Thoughts Have Consequences: Attributions By and About Entrepreneurs

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

Abstract

An entrepreneurial venture cannot succeed if it is not begun, so an entrepreneur’s decision to start is absolutely critical. That decision will be affected by the entrepreneur’s beliefs about what personal traits are needed and whether she/he has them. Once started, an entrepreneurial venture only very rarely can be scaled without external financial support, provided by investors who have their own unique views of the required traits and likely causes of success. The principles of attribution theory inform our understanding of the causes of both success and failure. Additionally, well-documented errors in causal reasoning can adversely affect entrepreneurial action. This chapter describes the fundamentals of the attribution approach and suggests how correct attributions can support entrepreneurial behavior.

Keywords

Entrepreneurial Intention Nascent Entrepreneur Dispositional Property Causal Judgment Entrepreneurial Venture 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Department of Management and Marketing, School of BusinessCollege of CharlestonCharlestonUSA

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