Building bridges between entrepreneurship and strategic thinking

Abstract

In this chapter, we present two bridges linking entrepreneurial and strategic thinking. The first bridge links the research of individual entrepreneurial behavior and strategic thinking skills. We found that systems thinking was the strongest predictor of all three elements of individual entrepreneurial behavior (risk-taking, innovativeness, and proactiveness). The more often the entrepreneurs in our sample used systems thinking, the higher was their predisposition for risk-taking, innovativeness, and proactiveness. Furthermore, all subscales of strategic thinking (systems thinking, reframing, and reflecting) significantly influenced proactiveness. These links enable entrepreneurs to decide how to respond, act, and/or exploit possibilities. The links we found between strategic thinking skills and entrepreneurial behavior were strong enough to recommend that strategic thinking skills should be learned, trained, and practiced by entrepreneurs, leaders, and managers at all levels of the organization. The second bridge positions strategic thinking as a link between the effectual and causal reasoning continuum. The strategic thinking research suggests that strategic thinkers employ cognitive ambidexterity. It suggests that strategic thinkers use strategic reasoning skills in analytical, critical, synthetic, integrative, adaptive, and creative, and innovative thinking to switch back and forth between causal and effectual reasoning and thus are able to gather as much information about situations as possible before acting. We concluded that by linking entrepreneurship and strategic thinking, we gain a clearer understanding of the gap between entrepreneurial thinking and action, as well as strengthening the ability to see and recognize opportunities. The chapter concludes with five propositions to further develop the links between entrepreneurship and strategic thinking.