Entrepreneurship Research on Intuition: A Critical Analysis and Research Agenda

Abstract

This is the accepted version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Intuition is a way of processing information that is largely unconscious, associative, fast, and contextually dependent. As part of the growing cognition-oriented research agenda in the entrepreneurship field, the specific cognitive construct of intuition has attracted relatively little attention. We find this position surprising, particularly since some entrepreneurship scholars have described intuition as the seed of entrepreneurial activity. In this review, we examine the small but rapidly growing literature at the intersection of intuition and entrepreneurship. In critically analyzing this body of work, we reveal a number of areas that warrant further attention if scholars wish to enhance academic understanding of the role of intuition in the entrepreneurial process. From our review, we develop an agenda to help guide scholars of entrepreneurial cognition with a specific interest in intuition in their future research. In doing so, we address a gap in the entrepreneurial cognition literature which currently lacks a clear view of the value of entrepreneurship research on intuition and of how it should be conducted. Permanent repository link3 Entrepreneurship Research on Intuition: A Critical Analysis and Research AgendaIntuitions are "affectively charged judgments that arise through rapid, non-conscious, and holistic associations" (Dane and Pratt, 2007, p. 40). Although some scholars claim that intuition is "the seed of any entrepreneurial action" (Dutta and Crossan, 2005, p. 436), there has been limited attention devoted to studying the role of intuition in the entrepreneurial process. This might be partly due to the non-conscious nature of intuition, which makes it difficult for entrepreneurs to reliably report their use of intuition. As Blume and Covin (2011) remarked, "if intuition is appropriately conceived of as a subconscious reasoning process, how can we consciously 'know' that intuition was involved as a decision driver?" (p. 139).Despite its somewhat elusive nature, intuition has captured the interest of a growing number of scholars. Our systematic review of the literature revealed 25 publications related to entrepreneurs' use of intuition, half of which were published since 2008. This is indicative of a promising and emerging research area. However prior reviews and our own analyses revealed that entrepreneurship research on intuition is not located in one single field of research, but is fragmented across entrepreneurship, general management, organization studies and psychology journals. Furthermore, scholars have explored a large number of research questions, relied on contradictory theories of information processing (i.e., unitary versus dual-process views), and deployed a wide range of techniques to measure intuition (e.g., preference for intuition versus actual use of intuition). The dispersion of publications in cognate yet distinct fields, together with the diversity of resea...

Intuitive decision-making and deep level diversity in entrepreneurial ICT teams

“…Thirdly, our findings respond to calls for an overdue examination of how intuitive decision-making is manifested in entrepreneurial outcomes (Baldacchino et al, 2015) Our study finds strong support for the influence of all three forms of intuition based diversity on entrepreneurial outcomes. More importantly, the model developed offers significant evidence of the positive influence of a TMS on entrepreneurial team performance when that TMS is based on affective-and inferential-intuitive decision styles.…”

“…Intuition based decision-making is of particular relevance to the entrepreneurial setting for two key reasons. The first is that task uncertainty, such as that involved in the development of a new product or service (Baldacchino et al, 2015;Gustafsson, 2006), and the second is the typical inexperience with either a given role or environment that accompanies entrepreneurial endeavour (Baron & ensley, 2006;Dew, read, Sarasvathy, & Wiltbank, 2009). Indeed, the entrepreneurial setting describes at least 8 of the 10 conditions Klein (2008) refers to as features of a naturalistic decision-making environment.…”

“…We firstly highlight the rising interest in intuitive decision-making in contemporary scholarship and point to the neglected area of intuition based decision style diversity and its potential implications for team performance (Baldacchino, Ucbasaran, Cabantous, & Lockett, 2015;Kickul, Gundry, Barbosa, & Whitcanack, 2009). We then turn to the issue of deep-level diversity and the need to develop more nuanced and empirically grounded explanatory frameworks which consider the two-way effects of cognitive diversity in decision-making teams in general, and of intuitive decision styles in particular (Klein, Knight, Ziegert, Lim, & Saltz, 2011;Pretz et al, 2014).…”

How Do Regulations Affect SMEs? A Review of the Qualitative Evidence and a Research Agenda

“…However, we acknowledge the criticisms associated with journal lists, for instance, the narrowing effects they can produce in terms of subjects and approaches (Mingers and Willmott 2013;Tourish and Willmott 2015;Willmott 2011). Nevertheless, as one indicator of quality it provides a valuable focus for the purposes of our review (Adams et al 2016;Baldacchino et al 2015). We also extended the scope of our review by utilizing a narrative check (discussed below) to address these limitations.…”

Identity work in female‐led creative businesses

“…Gut feeling and intuition are often used interchangeably although the generally accepted definition is that gut feeling is the action taken through intuitive decision‐making (Agor, ; Hayashi, ). Further, intuition is defined as a ‘source of knowledge distinct from a more logical, analytical or rational mode of reasoning' (Baldacchino, Ucbasaran, Cabantous, & Lockett, , p. 216) requiring, ‘immediate apprehension in the absence of reasoning' (Evans, , p. 313). Intuition is knowing without necessarily knowing why (Khatri & Ng, ) and with seeing coherence in complex information (Betsch & Glöckner, ; Huang & Pearce, ).…”