Opportunity Discovery and Creation in Cloud Computing

Cloud computing provides opportunities for firms selling or using cloud services. However, little is known about how entrepreneurs discover or create these opportunities for cloud computing. In this study, we found that the opportunities discovered in cloud computing were related to the development of software for a particular need. By contrast, created opportunities were developed under conditions of technological uncertainty, at a time when the market did not yet exist. It appears that created opportunities, if successful, bring long-term competitive advantages, whereas discovered opportunities are more easily copied and exploited by competitors. peerReviewed