ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the entrepreneurial project as the ‘nexus’ where entrepreneurial opportunities are realised. Serious realist philosophy can help identify the nature of entrepreneurial enterprise, or, in S. Shane’s terms, the ‘individual-opportunity nexus’, through utilising realist conceptual abstraction. ‘Serious’ realist philosophy has the potential to inform applied entrepreneurship. The ‘serious’ practical contribution applied entrepreneurship theory can make should enable, in some way, a reduction in the complexity facing the would-be entrepreneur. In practice, nascent and experienced entrepreneurs often begin what they believe to be an entrepreneurial endeavour based on an idea about a possible opportunity. For some, entrepreneurship is associated with the creation of new organisations; others maintain that entrepreneurship can best be understood in terms of opportunity identification and exploitation. In developing applied theory for entrepreneurship, the starting conditions, for a similar pre-start opportunity assessment, also need to be identified for practicing entrepreneurs.
