Entrepreneurial orientation and decision-making under risk and uncertainty: Experimental evidence from the Columbia Card Task

Abstract

We analyze the relationship between entrepreneurship and decision-making under risk and uncertainty using the Columbia Card Task: an experimental task eliciting affective decision-making under conditions of risk and uncertainty. In a sample of 127 university students, we find robust evidence that individual entrepreneurial orientation (IEO) is negatively related to decision-making under risk and uncertainty. In addition, we show that distinguishing the subscales of IEO is key to understanding this relationship, since while the relationship is negative for the Proactiveness and Innovativeness subscales, it is positive for the Risk taking subscale. Moderation analyses show that heterogeneous sensitivity towards possible gains and losses explains the main relationship.