Although imagination has been recognized as essential to entrepreneuring, the processes by which entrepreneurs imagine and generate novelty remain insufficiently understood. To begin addressing this oversight, we propose a rhizomatic process model of entrepreneurial imagining that comprises five elements: experiencing, early creating, reaching an impasse and gestating, (re)creating and evaluating imagined futures, and choosing and enterprising. To generate this dynamic process model, we undertook an abductive, 25-month case study, guided by enactive research, to investigate how a small team of arts entrepreneurs created the world’s largest traveling carillon. Our primary contribution is to offer new theoretical insights into entrepreneurial imagining as a complex, situated, relational performance that unfolds through conscious and unconscious, self-reflective and embodied processes.

尽管想象力已被公认为创业必不可少的要素，但创业者想象和产生新奇事物的过程仍未得到充分理解。为了开始解决这种疏忽，我们提出了一个创业想象的根茎过程模型，它包括五个要素：体验、早期创造、陷入僵局和孕育、（重新）创造和评估想象的未来，以及选择和进取。为了生成这个动态过程模型，我们在积极研究的指导下进行了一项为期 25 个月的案例研究，以调查一小群艺术企业家如何创造世界上最大的旅行钟琴。我们的主要贡献是为创业想象提供新的理论见解，它是一种通过有意识和无意识展开的复杂的、情境化的、相关的表现，