I explore and review the introduction of real options in strategic management studies. My aim is to contribute to a better understanding of the origin of the real options. By distinguishing between shadow and real options and implementing entrepreneurship in the traditional option valuation framework, I obtain a more exhaustive representation of the strategic decision processes in the firm. I explain the creation of a real option as an entrepreneurial process, one which transforms inventive ideas into profitable innovation. This constitutes a step toward an option-based theory of the firm by describing the emergence of a firm’s options and the strategic building of new competencies for exercising these options. In addition, this approach offers a parallel understanding of why the real options theory is less often used in practice than in theory.