IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jobuve/v18y2022ics2352673422000336.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Why we need normative theories of entrepreneurial learning that go beyond Bayesianism

Author

Listed:
  • Ehrig, Timo
  • Foss, Nicolai J.

Abstract

Zellweger and Zenger's (ZZ) article, “Entrepreneurs as scientists: A pragmatist approach to producing value out of uncertainty,” represents a potentially influential contribution to the understanding of decision making under uncertainty. This short paper points to two major problems in their article: it 1) seeks to reduce uncertainty to risk and ignores the problem of unknown unknowns, and 2) does not identify the key inferential problem of linking the few current data points known by an entrepreneur to her imagination as it pertains to an unknowable future. We point to devising alternative models of learning that have the potential to overcome these problems as a research effort that should be prioritized within the emerging field of entrepreneurial learning.

Suggested Citation

  • Ehrig, Timo & Foss, Nicolai J., 2022. "Why we need normative theories of entrepreneurial learning that go beyond Bayesianism," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 18(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jobuve:v:18:y:2022:i:c:s2352673422000336
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbvi.2022.e00335
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352673422000336
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbvi.2022.e00335?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sarah Kaplan, 2008. "Framing Contests: Strategy Making Under Uncertainty," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 19(5), pages 729-752, October.
    2. Arnaldo Camuffo & Alessandro Cordova & Alfonso Gambardella & Chiara Spina, 2020. "A Scientific Approach to Entrepreneurial Decision Making: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(2), pages 564-586, February.
    3. Jerker Denrell & Christina Fang, 2010. "Predicting the Next Big Thing: Success as a Signal of Poor Judgment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 56(10), pages 1653-1667, October.
    4. Foss,Nicolai J. & Klein,Peter G., 2012. "Organizing Entrepreneurial Judgment," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521697262, October.
    5. Feduzi, Alberto & Runde, Jochen, 2014. "Uncovering unknown unknowns: Towards a Baconian approach to management decision-making," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 124(2), pages 268-283.
    6. Mark D. Packard & Brent B. Clark & Peter G. Klein, 2017. "Uncertainty Types and Transitions in the Entrepreneurial Process," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 28(5), pages 840-856, October.
    7. Jürgen Mihm & Fabian J. Sting & Tan Wang, 2015. "On the Effectiveness of Patenting Strategies in Innovation Races," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 61(11), pages 2662-2684, November.
    8. Gilboa, Itzhak, 1987. "Expected utility with purely subjective non-additive probabilities," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 65-88, February.
    9. Daniel Ellsberg, 1961. "Risk, Ambiguity, and the Savage Axioms," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 75(4), pages 643-669.
    10. Teppo Felin & Todd R. Zenger, 2017. "The Theory-Based View: Economic Actors as Theorists," Strategy Science, INFORMS, vol. 2(4), pages 258-271, December.
    11. Timo Ehrig & Jens Schmidt, 2022. "Theory‐based learning and experimentation: How strategists can systematically generate knowledge at the edge between the known and the unknown," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(7), pages 1287-1318, July.
    12. Eliaz, Kfir & Ok, Efe A., 2006. "Indifference or indecisiveness? Choice-theoretic foundations of incomplete preferences," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 56(1), pages 61-86, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hunt, Richard A. & Townsend, David M. & Lerner, Daniel A. & Brownell, Katrina M., 2024. "Pivot, persist or perish? Knowledge problems and the extraordinarily tight boundary conditions of entrepreneurs as scientists," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 21(C).
    2. Zellweger, Thomas & Zenger, Todd, 2022. "Entrepreneurs as scientists, Bayesian inference, and belief revision," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 18(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Astebro, Thomas B. & Fossen, Frank M. & Gutierrez, Cédric, 2024. "Entrepreneurs: Clueless, Biased, Poor Heuristics, or Bayesian Machines?," IZA Discussion Papers 17231, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Zellweger, Thomas & Zenger, Todd, 2022. "Entrepreneurs as scientists, Bayesian inference, and belief revision," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 18(C).
    3. Rahul Kapoor & Daniel Wilde, 2023. "Peering into a crystal ball: Forecasting behavior and industry foresight," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(3), pages 704-736, March.
    4. Gambardella, Alfonso & Camuffo, Arnaldo & Spina, Chiara, 2020. "Small Changes with Big Impact: Experimental Evidence of a Scientific Approach to the Decision-Making of Entrepreneurial Firms," CEPR Discussion Papers 14909, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    5. Ellsaesser, Florian & Fioretti, Guido, 2022. "Deciding Not To Decide," MPRA Paper 111546, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Timo Ehrig & Jens Schmidt, 2022. "Theory‐based learning and experimentation: How strategists can systematically generate knowledge at the edge between the known and the unknown," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(7), pages 1287-1318, July.
    7. Felipe A. Csaszar & Harsh Ketkar & Hyunjin Kim, 2024. "Artificial Intelligence and Strategic Decision-Making: Evidence from Entrepreneurs and Investors," Papers 2408.08811, arXiv.org.
    8. Gabriel A. Giménez Roche & Didier Calcei, 2021. "The role of demand routines in entrepreneurial judgment," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 56(1), pages 209-235, January.
    9. Kiyohiko G. Nishimura & Hiroyuki Ozaki, 2001. "Search under the Knightian Uncertainty," CIRJE F-Series CIRJE-F-112, CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo.
    10. Marcello Basili & Stefano Dalle Mura, 2004. "Ambiguity and macroeconomics:a rationale for price stickiness," Department of Economics University of Siena 428, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    11. Groneck, Max & Ludwig, Alexander & Zimper, Alexander, 2016. "A life-cycle model with ambiguous survival beliefs," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 137-180.
    12. Junyi Chai & Zhiquan Weng & Wenbin Liu, 2021. "Behavioral Decision Making in Normative and Descriptive Views: A Critical Review of Literature," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-14, October.
    13. Zimper, Alexander, 2012. "Asset pricing in a Lucas fruit-tree economy with the best and worst in mind," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 610-628.
    14. Yoram Halevy & Vincent Feltkamp, 2005. "A Bayesian Approach to Uncertainty Aversion," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 72(2), pages 449-466.
    15. Alexander Zimper, 2011. "Re-examining the law of iterated expectations for Choquet decision makers," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 71(4), pages 669-677, October.
    16. Mohammed Abdellaoui & Horst Zank, 2023. "Source and rank-dependent utility," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 75(4), pages 949-981, May.
    17. Faro, José Heleno & Lefort, Jean-Philippe, 2019. "Dynamic objective and subjective rationality," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 14(1), January.
    18. Yehuda Izhakian, 2012. "Ambiguity Measurement," Working Papers 12-01, New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, Department of Economics.
    19. Alexander Ludwig & Alexander Zimper, 2013. "A decision-theoretic model of asset-price underreaction and overreaction to dividend news," Annals of Finance, Springer, vol. 9(4), pages 625-665, November.
    20. Mohammed Abdellaoui & Han Bleichrodt & Cédric Gutierrez, 2023. "Unpacking Overconfident Behavior When Betting on Oneself," Post-Print hal-04383402, HAL.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jobuve:v:18:y:2022:i:c:s2352673422000336. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-business-venturing-insights .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.