TY - JOUR
T1 - Thinking About Entrepreneurial Decision Making
T2 - Review and Research Agenda
AU - Shepherd, Dean A.
AU - Williams, Trenton A.
AU - Patzelt, Holger
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2014.
PY - 2015/1/19
Y1 - 2015/1/19
N2 - Judgment and decision-making research has a long tradition in management and represents a substantial stream of research in entrepreneurship. Despite numerous reviews of this topic in the organizational behavior, psychology, and marketing fields, this is the first review in the field of entrepreneurship. This absence of a review of entrepreneurial decision making is surprising given the extreme decision-making context faced by many entrepreneurs—such as high uncertainty, time pressure, emotionally charged, and consequential extremes—and the large number of studies in the literature (e.g., 602 articles in our initial screen and 156 articles in a refined search). In this review, we (1) inductively categorize the articles into decision-making topics arranged along the primary activities associated with entrepreneurship—opportunity assessment decisions, entrepreneurial entry decisions, decisions about exploiting opportunities, entrepreneurial exit decisions, heuristics and biases in the decision-making context, characteristics of the entrepreneurial decision maker, and environment as decision context; (2) analyze each context using a general decision-making framework; (3) review and integrate studies within and across decision-making activities; and (4) offer a comprehensive agenda for future research. We believe (hope) that this proposed review, integration, and research agenda will make a valuable contribution to management scholars interested in decision making and/or entrepreneurship.
AB - Judgment and decision-making research has a long tradition in management and represents a substantial stream of research in entrepreneurship. Despite numerous reviews of this topic in the organizational behavior, psychology, and marketing fields, this is the first review in the field of entrepreneurship. This absence of a review of entrepreneurial decision making is surprising given the extreme decision-making context faced by many entrepreneurs—such as high uncertainty, time pressure, emotionally charged, and consequential extremes—and the large number of studies in the literature (e.g., 602 articles in our initial screen and 156 articles in a refined search). In this review, we (1) inductively categorize the articles into decision-making topics arranged along the primary activities associated with entrepreneurship—opportunity assessment decisions, entrepreneurial entry decisions, decisions about exploiting opportunities, entrepreneurial exit decisions, heuristics and biases in the decision-making context, characteristics of the entrepreneurial decision maker, and environment as decision context; (2) analyze each context using a general decision-making framework; (3) review and integrate studies within and across decision-making activities; and (4) offer a comprehensive agenda for future research. We believe (hope) that this proposed review, integration, and research agenda will make a valuable contribution to management scholars interested in decision making and/or entrepreneurship.
KW - decisions under risk/uncertainty
KW - entrepreneurship
KW - literature review
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84918827877&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1177/0149206314541153
DO - 10.1177/0149206314541153
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84918827877
SN - 0149-2063
VL - 41
SP - 11
EP - 46
JO - Journal of Management
JF - Journal of Management
IS - 1
ER -