That’s why they didn’t let it go: exploring the roots of women entrepreneurs’ escalation of commitment

Abstract

Purpose Escalation of commitment is one of the most important decision-making biases among entrepreneurs and may deprive them of valuable resources and even result in their eventual failure. Many entrepreneurs become escalated to their ongoing plans by allocating more resources, even after receiving negative feedbacks regarding those plans. Although the escalating behavior is an inherent part of the entrepreneurial cognition, previous studies have mostly ignored its antecedents among entrepreneurs. This dearth of studies is more severe regarding women entrepreneurs, whose biases have rarely been investigated. Therefore, this paper aims to explore the antecedents of the escalation of commitment among women entrepreneurs. Design/methodology/approach To explore the antecedents of the escalation of commitment in women entrepreneurs’ decisions based on their lived experiences, this paper used a narrative inquiry. The data were collected by conducting in-depth interviews with three Iranian women entrepreneurs running small businesses and analyzed by narrative data analysis. Findings According to the findings, bitter memories of previous failures, overconfidence and familial pressure are the main antecedents of the escalation of commitment in women entrepreneurs. Practical implications This study has a very important managerial implication for women entrepreneurs, who should know that while decision-making biases may occur unintentionally, they are able to reduce the harmful effects and enhance the benefits of biases by knowing their most common signs. Originality/value This study is a pioneer in exploring women entrepreneurs’ biases and took a novel approach by conducting a narrative analysis of women entrepreneurs’ escalation of commitment.

Decision-making biases in women entrepreneurs: the novices vs the habitual

“…Nevertheless, despite the aforementioned adversities and other encumbrances such as lack of organizational support and many job restrictions (Jamali and Nejati, 2009) as well as cultural and contextual impediments (Javadian and Singh, 2012), more new enterprises are established in Iran by a growing number of highly educated women (Golzard, 2019). Besides, a detailed investigation of the entrepreneurship literature indicates that, although women and men entrepreneurs are different in showing biases, the body of research on women's entrepreneurship has increased over the last two decades (Sullivan and Meek, 2012), there is a severe dearth of studies concerning various aspects of women entrepreneurs' decisions (Nouri, 2021a).…”

“…This lack of knowledge pertains to the two aforementioned biases as well. Given the crucial operational implications of biases (Bazerman and Moore, 2013), the dearth of research on women entrepreneurs' biases, especially women entrepreneurs in developing countries (Nouri, 2021a), who face specific contextual challenges (Panda, 2018), may lead to certain losses and even failure (Koellinger et al. , 2007; Kuntze and Matulich, 2016).…”

Exploring the affect heuristic in Iranian women entrepreneurs

“…Besides, while entrepreneurial affect is a strong trigger of heuristic thinking (Baron, 2008), how affective reactions impact the priming of heuristic thinking among entrepreneurs has remained an open question (Hayton and Cholakova, 2012). The aforementioned gaps are more persisting for women entrepreneurs, whose decisions, especially in the context of developing countries, have rarely been studied (Nouri, 2020).…”

“…Meanwhile, and despite numerous adversities such as lack of training (Metcalfe, 2008), lack of organizational support (Jamali and Nejati, 2009), ill-structured regulations and occupational discrimination (Javadian and Addae, 2013), specific cultural challenges (Javadian and Singh, 2012; Modarresi et al , 2016), lack of access to profitable opportunities (Jha et al , 2018) and familial pressure (Nouri, 2020), an increasing number of enterprises are established in Iran by highly educated women (Golzard, 2019).…”

“…Furthermore, the scarcity of robust studies on women entrepreneurs is more apparent concerning various aspects of entrepreneurs' decisions (Nouri, 2020). In other words, although gender influences entrepreneurial decisions as a whole (Bendell et al , 2020) and entrepreneurs are heterogeneous in their reliance on heuristics (Shepherd and Patzelt, 2017), most of the knowledge on entrepreneurial heuristics, generally, and the affect heuristic, specifically, emanates from the studies on male entrepreneurs, resulting in serious research gaps concerning various aspects of women entrepreneurs' decisions (Nouri et al , 2019).…”