Abstract
Scholars have examined various aspects of the entrepreneurial mindset, which have provided insights into its attributes, qualities, and operations. However, the different perspectives have led to a diverse array of definitions. With the array of differing definitions, there arises the need to better understand the concept of an entrepreneurial mindset. Therefore, the question remains as to what exactly is the entrepreneurial mindset and how do people tap into it. In examining the literature, we find that three distinct aspects have arisen through the years: the entrepreneurial cognitive aspect—how entrepreneurs use mental models to think; the entrepreneurial behavioral aspect—how entrepreneurs engage or act for opportunities; and the entrepreneurial emotional aspects—what entrepreneurs feel in entrepreneurship. Using those as a basis for our work, we unravel the entrepreneurial mindset by examining deeper into the perspectives and discuss the challenges for implementing it.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Afzalur, R. (1996). Stress, strain, and their moderators: An empirical comparison of entrepreneurs and managers. Journal of Small Business Management, 34(1), 46–58.
Alvarez, S. A., & Barney, J. B. (2007). Discovery and creation: Alternative theories of entrepreneurial action. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 1(1–2), 11–26.
Alvarez, S. A., Barney, J. B., & Anderson, P. (2013). Forming and exploiting opportunities: The implications of discovery and creation processes for entrepreneurial and organizational research. Organization Science, 24(1), 301–317.
Alvarez, S. A., Young, S. L., & Wooley, J. L. (2015). Opportunities and institutions: A co-creation story of the king crab industry. Journal of Business Venturing, 30(1), 95–112.
Audretsch, D. B. (1995). Innovation, growth and survival. International Journal of Industrial Organization, 13(4), 441–457.
Audretsch, D. B., Kuratko, D. F., & Link, A. N. (2015). Making sense of the elusive paradigm of entrepreneurship. Small Business Economics, 45(4), 703–712.
Baron, R. (1998). Cognitive mechanisms in entrepreneurship: Why and when entrepreneurs think differently than other people. Journal of Business Venturing, 13(4), 275–295.
Baron, R. (2004). The cognitive perspective: A valuable tool for answering entrepreneurship's basic “why” questions. Journal of Business Venturing, 19(2), 221–239.
Baumol, W. J. (2002). The free-market innovation machine. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Beaver, G., & Jennings, P. (2005). Competitive advantage and entrepreneurial power: The dark side of entrepreneurship. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, 12(1), 9–23.
Bennett, D. L. (2020). Local institutional heterogeneity & firm dynamism: Decomposing the metropolitan economic freedom index. Small Business Economics, (In press). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-020-00322-2.
Berglund, H. (2007). Entrepreneurship and phenomenology. In J. Ulhoi & H. Neergaard (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research methods in entrepreneurship (pp. 75–96). London: Edward Elgar.
Bird, B., & Schjoedt, L. (2009). Entrepreneurial behavior: Its nature, scope, recent research, and agenda for future research. In Understanding the entrepreneurial mind (pp. 327–358). Springer, New York.
Boyd, D. P., & Gumpert, D. E. (1983). Coping with entrepreneurial stress. Harvard Business Review, 61(2), 46–56.
Caggese, A. (2012). Entrepreneurial risk, investment, and innovation. Journal of Financial Economics, 106(2), 287–307.
Caliendo, M., Fossen, F. M., & Kritikos, A. S. (2009). Risk attitudes of nascent entrepreneurs–new evidence from an experimentally validated survey. Small Business Economics, 32(2), 153–167.
Caliendo, M., Fossen, F. M., & Kritikos, A. S. (2010). The impact of risk attitudes on entrepreneurial survival. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 76(1), 45–63.
Cardon, M. S., Wincent, J., Singh, J., & Drnovsek, M. (2009). The nature and experience of entrepreneurial passion. Academy of Management Review, 34(3), 511–532.
Cardon, M. S., Foo, M. D., Shepherd, D., & Wiklund, J. (2012). Exploring the heart: Entrepreneurial emotion is a hot topic. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 36(1), 1–10.
Carland, J. C., & Carland, J. W. (1992). Managers, small business owners, entrepreneurs: The cognitive dimensions. Journal of Business & Entrepreneurship, 4(2), 55–66.
Cohen-Kdoshay, O., & Meiran, N. (2007). The representation of instructions in working memory leads to autonomous response activation: Evidence from the first trials in the flanker paradigm. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 60(8), 1140–1154.
Cole, N. (2017). 7 powerful emotions that all entrepreneurs feel. Inc.com. https://www.inc.com/nicolas-cole/7-powerful-emotions-all-entrepreneurs-feel.html Accessed 16 Apr 2020.
Davidsson, P. (2004). A general theory of entrepreneurship: The individual-opportunity nexus. International Small Business Journal, 22(2), 206–219.
Davis, M. H., Hall, J. A., & Mayer, P. S. (2016). Developing a new measure of entrepreneurial mindset: Reliability, validity, and implications for practitioners. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 68(1), 21–48.
De Cock, R., Denoo, L., & Clarysse, B. (2020). Surviving the emotional rollercoaster called entrepreneurship: The role of emotion regulation. Journal of Business Venturing, 35(2), 105936.
deMol, E., Ho, V. T., & Pollack, J. M. (2018). Predicting entrepreneurial burnout in a moderated mediated model of job fit. Journal of Small Business Management, 56(3), 392–411.
Donne, J. (1624). No man is an island. Meditation 17; Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, https://web.cs.dal.ca/~johnston/poetry/island.html Accessed 26, Apr 2020.
Dweck, C. S., & Leggett, E. L. (1988). A social-cognitive approach to motivation and personality. Psychological Review, 95(2), 256.
Estes, W. K. (1975). Handbook of learning and cognitive processes (Vol. 1). Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Fisher, G., Stevenson, R., Burnell, D., Neubert, E., & Kuratko, D.F. (2020). Entrepreneurial hustle: Navigating uncertainty and enrolling venture stakeholders through urgent and unorthodox actions. Journal of Management Studies, Forthcoming.
Fiske, S. T., & Taylor, S. E. (1991). McGraw-Hill series in social psychology. Social cognition (2nd ed.). McGraw-Hill Book Company.
Flavell, J. (1979). Metacognition and cognitive monitoring: A new area of cognitive-developmental inquiry. American Psychologist, 34(10), 906–911.
Fodor, O. C., & Pintea, S. (2017). The “emotional side” of entrepreneurship: A meta-analysis of the relation between positive and negative affect and entrepreneurial performance. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 310.
Garud, R., Kumaraswamy, A., & Karnøe, P. (2010). Path dependence or path creation? Journal of Management Studies, 47(4), 760–774.
Giménez Roche, G. A., & Calcei, D. (2020). The role of demand routines in entrepreneurial judgment. Small Business Economics, (In press). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-019-00213-1.
Goldsby, M. G., Kuratko, D. F., & Bishop, J. W. (2005). Entrepreneurship and fitness: An examination of rigorous exercise and goal attainment among small business owners. Journal of Small Business Management, 43(1), 78–92.
Grégoire, D. A., Corbett, A. C., & McMullen, J. S. (2011). The cognitive perspective in entrepreneurship: An agenda for future research. Journal of Management Studies, 48(6), 1443–1477.
Gruber, M., MacMillan, I. C., & Thompson, J. D. (2013). Escaping the prior knowledge corridor: What shapes the number and variety of market opportunities identified before market entry of technology start-ups? Organization Science, 24(1), 280–300.
Hafer, R. W., & Jones, G. (2015). Are entrepreneurship and cognitive skills related? Some international evidence. Small Business Economics, 44(2), 283–298.
Haynes, K. T., Hitt, M. A., & Campbell, J. T. (2015). The dark side of leadership: Towards a mid-range theory of hubris and greed in entrepreneurial contexts. Journal of Management Studies, 52(4), 479–505.
Haynie, M., & Shepherd, D. A. (2009). A measure of adaptive cognition for entrepreneurship research. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 33(3), 695–714.
Haynie, J. M., Shepherd, D. A., Mosakowski, E., & Earley, P. C. (2010). A situated metacognitive model of the entrepreneurial mindset. Journal of Business Venturing, 25(2), 217–229.
Haynie, J. M., Shepherd, D. A., & Patzelt, H. (2012). Cognitive adaptability and an entrepreneurial task: The role of metacognitive ability and feedback. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 36(2), 237–265.
Hayward, M. L. A., Shepherd, D. A., & Griffin, D. (2006). A hubris theory of entrepreneurship. Management Science, 52(2), 160–172.
Hogarth, R. M., & Karelaia, N. (2011). Entrepreneurial success and failure: Confidence and fallible judgment. Organization Science, 23(6), 1733–1747.
Hornaday, J. A., & Aboud, J. (1971). Characteristics of successful entrepreneurs. Personnel Psychology, 24, 141–153.
Ireland, R. D., Hitt, M. A., & Sirmon, D. G. (2003). A model of strategic entrepreneurship: The construct and its dimensions. Journal of Management, 29, 963–990.
Janney, J. J., & Dess, G. G. (2006). The risk concept for entrepreneurs reconsidered: New challenges to the conventional wisdom. Journal of Business Venturing, 21(3), 385–400.
Kariv, D. (2008). The relationship between stress and business performance among men and women entrepreneurs. Journal of Small Business & Entrepreneurship, 21(4), 449–476.
Kets de Vries, M. F. R. (1985). The dark side of entrepreneurship. Harvard Business Review, 63(6), 160–167.
Knowledge @ Wharton. (2019). How feelings and friendship factor into startup success and failure. https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/role-of-feelings-in-entrepreneurship/ Accessed 16 Apr 2020.
Koellinger, P., Minniti, M., & Schade, C. (2007). “I think I can, I think I can”: Overconfidence and entrepreneurial behavior. Journal of Economic Psychology, 28(4), 502–527.
Kuratko, D. F. (2020). Entrepreneurship: Theory, process, practice (11th ed.). Mason: Cengage publishers.
Kuratko, D. F., Ireland, R. D., Covin, J. G., & Hornsby, J. S. (2005). A model of middle-level managers’ entrepreneurial behavior. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 29, 699–716.
Kuratko, D. F., Covin, J. G., & Hornsby, J. S. (2014). Why implementing corporate innovation is so difficult. Business Horizons, 57(5), 647–655.
Kuratko, D. F., Hornsby, J. S., & Hayton, J. (2015). Corporate entrepreneurship: The innovative challenge for a new global economic reality. Small Business Economics, 45(2), 245–253.
Kuratko, D. F., Fisher, G., Bloodgood, J., & Hornsby, J. S. (2017). The paradox of new venture legitimation within an entrepreneurial ecosystem. Small Business Economics, 49(1), 119–140.
Lerner, J. (2009). Boulevard of broken dreams: Why public efforts to boost entrepreneurship and venture capital have failed--and what to do about it. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Mariz-Péreza, R. M., Teijeiro-Alvareza, M. M., & García-Alvareza, M. T. (2012). The relevance of human capital as a driver for innovation. Human Resource Management Review, 35(98), 68–76.
Markowitz, E. (2010). Why Silicon Valley loves failures. Inc, august 16. https://www.inc.com/eric-markowitz/brilliant-failures/why-silicon-valley-loves-failures.html accessed 26, Apr, 2020.
McGrath, R., & MacMillan, I. (2000). The entrepreneurial mindset: Strategies for continuously creating opportunity in an age of uncertainty. Canbridge: Harvard Business School Press.
McKelvie, A., and Wiklund, J. (2004). How knowledge affects opportunity discovery and exploitation among new ventures in dynamic markets? In Opportunity Identification and Entrepreneurial Behaviour, ed. J. E. Butler (Greenwich, CT: Information age publishing), 219–239.
McMullen, J. S., & Kier, A. S. (2016). Trapped by the entrepreneurial mindset: Opportunity seeking and escalation of commitment in the Mount Everest disaster. Journal of Business Venturing, 31(6), 663–686.
McMullen, J. S., & Shepherd, D. A. (2006). Entrepreneurial action and the role of uncertainty in the theory of the entrepreneur. Academy of Management Review, 31(1), 132–152.
Mitchell, R., Busenitz, L., Lant, T., McDougall, P., Morse, E., & Smith, B. (2002a). Toward a theory of entrepreneurial cognition: Rethinking the people side of entrepreneurship research. Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, 27(2), 93–105.
Mitchell, R. K., Smith, J. B., Morse, E. A., Seawright, K. W., Peredo, A. M., & McKenzie, B. (2002b). Are entrepreneurial cognitions universal? Assessing entrepreneurial cognitions across cultures. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 26(4), 9–33.
Morris, M. H., Kuratko, D. F., & Schindehutte, M. (2012). Framing the entrepreneurial experience. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 36(1), 11–40.
Muthukrishna, M., Henrich, J., Toyokawa, W., Hamamura, T., Kameda, T., & Heine, S. J. (2018). Overconfidence is universal? Elicitation of genuine overconfidence (EGO) procedure reveals systematic differences across domain, task knowledge, and incentives in four populations. PLoS One, 13(8), e0202288.
Naumann, C. (2017). Entrepreneurial mindset: A synthetic literature review. Entrepreneurial Business and Economics Review, 5(3), 149–172.
Parker, S. (2018). The economics of entrepreneurship (Cambridge: Cambridge University press, 2nd edition).
Salamouris, I. S. (2013). How overconfidence influences entrepreneurship. Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, 2(8), 1–8.
Sarasvathy, S. D. (2001). Causation and effectuation: Toward a theoretical shift from economic inevitability to entrepreneurial contingency. Academy of Management Review, 26(2), 243–263.
Sarasvathy, S. D. (2008). Effectuation: Elements of entrepreneurial expertise. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited.
Schumpeter, J. A. (1934). The theory of economic development. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Schumpeter, J. A. (1942). Capitalism, socialism, and democracy. New York: Harper and Brothers.
Shepherd, D. A., & DeTienne, D. R. (2005). Prior knowledge, potential financial reward, and opportunity identification. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 29(1), 91–112.
Shepherd, D. A., & Krueger, N. (2002). Cognition, entrepreneurship & teams: An intentions-based perspective. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 27(2), 167–185.
Shepherd, D. A., & Patzelt, H. (2018). Entrepreneurial cognition: Exploring the mindset of entrepreneurs. Cham: Springer International Publishing AG.
Shepherd, D. A., Patzelt, H., & Haynie, J. M. (2010). Entrepreneurial spirals: Deviation-amplifying loops of an entrepreneurial mindset and organizational culture. Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, 34(1), 59–82.
Stevenson, T. (2019). What we think is what we become: Control your mind, control your life. Medium, March 5. https://medium.com/@tom.stevenson78/what-we-think-is-what-we-become-df58a698de99 Accessed 9 May 2020.
Tryba, A., & Fletcher, D. (2020). How shared pre-start-up moments of transition and cognitions contextualize effectual and causal decisions in entrepreneurial teams. Small Business Economics, (In press). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-019-00148-7.
Van Geldren, M., Kautonen, T., Wincent, J., & Binari, M. (2018). Implementation intentions in the entrepreneurial process: Concept, empirical findings, and research agenda. Small Business Economics, 51(4), 923–941.
Welter, F., Baker, T., & Wirsching, K. (2019). Three waves and counting: The rising tide of contextualization in entrepreneurship research. Small Business Economics, 52(2), 319–330.
Wood, M. S., & McKinley, W. (2010). The production of entrepreneurial opportunity: A constructivist perspective. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 4(1), 66–84.
Wood, M. S., Williams, D. W., & Grégoire, D. A. (2012). The road to riches? A model of the cognitive processes and inflection points underpinning entrepreneurial action. Advances in entrepreneurship, firm emergence and growth, 14, 207–252.
Wright, M., & Zahra, S. (2011). The other side of paradise: Examining the dark side of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship Research Journal, 1(3), 1–5.
Zahra, S. A., Yavuz, R. I., & Ucbascaran, D. (2006). How much do you trust me? The dark side of relational trust in new business creation in established companies. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 30(2), 541–559.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kuratko, D.F., Fisher, G. & Audretsch, D.B. Unraveling the entrepreneurial mindset. Small Bus Econ 57, 1681–1691 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-020-00372-6
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-020-00372-6