The Entrepreneur's Brain

How do great entrepreneurs think? That’s the question that Saras Sarasvathy set out to answer in a recent study. Based on interviews and case studies with successful U.S. entrepreneurs and executives at large corporations, Sarasvathy found that “master entrepreneurs rely on what she calls effectual reasoning. Brilliant improvisers, the entrepreneurs don’t start out with concrete goals. Instead, they constantly assess how to use their personal strengths and whatever resources they have at hand to develop goals on the fly, while creatively reacting to contingencies. By contrast, corporate executives-those in the study group were also enormously successful in their chosen field-use causal reasoning. They set a goal and diligently seek the best ways to achieve it.” (HT: Marginal Revolution) [%comments]