The Role of Boundary Objects in Entrepreneurship: Moving Towards an Interaction-Learning Nexus

We activate the concept of entrepreneurial opportunity, asking the critical question of ‘what do entrepreneurs do with opportunities?’ This fresh perspective takes the concept of opportunity, currently stalled in the literature, into two important new directions of interaction and learning. We argue that one of the active roles of an entrepreneur is to objectify an opportunity, articulating it in some concrete boundary object form to facilitate interaction with a range of stakeholders. Doing so kicks off a cycle of interaction and learning, by which entrepreneurs and stakeholders reflect on and transform various boundary objects that embody an entrepreneurial opportunity. In the process, opportunity takes an actionable shape that advances the creation of a new venture, while simultaneously advancing the entrepreneur’s understanding of how new ventures come to be. We illuminate the co-participative learning mechanisms that underlie how boundary objects operate in a theoretical model that builds on prior research on boundary objects and learning and derive propositions on how boundary objects mediate entrepreneurial interaction.