Entrepreneurial Opportunity Development in Online Communities

In recent years, scholars have argued that entrepreneurs develop opportunities through social engagement in communities of peers. These entrepreneurial communities of peers, so-called communities of inquiry, are moving from the physical to the virtual realm as digital technologies proliferate society and entrepreneurial processes. However, little is known about how entrepreneurs partake in online communities and how these communities may affect opportunity development. To improve knowledge on this matter, I analyzed data from four entrepreneurial online communities on Reddit. I find that online communities may support opportunity development by A) providing information about the market and feedback on entrepreneurs’ ideas, B) providing advice and emotional support to entrepreneurs dealing with issues in their ventures, C) and by providing vicarious learning from others’ experiences. The paper contributes to the nascent stream on the social aspects of opportunity development and to the growing interest in digital entrepreneurship by unpacking how online communities support opportunity development in different ways, as well as outlining the limitations of online communities as digital tools for entrepreneurs.