The importance of intuition in the decision making strategies of entrepreneurs

Whilst there are an extraordinary number of reasons postulated as to why entrepreneurs succeed the proposition put forth by this research is that entrepreneurs could attribute their success to an intuitive decision making style. The aim of this research is to develop further the ab-initio investigation carried out by Allinson, Chell et al. (2000). In their findings they argue that entrepreneurs are more intuitive in their cognitive style than non-entrepreneurs. In this research the preliminary results were derived using two-steps of a four-step process, an initial interview and an instrument developed to measure cognitive style. It is postulated that what differentiates an entrepreneur from others is their willingness to make rapid decisions when there is either too much or too little information. Furthermore, entrepreneurs interviewed for this research said that “gut feel” is a legitimate approach to making important decisions.