Cognitive factors in entrepreneurial strategic decision making

Research on strategic decision making (SDM) has proliferated in the last decades. Most of the studies however, focus on the process and content of SDM, whereas relatively little interest was awarded to the factors associated with the decision maker influencing SDM. Moreover, most of the research on SDM focuses on large multinationals and little to no research is available that studies the ways in which entrepreneurs make strategic choices. The present study reviews the entrepreneurial traits that influence SDM. These traits are selected by analyzing the literature on the differences between entrepreneurs and managers, under the assumption that these factors are the most indicative for the particularities of entrepreneurial SDM. One of the most important theoretical propositions resulting from this analysis concerns the mediating role of cognitive complexity in the relation between these entrepreneurial traits and SDM outcomes. Directions for further research emerging from this conceptualization are identified and discussed.