  Growing network models can potentially be a useful tool in the development of
economic theory. This work introduces an "opportunistic attachment" mechanism
where incoming nodes, in deciding where to join a network, consider features of
the entry points available to them. For example, an entrepreneur looking to
start a thriving business might consider the expected revenue of many
hypothetical businesses. This mechanism is explored, in isolation, via a
minimal model where PageRank serves to score the available opportunities.
Despite its simplicity, this model gives rise to rich node dynamics,
path-dependence, and an unexpected degenerate structure. We go on to argue that
this model might be useful to theoretical development as a maximally stylised
model of entrepreneurial growth. Central to the argument is an alternative set
of microfoundations introduced in Leontief & Brody (1993) whereby the steady
state of a random walk is a notion of economic equilibrium. To the extent this
argument holds, our findings suggest that entrepreneurs face a shifting
"opportunity space" where the number of potential business opportunities is
effectively unbounded. Opportunistic attachment is thus a candidate mechanism
for relating the structure of an economic system to its future growth.
