The debate over opportunity recognition was summarised by Gartner et al (2003), who compared the economic perspective, in which opportunities are held to exist objectively and be discovered, with Weick's (1979) enaction theory in which individuals make sense of their world through scanning, interpretation and action. They termed this the enact¬ment perspective: 'opportunities would be the result of what individuals do, rather than ... of what they see.' This reinforces the importance of individual prior knowledge and experience, and the contribution this makes to the ability to recognise opportunities.