Page 122 - 1-Entrepreneurship and Local Economic Development by Norman Walzer (z-lib.org)

What Makes a Successful Entrepreneur? 111

tured knowledge in a specific area. The expert script, or schemata, can be de-
veloped through experience in the field, and it improves the information
processing capability of individuals (Glaser 1984). An individual in an ap-
propriate situational context recognizes specific cues that activate a specific
expert script.
Mitchell and Chesteen (1995) attempted an educational application of
the expert script concept. The results demonstrate that experiential treat-
ment can enhance a novice’s venture expertise through different learning
activities involving contact with experts. This study provides important in-
sight into ways to improve entrepreneurial expertise. It also offers an im-
portant implication for entrepreneurship education because the authors
demonstrate that the cognition-based instructional pedagogy is more effec-
tive than traditional methods of teaching entrepreneurial expertise such as
only teaching business planning.
Much of the cognition-based literature argues that an entrepreneur’s de-
cision to initiate a venture is based on his or her intentions to proceed while
the entrepreneurial intentions are generated by an entrepreneur’s percep-
tions of how realistic and attractive his or her actions can be. As Krueger
(2000) points out, opportunities are in the eyes of the beholder. He pro-
poses that the cognitive intangible infrastructure facilitates the perception
of opportunities by an entrepreneurial organization. The perception of de-
sirability (personal and social) and perceptions of feasibility (personal and
organizational) are critical factors in the intentions that guide entrepre-
neurial behavior.
In a study on perceptions, Simon and Houghton (2002) explore how the
decision context may affect the decision to introduce a pioneering product.
These authors study biases and their influence on the entrepreneurial deci-
sionmaking process. They found that entrepreneurs in smaller, younger
companies that offer pioneering products are more likely to exhibit the il-
lusion of control, the law of small numbers (making a conclusion based on
a small number of cases), and reasoning by analogy. These biases contribute
to underestimating competition, overestimating demand, and overlooking
requisite assets.
The cognitive approach suggests that the perception of opportunity is in
fact a cognitive phenomenon. Keh, Foo, and Lim (2002) examine the op-
portunity evaluation process and its relation to perception biases and risk
perception. These authors find that illusions of control and belief in the law
of small numbers are related to how entrepreneurs evaluate opportunities
and that risk perception mediates opportunity evaluation.
Markman, Balkin, and Baron (2002) assessed general self-efficacy and
regretful thinking in the context of technological innovation. Results,
obtained from a random sample of 217 patent inventors, showed the
difference in the general self-efficacy and regretful thinking among the