Architecture of Entrepreneurial Learning: Exploring the Link Among Heuristics, Knowledge, and Action

Abstract

We extend existing theories of entrepreneurial learning and highlight the effects of heuristics under two different learning contexts: experiential learning and vicarious learning. Specifically, we argue that heuristics are consequential in explaining variations in learning. In some cases, heuristics can be highly adaptive and beneficial to the accumulation of knowledge. In others, they can distort judgments and bias learning. By considering linkages among heuristics, knowledge, and action, we seek to provide a more complete model of entrepreneurial learning that allows for examination of the influence of judgments on learning and to expose conditions that can benefit or limit effective action in an entrepreneurial setting.

Keywords: entrepreneurial learning, heuristics, knowledge, entrepreneurial action, strategic entrepreneurship