Entrepreneurial Decision-making : Individuals, Tasks and Cognitions

Abstract: The aim of the present study is to gain a deeper understanding of decision-making of individuals involved in the entrepreneurial process. It is achieved by comparing entrepreneurs with different level of expertise in contexts that are more or less entrepreneurship-inducing. The issues of learning and expertise – investigation of what entrepreneurial knowledge is and how it is applied – are also addressed.This is an attempt of a multidisciplinary study based on entrepreneurship theory and empirical research as well as cognitive psychology. The cognitive perspective provides a link between the entrepreneur and the new venture creation through focusing not on the personality traits, but on an individual’s cognitive behaviour.The study’s contributions to the field of entrepreneurship are as follows: Expert entrepreneurs do recognise the cognitive nature of the decision task and are able, to a high extent, to match their decision-making techniques with the nature of the task. It means that the entrepreneurial decision-making is not an inborn aptitude but a skill, which is expressed through the adaptable behaviour of experts. Novice entrepreneurs, however, do not possess this ability, even though they might acquire it in the course of their business lives.Thus, one of the most important implications of the study is the idea that adequate decision behaviour in entrepreneurial context can be taught and learned. To provide optimal methods of learning is a challenge faced by entrepreneurship education.