Opportunities for disruption

•We examine the nature of opportunity generation in disruptive innovations (DIs).•We reviewed theories of entrepreneurial opportunity, and opportunity discovery/creation.•We provide cases that illustrate how entrepreneurs have undertaken DIs for low-end and new markets.•We found that opportunity creation is critical for new market DIs while opportunity discovery is crucial for low-end DIs.

In view of the importance of Disruptive Innovations (DIs) in both emerging and advanced economies, a better understanding of how to cultivate opportunities for DIs is called for. We provide case study exemplars that illustrate how entrepreneurs have deliberately undertaken DIs for customers of low-end and new markets. Our findings show how the entrepreneurial opportunities embedded in these DIs are purposefully discovered and created. By extending research on the generation of entrepreneurial opportunities into the arena of disruptive innovations, the paper aims to contribute to understanding of both DI and the nature of opportunity generation and to provide a basis for guidance to practitioners.