Serious realist philosophy and applied entrepreneurship

On the face of it, the interests of philosophers and entrepreneurs can appear worlds apart. Whilst philosophy is largely concerned with causal explanation, ‘truths’ and the nature of knowledge, entrepreneurship is a distinctively pragmatic domain, where doing (making it work) rather than theorising (understanding why it works) is prioritised. It might seem strange then to advocate the view that entrepreneurship theory could be more applied in its outlook if it took greater counsel of its philosophical background; but this is exactly what we suggest in this chapter. We put forward the case for a serious realist philosophical perspective, i.e., undertaking an approach that demonstrates theory/practice consistency, and which is purposefully designed to enable action with more veracity and effectiveness in the world, through utilising a realist ontology. We argue this general point by presenting a particular critical realist take on entrepreneurial opportunities and our capacity to be ‘ready’ to pursue them. We draw attention to the under-theorised ‘entrepreneurial project’ as the means through which entrepreneurial opportunities are realised, and highlight how understanding the conditions that enable such projects to develop can form the basis of an applied theory of entrepreneurial opportunity development.