When ‘Good Enough’ Is Not Enough: The Role of Maximizing or Satisficing Decision-Making Styles, Innovation Behavior, and Entrepreneurial Alertness in the Pursuit of New Business Opportunities

Abstract

This paper investigates whether an individual’s tendency to maximize when making decisions influences their entrepreneurial intentions, innovation behavior, entrepreneurial alertness, and opportunity evaluation. It is predicted that maximizers will have greater entrepreneurial intentions. Underlying this process, it is predicted that maximizers will report greater innovation behavior and entrepreneurial alertness. Using data from a survey of 253 working professionals in the U.S., hypotheses are tested using multiple regression and mediation analysis. The results suggest that maximizers have higher entrepreneurial intentions, and that this relationship is mediated by their innovation behavior and entrepreneurial alertness. A second study is conducted with a survey of 192 students to explore how maximizers evaluate a specific entrepreneurial opportunity, and how their evaluation influences their entrepreneurial intentions. Using mediation analysis, findings of study 2 suggest that maximizers are more likely to see business opportunities as attractive, which increases their entrepreneurial intentions. The second study also replicates the main results of study 1 in a unique sample.