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Entrepreneurship is a prominent area of inquiry which is enriched by an ample literature base and challenged by definitional deficiencies. Over the years, multiple perspectives of entrepreneurship have emerged and a holistic approach to entrepreneurship has been proposed. This can facilitate the continued enlargement of the entrepreneurship field and allow for interdisciplinary research within the African region. This chapter contributes to the literature on entrepreneurship in developing economies by providing an extensive review of the various approaches that entrepreneurship has been conceptualised. Nine themes are explored: the great person, economic perspective, psychological perspective, sociological perspective, behavioural perspective, management, intrapreneurship, cognitive perspective and leadership perspective. This is followed by an examination of entrepreneurship as a process, as a new venture creation and as an art of opportunity recognition and exploitation. In the last section of this chapter, a clarion call is made for more African scholarship and research in the field of entrepreneurship.

Decision-making biases play decisive roles not only in entrepreneurs’ decisions but also in the fate of entrepreneurial businesses. While the extant literature in this regard is relatively rich, it has predominantly focused on certain biases like overconfidence and overoptimism at the expense of other possibly influential biases, which could influence entrepreneurial decisions. Thus, to address this serious research gap, this paper aims to explore four of the less-researched biases of escalation of commitment, the illusion of control, confirmation and the belief in the law of small numbers in entrepreneurial decisions.

By taking a qualitative approach, the data for this study were collected through face-to-face interviews with 19 Iranian habitual (experienced) entrepreneurs running small businesses and analyzed by a qualitative thematic analysis.

According to the results, the environmental uncertainty, the reluctance to lose face and the experiences of previous failures contributed to the escalation of commitment, while disregard for external factors beyond one’s control caused the illusion of control, factors like prior successful businesses in the same sector, looking for resorts to manage uncertainty, along with the decision to exploit opportunities resulted in the confirmation bias, while the expenses of conducting sweeping pilot tests in the market and the reluctance to reveal a business secret to the competitors were the main contributors of the belief in the law of small numbers.

This study is a pioneer in scrutinizing four less-researched but important biases in entrepreneurs and, thus extending the line of research in this regard.

Confidence gives entrepreneurs the belief that they can exercise control and that they have the ability to ensure the success of a focal entrepreneurial endeavor. However, failure can rattle an entrepreneur's confidence causing them to question their belief and ability. This study investigates the link between confidence and entrepreneurial plan upon reentry after crowdfunding failure. Particularly, it examines whether more confident entrepreneurs who failed in their original crowdfunding endeavor persist or change their plan in terms of the positioning of the crowdfunding endeavor and the funding goal in the subsequent attempt.

Using a sample of 2179 serial crowdfunding entrepreneurs who initially experienced failure before launching a subsequent crowdfunding endeavor, this study explores and tests four hypotheses on the relationship between confidence and the change implemented by entrepreneurs in their subsequent crowdfunding endeavors after failure.

The results suggest that more confident entrepreneurs who experienced failure in their initial crowdfunding endeavor persist in their positioning when they attempt a subsequent endeavor. However, no strong relationship was observed between entrepreneurial confidence and persistence with the funding goal of the initial crowdfunding plan in the subsequent crowdfunding endeavor. The study also finds suggestive but inconclusive evidence that the level of negative performance in the failed crowdfunding endeavor moderates the relationship between the entrepreneur's confidence and change in crowdfunding positioning.

This study provides new insights into the effect of entrepreneurial confidence on crowdfunding endeavors after an initial failure. Prior research has focused on its effect in driving the performance of crowdfunding endeavors rather than on how it may affect the plan in terms of the positioning and funding goal enacted by the entrepreneur after experiencing failure.

There is growing interest in how hubris bias shapes managerial and entrepreneurial judgments and decisions and, in turn, firm strategy and performance. Based on a 44-years dataset of articles reaching the beginning of 2023, the authors offer a synthesis of hubris research published within business journals.

The authors implement a mixed-method approach offering a content representation of 600 peer-reviewed articles extracted from Scopus. The authors conduct a bibliometric investigation – employing Excel, VOSViewer and Biblioshiny software – and perform a qualitative review.

The analysis unveils four thematic clusters: hubris bias in financial policies (Cluster 1), hubris bias in restructuring deals (Cluster 2), hubris bias in entrepreneurial contexts (Cluster 3) and hubris bias in strategic decision-making (Cluster 4). Moreover, the authors infer that hubris research in business predominantly developed from three disciplinary perspectives – finance, entrepreneurship and strategic management – and progressed with limited interdisciplinary dialogue.

The authors call practitioners' attention to the impact of the hubris bias in forming financial, entrepreneurial and strategic choices. Managers get conscious of the risks of hubristic choices; hence, they implement organizational practices that move forward with unbiased (or less biased) judgments and decisions.

The authors offer an up-to-date and comprehensive view of hubris research in business. Furthermore, the authors provide an integrative framework and a research agenda.

Escalation of commitment is one of the most influential decision-making biases in entrepreneurs which may incur substantial losses and result in failure by making entrepreneurs allocate an increasing amount of resources to failing plans. Not only is escalation one of the less-researched biases in entrepreneurship but also most of the existing studies have been either limited to specific contexts or exclusively limited to men entrepreneurs. The purpose of this study is to explore the antecedents of escalation of commitment among a sample of Iranian women and men entrepreneurs to address these gaps.

By conducting a narrative inquiry, data were collected through semi-structured and in-depth interviews with nine women and 10 men Iranian entrepreneurs who were founder/owners of a small business and had introduced at least one product to the market.

According to the findings of this study, the fear of losing autonomy and fear of being blamed by one’s family were the main drivers of escalation of commitment among the women entrepreneurs, while overconfidence, sense of responsibility and hoping to gain more profits were the main antecedents of escalation among men entrepreneurs.

This study is a pioneer in studying the antecedents of the escalation of commitment among women and men entrepreneurs comparatively in the context of a developing country.

This study investigates the relationship between the Chief Executive Officer's (CEO) overconfidence and financial reporting complexity in Iran, a context characterized by weak corporate governance and heightened managerial discretion.

The sample consists of 1,445 firm-year observations from 2010 to 2021. CEO overconfidence (CEOOC) is evaluated using an investment-based index, specifically capital expenditures. Financial reporting complexity (Complexity) is measured through textual features, particularly three readability measures (Fog, SMOG and ARI) extracted from annual financial statements. The ordinary least squares (OLS) regression is employed to test the research hypothesis.

Results suggest that CEOOC is positively related to Complexity, leading to reduced readability. Additionally, robustness analyses demonstrate that the relationship between CEOOC and Complexity is more distinct and significant for firms with lower profitability than those with higher profitability. This implies that overconfident CEOs in underperforming firms tend to increase complexity. Also, firms with better financial performance present a more positive tone in their annual financial statements, reflecting their superior performance. The findings remain robust to alternative measures of CEOOC and Complexity and are consistent after accounting for endogeneity issues using firm fixed-effects, propensity score matching (PSM), entropy balancing approach and instrumental variables method.

This study adds to the literature by delving into the effect of CEOs' overconfidence on financial reporting complexity, a facet not thoroughly investigated in prior studies. The paper pioneers the use of textual analysis techniques on Persian texts, marking a unique approach in financial reporting and a first for the Persian language. However, due to the inherent challenges of text mining and feature extraction, the results should be approached with caution.

The insights from this study can guide investors in understanding the potential repercussions of CEOOC on financial reporting complexity. This will assist them in making informed investment decisions and monitoring the financial reporting practices of their invested companies. Policymakers and regulators can also reference this research when formulating policies to enhance financial reporting quality and ensure capital market transparency. The innovative application of textual analysis in this study might spur further research in other languages and contexts.

This research stands as the inaugural study to explore the relationship between CEOs' overconfidence and financial reporting complexity in both developed and developing capital markets. It thereby broadens the extant literature to include diverse capital market environments.

The study aims to establish and conceptualise entrepreneurial orientation (EO) as a key construct that positively influences small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) performance. In this paper, a conceptual framework was developed, and three research propositions were outlined: EO (innovativeness, proactiveness and risk-taking) positively influences SME performance; the economic stimulus packages moderate EO and the differentiation strategy; and the differentiation strategy mediates EO and SME performance. Each of the constructs was defined, and the conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia were identified.

The paper suggests links between EO and SME performance and the effects of economic stimulus packages and differentiation strategies on Malaysia’s service and manufacturing industry. These concepts lead to the development of propositions based on prior empirical studies underpinning the resource-based view theory and contingency approach. The propositions aim to develop further findings and test the hypotheses.

The study proposes three research propositions to conceptualise the relationship between the four main constructs. The study also recommends an empirical approach to conduct and test the research model concerning Malaysia’s service and manufacturing industry.

While studies on EO and SME performance have been conducted extensively, studies on the impact of various economic stimulus packages by the Malaysian government on the existing EO and SME performance relationship during the COVID-19 pandemic are limited. Separately, this study uses a configuration approach to test the mediator and moderator during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Decision-making competence (DMC) of entrepreneurs and managers is a longstanding topic in this increasingly globalized world. These figures operate in conditions not within their own control, and good levels of DMC are often considered to be desirable for the flourishing of business and society. This paper reports an empirical investigation on the DMC of entrepreneurs and managers, in an attempt to inform about their tendencies to incur in risky and costly choices.

Three cognitive biases associated with operational strategies and individual characteristics of entrepreneurs and managers, namely under/overconfidence (UOC, i.e. self-confidence in taking decisions), resistance to sunk costs (RSC, i.e. propensity to take cost investments) and consistency in risk perception (CRP, i.e. how well individuals understand probability rules) were considered . Cognitive biases measures were used in a cross-sectional study on a sample of n = 639 entrepreneurs and n = 512 managers. Data collected via online survey were analyzed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics to determine differences among entrepreneurs and managers DMC.

Analyses reveal that entrepreneurs exhibit higher levels of UOC compared to managers with a marked presence of UOC among entrepreneurs at younger ages. Conversely, performance regarding RSC improves with higher education levels while age and RSC are positively correlated only for managers, regardless of education. Lastly, entrepreneurs and managers resulted as not being affected by CRP. This study discusses these results to provide initial insights for further avenues of research and practice.

The study offers an innovative, evidence-based viewpoint on how entrepreneurs and managers deal with risky and costly decisions. It offers an initial understanding of the role of UOC, RSC and CRP, that is specific cognitive biases associated with operational strategies and individual characteristics, in the DMC of these working figures. The study forwards avenues of scrutiny of quick-witted entrepreneurs and systematic managers.

This article aims to systematically review the literature published in recognized journals focused on cognitive heuristic-driven biases and their effect on investment management activities and market efficiency. It also includes some of the research work on the origins and foundations of behavioral finance, and how this has grown substantially to become an established and particular subject of study in its own right. The study also aims to provide future direction to the researchers working in this field.

For doing research synthesis, a systematic literature review (SLR) approach was applied considering research studies published within the time period, i.e. 1970–2021. This study attempted to accomplish a critical review of 176 studies out of 256 studies identified, which were published in reputable journals to synthesize the existing literature in the behavioral finance domain-related explicitly to cognitive heuristic-driven biases and their effect on investment management activities and market efficiency as well as on the origins and foundations of behavioral finance.

This review reveals that investors often use cognitive heuristics to reduce the risk of losses in uncertain situations, but that leads to errors in judgment; as a result, investors make irrational decisions, which may cause the market to overreact or underreact – in both situations, the market becomes inefficient. Overall, the literature demonstrates that there is currently no consensus on the usefulness of cognitive heuristics in the context of investment management activities and market efficiency. Therefore, a lack of consensus about this topic suggests that further studies may bring relevant contributions to the literature. Based on the gaps analysis, three major categories of gaps, namely theoretical and methodological gaps, and contextual gaps, are found, where research is needed.

The skillful understanding and knowledge of the cognitive heuristic-driven biases will help the investors, financial institutions and policymakers to overcome the adverse effect of these behavioral biases in the stock market. This article provides a detailed explanation of cognitive heuristic-driven biases and their influence on investment management activities and market efficiency, which could be very useful for finance practitioners, such as an investor who plays at the stock exchange, a portfolio manager, a financial strategist/advisor in an investment firm, a financial planner, an investment banker, a trader/broker at the stock exchange or a financial analyst. But most importantly, the term also includes all those persons who manage corporate entities and are responsible for making their financial management strategies.

Currently, no recent study exists, which reviews and evaluates the empirical research on cognitive heuristic-driven biases displayed by investors. The current study is original in discussing the role of cognitive heuristic-driven biases in investment management activities and market efficiency as well as the history and foundations of behavioral finance by means of research synthesis. This paper is useful to researchers, academicians, policymakers and those working in the area of behavioral finance in understanding the role that cognitive heuristic plays in investment management activities and market efficiency.

Leveraging the boom of a craft beer renaissance, this paper explores social capital theory through the impact of the craft brewing industry. The exploration addresses entrepreneurial micro-ecosystems that share one commonality – the need for community development and revitalization. North Carolina's deregulation of craft brewing (Pop-the-Cap Initiative, 2005) led to a boom of brewery startups, from 54 in 2010 to more than 380 in 2022.

This qualitative study focuses on 15 brewery founders who have launched ventures within a few years of the Pop-the-Cap Initiative. This included 15% of those breweries launched between 2012 and 2017. Naturalistic Inquiry methodology was utilized, and semi-structured interviews, observations, and artifact analyses were applied to each participant via content analysis and NVivo.

Framed by two contributing entrepreneurial mindset factors (anti-establishment mindset and business-person's burden mindset) and three external entrepreneurial micro-ecosystems conditions (community conditions, doom and boom conditions, and economic conditions), these emergent themes represent the ecosystem contributors (mindsets/conditions) associated with startup success and social value creation in rural and downtrodden urban areas.

This study facilitated a deep dive into two evolving entrepreneurial micro-ecosystems (rural/urban) through the perspective of brewery startups. It illuminated the actors, conditions, and domains in play. Conceptualizations of “nestedness” (Spigel, 2022) with “microfoundations” (Wurth et al., 2022) integrated to see a specific sector (craft brewing) developing within a sub-ecosystem's capacity to help frame and “understand the co-evolution of agents with entrepreneurial ecosystems” (Cho et al., 2022). Additionally, antecedents to the birth of local economies suggest the value of agents involved in evolution of nascent local economies (Cho et al., 2022). These findings reinforce developing literature while presenting opportunities for future studies.

Craft breweries in rural and urban environments represent third places within communities. Third places can be recognized as conduits for developing social capital among individuals, groups, and firms. High levels of social capital positively impact communities. These conditions helped anchor tenants thrive and did not occur accidently. They are intentional value propositions of entrepreneurs and ecosystem conditions.

Brewery entrepreneurs were aware of their contribution to social capital value, economic impact (e.g., tax revenue, jobs, space, attraction/destination, etc.), and how these facets interplay as revitalizing anchor tenants (i.e., craft breweries). Insight into how entrepreneurs come to understand and recognize their impact on community through social capital development and the economy can aid in further support ecosystems at the community level.