Most common heuristics and biases in nascent entrepreneurs’ marketing behavior

Abstract

This paper concerns heuristics and biases in entrepreneurs’ marketing behavior. Heuristics and biases play exceptionally vital roles in various entrepreneurs’ decisions. On the other hand, entrepreneurs’ marketing behavior is a very important entrepreneurial characteristic, especially in small businesses. We argue that previous research has mostly ignored the crucial roles of heuristics and biases in entrepreneurial marketing. In order to address this serious research gap, we took a qualitative approach to identify the most common heuristics and biases in entrepreneurs’ marketing behavior. We gathered data by conducting semi-structured interviews with 15 nascent Iranian entrepreneurs active in different sectors of biotechnology. The gathered data were analyzed by thematic analysis. Our findings indicate that certain heuristics and biases influence the nascent entrepreneurs’ marketing behavior significantly. The main results show that overconfidence, escalation of commitment and illusion of control are the most common biases, and affect and representativeness are the most common heuristics in entrepreneurs’ marketing behavior. We strongly suggest that the focus in the future should be on studying the outcomes of the heuristics and biases of entrepreneurs’ marketing behavior identified in this paper. Also, various contextual factors should be considered in studying entrepreneurial heuristics and biases.