W.O. Carpenter and the California Gold Rush: the making of entrepreneurial opportunities

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to trace the entrepreneurial opportunity identification process of William Oscar Carpenter (WOC), a nineteenth century farmer, who went to California in 1850 to make his fortune in gold mining and ended up starting several new business ventures. The paper seeks to recount WOC's experiences and then apply them to similar issues faced by entrepreneurs in a modern‐day developing economy.Design/methodology/approachUsing qualitative inquiry through archival research, the paper examines a compilation of WOC's letters to his future wife in New York. The letters provide a detailed account of the hardships and poor living conditions faced by gold seekers. The letters are examined and interpreted in the context of opportunity identification and the California Gold Rush, then applied to contemporary entrepreneurs.FindingsWOC's letters elucidate the difficulties encountered making the trip from the East Coast to California, give later generations an historical viewpoint on a variety of social issues, and detail WOC's entrepreneurial activities in California. After a brief period as a successful miner, WOC's business career developed and branched out in different directions as he perceived entrepreneurial opportunities associated with the California Gold Rush. His story is an excellent example of opportunity recognition that has implications for current entrepreneurial activity.Originality/valueWOC's awareness, anticipation, and timely action regarding business opportunity can be related, compared and contrasted with entrepreneurial activity today. The paper discusses these implications in light of opportunity recognition research and developing entrepreneurial economies.

The personality of American Nations: An exploratory study

“…This can be expected to serve as an attractor for the minority gender and as a self-correcting mechanism driving gender balance. So cial influences might also reinforce within-region diversity rather than similarity, as was the case for many of the '49ers' who migrated to California during the Gold Rush and arrived as miners, but resourcefully found success as entrepreneurs (e.g., Fleischman et al, 2008). In these and other cases, both migration to and adaptation within cultures may favor those who differ, indicating selection for complementarity rather than similarity (Maynard Smith, 1974).…”

Learning from the past to envision the future: a five-year review 2005-2009

“…He recognized entrepreneurial opportunities and started offering goods to miners, joining with partners to start a foundry, moving to Wisconsin to start a lumber and other businesses and investing in a bank start-up. A major limitation to this case study is that of interpretive bias as the letters were transcribed and commented on by Carpenter's son years after the time in which events occurred (Fleischman et al, 2008). Pan American Airways' dominance in international travel was attributable to their social construction of a foreign threat in South America in the guarded environment of World War II.…”