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The Role of Heuristics and Biases in Entrepreneurial Decision-making When Creativity is a Necessity

Sid Hanna Saleh
Richard A. Hunt

The Entrepreneurial Behaviour: Unveiling the cognitive and emotional aspect of entrepreneurship

ISBN: 978-1-78973-508-6, eISBN: 978-1-78973-507-9

Publication date: 28 August 2020

Abstract

When entrepreneurs create new ventures, they struggle with making consequential decisions under severe restrictions such as tight deadlines, limited resources, and lack of information. Making challenging decisions inherently requires creativity as entrepreneurs improvise and work around the limitations they face. Under these conditions, entrepreneurs resort to their heuristics and biases instead of rational decision models. Entrepreneurs employ – sometimes for better and sometimes for worse – a myriad of rule-setting heuristics and experience-based biases to navigate the difficult path between novelty and utility. In this chapter, the authors answer Shepherd, Williams, and Patzelt’s (2015) call for research into how entrepreneurs leverage heuristics and biases in decision-making and the benefits they gain as a result. The authors explore how entrepreneurs introduce heuristics and biases at different stages of their decision-making process using a qualitative study of 21 new ventures. The results attest to entrepreneurs’ ingenuity and creativity in managing complexity, ambiguity, and uncertainty.

Keywords

  • Decision-making
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Creativity
  • Choice
  • Heuristics
  • Biases

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgments

The first author extends his gratitude to an anonymous reviewer who provided constructive and helpful comments. We also thank Maw Der Foo, Nanyang Technological University and David Hekman, University of Colorado Boulder for their invaluable support and guidance.

Citation

Saleh, S.H. and Hunt, R.A. (2020), "The Role of Heuristics and Biases in Entrepreneurial Decision-making When Creativity is a Necessity", Caputo, A. and Pellegrini, M.M. (Ed.) The Entrepreneurial Behaviour: Unveiling the cognitive and emotional aspect of entrepreneurship (Entrepreneurial Behaviour Series), Emerald Publishing Limited, pp. 191-212. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78973-507-920201013

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Copyright © 2020 Emerald Publishing Limited

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