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Entrepreneurial Intentions Are Dead: Long Live Entrepreneurial Intentions

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Revisiting the Entrepreneurial Mind

Part of the book series: International Studies in Entrepreneurship ((ISEN,volume 35))

Abstract

Short of studying actual new venture launches, what could possibly be more potent than understanding the preconditions that enable entrepreneurial activity? Early research focused unsurprisingly on behavior (the “what?” and the “how?” even somewhat the “where?” and the “when?”) and since entrepreneurs were obviously special people, on the entrepreneurial person (the “who?”). Intentions are classically defined as the cognitive state temporally and causally prior to action (e.g., The intentional stance, Cambridge, 1989; Entrep Theory Pract 24:5–23, 2000). Here that translates to the working definition of the cognitive state temporally and causally prior to the decision to start a business. The field has adopted and adapted formal models of entrepreneurial intentions that are based on strong, widely accepted theory and whose results appear not only empirically robust but of great practical value. But do we have what we think we have? Or have we also opened the door to a much broader range of questions that will advance our theoretical understanding of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs? We offer here a glimpse of the remarkably wide array of fascinating questions for entrepreneurship scholars.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For a nice review, see Dennett (1989) and Bratman (1987), who shows intent = choice + commitment to act.

  2. 2.

    In North America, there are at most 2000 entrepreneurship scholars and educators, but well over 25,000 neuroscientists. The pace of research in this area will continue to explode and entrepreneurship scholars would be well served to identify ways to collaborate (e.g., Krueger and Day 2009).

  3. 3.

    See also the nascent efforts in neuroentrepreneurship under the aegis of the Experimental Entrepreneurship (“X-Ent”) group at the Max Planck Institute of Economics in Jena, Germany.

  4. 4.

    This “walls and holes” model surfaced in discussions at Max Planck in 2008 by volume authors Diemo Urbig, Erik Monsen, Alan Carsrud, Malin Brannback, and this author.

  5. 5.

    This issue was raised by the book editors and gratefully acknowledged.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Global Business Research, School of Advanced Studies, University of Phoenix, Phoenix, USA

    Norris F. Krueger

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  1. Norris F. Krueger
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Correspondence to Norris F. Krueger .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Business and Economics, Abo Akademi University, Turku, Finland

    Malin Brännback

  2. School of Business and Economics, Åbo Akademi University, Abo (Turku), Finland

    Alan L. Carsrud

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Krueger, N.F. (2017). Entrepreneurial Intentions Are Dead: Long Live Entrepreneurial Intentions. In: Brännback, M., Carsrud, A. (eds) Revisiting the Entrepreneurial Mind. International Studies in Entrepreneurship, vol 35. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45544-0_2

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