Abstract
While virtues are heralded as being fundamental for business conduct in the classic social science literature, contemporary literature in management and entrepreneurship has little to say about what types of virtues may be related to entrepreneurship as well as the potential implications such virtues have for business practice. Drawing on and McCloskey’s theory of bourgeois virtues, this paper explores the importance of virtues in entrepreneurial practice by investigating the decision-making strategies used by expert entrepreneurs. Findings from protocol analysis suggest that several “bundles” of virtues are intimately related to entrepreneurs’ decision making, leading to a set of rule-based versus rational decision heuristics. Such heuristics could explain why entrepreneurs forego business opportunities sometimes but plunge into seemingly risky ventures other times, suggesting an explanation for entrepreneurial decision making that complements predominant socio-cognitive and economic explanations.
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