The role of intuition in entrepreneurship and business venturing decisions

Abstract

Entrepreneurial intuition is the affectively charged recognition and evaluation of a business venturing opportunity arising as a result of involuntary, rapid, non-conscious, associative processing. This article integrates theories of dual-processing and models of the business venturing (opportunity recognition, evaluation, and exploitation) in a model of entrepreneurial intuition, which links intuitive expertise, cognitive style, somatic state, and the affect heuristic with System 2 interventions and the contingencies of the decision environment. Six research propositions are offered with suggestions for how they can be tested. The theoretical and practical implications of entrepreneurial intuition are discussed in terms of the unfolding of a research agenda relating to this important but under-theorized and under-researched construct in work and organizational psychology.

Keywords:

• decision-making
• dual-process
• dual-system
• entrepreneurship
• intuition