Entrepreneurial Strategy, Innovation, and Cognitive Capabilities: What Role for Intuitive SMEs?

Authors

  • Jose Manuel Saiz-Alvarez Nebrija University
  • Carlos Cuervo-Arango Nebrija University
  • Alicia Coduras Nebrija University

Abstract

The role of intuition applied to entrepreneurship remains under-researched. The present work contributes to the progress on research on this field proposing and testing an indicator to measure the degree of intuition of entrepreneurs at early and consolidated stages. The indicator is designed under the literature highlights and applied over a sample of 501 early stage and consolidated entrepreneurs, a sample extracted from GEM Spain 2011-2012. The intuitive behavior of the Spaniard entrepreneurs is moderated and depends significantly on leadership abilities along with skills to motivate others, capacity to develop technological products or services, and the age. The intuitive style is proportionally more prevalent at early stages of entrepreneurship and, in Spain, does not show significant dependence on the previous experience of the entrepreneurs as employees, managers of companies, other entrepreneurial activities or years in the same sector as they are operating at present.

References

Allison, T., Puce, A., & McCarthy, G. (2000). "Social perception from visual cues: Role of the STS region". Trends in Cognitive Science, 4, 267-278.

Ardichvill, A., Cardozo, R., & Ray. S. (2003). A theory of entrepreneurial opportunity identification and development, Journal of Business Venturing. vol. 18. issue 1. pp. 105-123.

Arenius, P. & Minniti, M. (2005). Perceptual variables and nascent entrepreneurship. Small Business Economics. vol. 24. n. 3. pp. 233- 247.

Baron, R.A. (2006). Opportunity recognition as pattern recognition: How entrepreneurs "connect the dots" to identify new business opportunities, Academy of Management Perspectives, vol. 20, issue 1, pp. 104-109.

Bass, B.M. (1997). Does the transactional- transformational leadership paradigm trans-cend organizational and national boundaries?, American Psychologist, vol. 52, n. 2, pp. 130-139.

___ (1990). From transactional to transformational leadership: Learning to share the vision, Organizational Dynamics, vol. 18, n. 3, pp. 19-31.

___ (1985). Leadership and performance beyond expectation, New York: The Free Press.

Becchetti, L. & Trovato, G. (2002). The Determinants of Growth for Small and Medium Sized Firms. The Role of the Availability of External Finance, Small Business Economics, vol. 2, n. 4, pp. 53-65.

Blume, B.D. & Covin, J.G. (2011). Attributions to intuition in the venture founding pro-cess: Do entrepreneurs actually use intuition or just say that they do?, Journal of Business Venturing, vol. 26, issue 1, pp. 137-151.

Bouckenooghe, D., Van den Broeck, H., Cools, E., & Vanderheyden, K. (2005). In search for the heffalump: An exploration of the cognitive style profiles among entrepreneurs, Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School Working Paper Series -4, Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School.

Bridge, S., O'Neil, K., & Cromie, S. (2003). Understanding enterprise, entrepreneurship and small business (2nd ed.), Palgrave/Macmillan.

Bruni, A., Gherardi. S., & Poggio. B. (2004). Doing Gender. Doing Entrepreneurship: An Ethnographic Account of Intertwined Practices, Gender. Work and Organization, vol. 11, n. 4, pp. 406-429.

Busenitz, L.W. & Barney. J.B. (1997). Differences between entrepreneurs and managers in large organizations: Biases and heuristics in strategic decision- making, Journal of Business Venturing, vol. 12, issue 1, pp. 9- 30.

Collins, O.F., Moore. D.G., & Unwalla. D.B. (1964). The Enterprising Man. Michigan State University Press.

Crossan, M.M., Lane. H.W., & White. R.E. (1999). An organizational learning framework: From intuition to institution, Academy of Management Review, vol. 24, issue 3, pp. 522-537.

Dalglish, C. (2004). Business Success & Sustainability. In Proceedings of the Interna-tional Council for Small Business Conference (ICSB), South Africa: Johannesburg, pp. 1-14.

Doerfler, V. & Ackermann, F. (2012). Understanding intuition: The case for two forms of intuition, Management Learning, vol. 43, issue 5, November, pp. 545-564.

Eisenhardt, K.M. (1999). Strategy as strategic decision making, Sloan Management Re-view, vol. 40, n. 3, p. 65-72.

Halim, M., Muda, S., & Amin, W. (2011). The Measurement of Entrepreneurial Person-ality and Business Performance in Terengganu Creative Industry, International Journal of Business and Management, vol. 6, n. 6, pp. 183-192.

Hodgkinson, G.P., Sadler-Smith. E., Burke. L.A.; Claxton. G, & Sparrow. P.R. (2009). Intuition on Organizations: Implications for Strategic Management, Long Range Plan- ning, vol. 42, n. 3, pp. 277-297.

Hodgkinson, G.P. & Sparrow, P. (2002). The competent organization: A psychological analysis of the strategic management process, Buckingham: Open University Press.

Kautonen, T., Van Gelderen, M., & Tornikoski, E.T. (2013). Predicting entrepreneurial behavior: A test of the theory of planned behavior, Applied Economics, vol. 45, n. 6, pp. 697-707.

Kotter, J.P. (1997). Matsushita Leadership, New York: The Free Press.

Marlow, S. & Patton, D. (2005). All Credit to Men? Entrepreneurship. Finance and Gen-der, Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, vol. 29, n. 6, pp. 717-735.

McClelland, D.C. (1961). The Achieving Society, New York: The Free Press.

Mitchell, L. (2011). Overcoming the Gender Gap: Women Entrepreneurs as Economic Drivers, September, Kansas City, Miss.: Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

Rotter, J.B. (1966). Generalized expectancies for internal vs. external control of rein-forcement, Psychological Monographs: General and Applied, vol. 80, n. 1, pp. 1-28.

Shane, S., Locke, E.A., & Collins, C.J. (2003). Entrepreneurial Motivation, Human Re-sources Management Review, vol. 13, n. 5, pp. 86-102.

Downloads

Published

2013-05-21

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Entrepreneurial Strategy, Innovation, and Cognitive Capabilities: What Role for Intuitive SMEs?. (2013). Journal of Small Business Strategy (archive Only), 23(2), 29-40. https://libjournals.mtsu.edu/index.php/jsbs/article/view/179