Abstract
Opportunity recognition is one of the first steps to start a sustainable business. Interestingly, there has been a huge debate regarding the definition of this concept as well as how sustainable entrepreneurs recognise opportunities. This chapter gives a focused overview of the concept of opportunity recognition. We first provide a historical description, summarising how the concept evolved over the years. We follow by discussing how the process of opportunity recognition for sustainable entrepreneurship is different from opportunity recognition in conventional entrepreneurship. We finalise the chapter with a new typology of opportunity recognition in sustainable entrepreneurship, where the different types of opportunities that have been discussed are mapped as problem or solution-led opportunities. As such, the chapter introduces a novel tool to help aspiring entrepreneurs with identifying what type of opportunity is best fitting their sustainability endeavours, depending on their focus.