Abstract
This conceptual paper advances the design perspective on entrepreneurship by providing theoretical clarification of opportunity artefact typologies and their relationship to entrepreneurial action and learning. Building on artefact-centred design entrepreneurship, the paper conceptualises opportunity as an artificial object that mediates the relationship between the entrepreneur and the external environment. It distinguishes three analytically distinct yet interrelated forms of opportunity artefacts — abstract, material, and narrative — and explains how they emerge through iterative venturing activities of framing, modelling, and performing.
While prior research has examined entrepreneurial action and entrepreneurship education separately, limited work has explained how artefact-based venture design processes are operationalised pedagogically. To address this gap, the paper integrates venturing activities with established pedagogical and epistemic learning perspectives. Specifically, it synthesises QAA’s learning about, for, and through entrepreneurship, Dimov and Pistrui’s first-, second-, and third-person learning perspectives, and Mansoori and Dimov’s venturing space framework.
The paper introduces the Learning–Venturing Space framework, a conceptual model that aligns entrepreneurial action with learning processes in flexible education environments. This integration provides a theoretical mechanism explaining how learners progress from conceptual understanding to artefact design and experiential enactment.
By clarifying opportunity artefact typologies, linking artefact emergence to design-based venturing activity, and integrating pedagogical and action-based perspectives, the study contributes to design entrepreneurship theory and offers a conceptual foundation for structuring entrepreneurship education around artefact-mediated venture creation.