1. ¹University of Connecticut School of Business, Storrs, CT, USA
2. ²University of Connecticut School of Business and EM Lyon, Storrs, CT, USA

Correspondence: T Baker, University of Connecticut School of Business, 2100 Hillside Road, Storrs, CT 06269, USA. Tel: +1 860 408 1567; Fax: +1 860 408 1567; E-mail: baker.ted@comcast.net

Received 20 May 2003; Revised 17 December 2004; Accepted 24 January 2005; Published online 2 June 2005.

Abstract

Shane and Venkataraman's Discovery, Evaluation and Exploitation entrepreneurship framework ignores issues central to comparative international entrepreneurship (IE) because of unnecessarily under-socialized assumptions regarding entrepreneurial opportunities and the individuals who discover them. To better promote comparative IE research, we develop a Comparative Discovery, Evaluation and Exploitation framework (CDEE), which takes as a starting point that individuals motivated by diverse goals enact market opportunities in a variety of social settings. Building on this characterization, the paper explores how and why processes of opportunity discovery, evaluation and exploitation vary across and within nations, as well as the implications of these differences.