris
Entrepreneurship research has often touched on the issue of hubris (and interest is likely to
rise in response to the recent emergence of flamboyant populist politicians) where it is
usually associated with over-confidence (Hayward, Shepherd and Griffin, 2006; Hayward et
al. 2010; Miller, 2014) as well as over-ambition, overweening pride and contempt for the
advice and criticism of others (Sadler-Smith et al., 2017). In the guise of over-confidence,
hubris has often been seen as a stimulus to opportunity creation (Knight, 1921). We would
suggest a more nuanced interpretation, treating hubristic behavior as ‘over-energized’ (for
24
Opportunity creation: Agency, interaction and affect
example in terms of confidence and ambition on the positive side, and hubristic pride and
contempt for others on the negative side) rather than just over-confident. Positing
simultaneous excesses of positive and negative EE could explain one of the apparent
intersubjective paradoxes of hubristic behavior: the rapid switching between charm and
aggression, creating adoring supporters alongside embittered enemies (Goss, 2005). Hubris,
on this view, is not simply a subjective pathology but an intersubjective dynamic of attraction
and rejection. Successful entrepreneurs may be especially susceptible to this, not as the result
of a personality defect or acquired personality condition (Owen, 2006), but because the social
situations they inhabit create excesses of positive and negative EE, the escalation of which
invites extreme forms of intersubjective engagement. As Goss (2005) notes, success in
business attracts a following of those who want to share in, or aspire to, similar success but
who lack the agentive drive to achieve it. Such followers can benefit vicariously from their
leader’s reputation:
to be known as the associate of a powerful person is to invite deference from others less well connected, even if the price is the abasement of one’s self to the will of the leader. Whether “kept in their place” by fear or self-interested awe for the leader’s ruthlessness, these followers’ deference stimulates [EE] . . . in the leader, and they, in turn, become the recipients of the charismatic charm thereby induced (Goss, 2005: 630).
Goss (2005) also notes that one false interactional step, perceived by the leader as
challenging or denying deference renders this position precarious. Hubris, as current events
amply demonstrate, cannot be understood simply from the perspective of (or towards) the
individual (see Claxton, Owen and Sadler-Smith, 2016). Our framework allows it to be
approached as a ‘temporally embedded process of social engagement’.
Creation and creativity
It seems intuitively sensible to equate opportunity creation with creativity – ‘the production
of novel and useful ideas’ (Zhou, 2008: 3) – and our account, like most others, has worked
25
Opportunity creation: Agency, interaction and affect
with this assumption. Our focus on affect also connects our framework with insights from
cognitive psychology, summarized by Baron and Tang (2011: 51):
‘positive affect enhances creativity . . . . when it is combined with high levels of activation (e.g., enthusiasm, elation) and a promotion regulatory focus (a focus on aspirations or accomplishments . . . . . Further, negative affect accompanied by high activation (e.g., fear, anxiety) has been found to be associated with actual reductions in creativity.’
Our framework links opportunity creating agency to a combination of positive and negative
affect, both with high levels of activation. On the one hand, it can accommodate both of the
relationships above (between creativity and either positive or negative affect), but, on the
other, it points to more complex outcomes when positive and negative affect are combined
and embedded intersubjectively. We outline briefly each of these three relationships in turn.
A situation involving supportive intersubjective N-text exchanges and escalating
positive EE would be expected to enhance creativity. Positive EE gives the confidence to
imagine new possibilities and to initiate agency to enact these by, for instance, expanding
social networks (i.e., bridging structural holes; Goss, 2010). As all participants in this
positive cycle potentially gain EE, we would also expect team creativity to be supported and
amplified (Shalley and Perry-Smith, 2008). The potential downside of this position is that
energy may be directed into overly-imaginative creativity at the expense of the action
necessary to translate it into something with realizable utility.
In contrast, a situation involving strong opposition and escalating negative EE would
be expected to diminish creativity or to constrain it within a very narrow focus. This type of
EE’s antagonistic and aggressive negative valence gives it a polarizing quality, defining
participants as either friends or foes of the opportunity, and creating a tendency for a closing
of ranks rather than the embracing of new ties (Boyns and Luery, 2015). Because negative
EE comes from interactional conflict between actors its focus tends to target winning the
26
Opportunity creation: Agency, interaction and affect
current battle rather than exploring new possibilities. As a form of aggressive competition it
may secure dominance within a specific field but the orientation will be defensive rather than
creative (see, for example, Bower’s [1993] account of the tycoon ‘Tiny’ Rowland for an
example of this pattern). Although laboratory experiments have pointed to experiences of
negative affect as a stimulus to creativity (e.g., Akinola and Mendes, 2008), we would argue
that when situated within an ongoing stream of hostile interactions, creativity – where it does
occur – will focus narrowly on new ways to establish dominance rather than open innovation.
Finally, we propose that in the presence of both high positive and high negative EE (as
we have outlined in our illustration of Branson’s Virgin Atlantic expansion above) creativity
could be enhanced: positive EE fuels idea/solution generation and negative EE drives this
forward in the face of obstruction (George and Zhou, 2002), thereby providing a strong basis
for realizing creative opportunities. But in addition to suggesting an elaboration on the
established relationship between affect and creativity our framework—as well as focusing on
the consequences of creativity—also adds an explanation of why, how and when the
underpinning affective states are generated.
Frustration and rejection
Figure 1 (above) identified but did not elaborate the EE circuit where EE decays in the face
of overwhelming rejection. Situations of rejection are more final and absolute than routine
opposition and likely to involve structured inequalities of power that make successful
challenge unviable. Doern and Goss (2014; 2013) document this process in the context of
small entrepreneurs confronting state corruption in Russia, pointing to the detrimental effects
of this de-energizing experience on business development. There would, we believe, be merit
in exploring this dynamic within less extreme situations such as the regulatory regimes faced
by entrepreneurs in more open market economies. Even in this weaker form, a de-energizing
dynamic could have a significant impact on levels and intensity of entrepreneurial activity
27
Opportunity creation: Agency, interaction and affect
and, hence, on wealth creation, economic growth and social innovation. Potentially there is
much to be gained from broadening the study of opportunity creation to include not only the
process of creation itself but also the ways in which these creative dynamics are inhibited or
prevented. Our framework suggests that the processes of opportunity creation and
opportunity inhibition may be more tightly coupled than is frequently assumed.
Conclusion
In summarizing our approach’s contribution to the understanding of opportunity creation (as
opposed to discovery) through socially situated agency we point to the following. It broadens
significantly the scope of opportunity creation research by making the roles of intersubjective
and affective processes central, explicit, amenable to operationalization and, hence, empirical
testing. Many other approaches acknowledge the significance of social context but
conceptualize this in a way that lacks theoretical coherence and relies on ad hoc variable
selection. Interaction ritual chain theory provides a unified set of contextual variables (IR
ingredients and outcomes) with sufficient specificity to enable empirical identification
(Collins, 2004; Brundin and Nordqvist, 2008). Similarly, there is now a growing body of
empirical research that provides consistent methods of identifying and measuring EE or its
affective proxies (Owens et al., 2016) and including the role of interoceptive states (Craig,
2002) in entrepreneurship (Sadler-Smith, 2015).
Equally importantly, our approach leaves conceptual space for the incorporation of
existing research in entrepreneurial cognition and the prospect of cumulative knowledge
creation. Although focused on forms of social action and their association with situational
conditions, our framework’s differentiation of situational subjectivity and intersubjectivity
provides opportunity to elaborate the more detailed cognitive processes at work in these
settings and to relate these to explicitly causal rather than contextual situational variables.
Our conception of agency by introducing an explicit temporal dynamic moves analysis
28
Opportunity creation: Agency, interaction and affect
beyond the enactment of an opportunity as an outcome and towards the recognition that
enactment is premised on social antecedents. Recognizing these antecedent conditions allows
us to articulate differences in individual agency in a way that is consistent with opportunity
creation’s social constructionist assumptions.
Finally, in making the circulation of EE a core component of our analysis we connect
opportunity creation to wider developments in entrepreneurship and introduce a novel
dynamic between positive and negative affect through which new strands of opportunity
creation research can be opened up in fields such as hubristic behavior, entrepreneurial
creativity, and barriers to opportunity creation.
29
Opportunity creation: Agency, interaction and affect
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Figure 1. Circuits of EE and opportunity creating agency
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