"Thinking About Entrepreneurial Decision Making: Review, Integration, and Research Agenda"

Abstract

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 organizational behavior, psychology, and marketing, this is the first review in 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—and the large number of studies in the literature (e.g., 603 papers in our initial screen and 189 papers in a refined search). In this review we (1) inductively categorize studies based on entrepreneurial decision making contexts— careers, corporate entrepreneurship, decision makers’ characteristics, exit, mode of organizing, new venture creation, opportunity identification, planning and venture financing; (2) analyze each context using a general decision making framework; (3) review and integrate studies within and across decision making contexts; 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.