摘要：Many of today’s successful entrepreneurs attribute their success to their intuition, Bill
Gates says, "you cannot ignore your intuition." Oprah states, "My business skills have come
from being guided by my intuition", and Donald Trump admits in his book, "I've built a multi-
billion dollar empire by relying on my gut instinct”.
Using the extant literature on intuition in business, this work aims to empirically validate
the importance and relevance of intuitive decision making to successful entrepreneurs. This
hopefully provides a greater understanding of intuition and decision-making, in the field of
entrepreneurship. ++
The population sample chosen was repeat entrepreneurs because a repeat entrepreneurs
success is not due to providence alone. They appear to identify opportunities based on cues or
signals from the environment that they filter and process through a number of mechanisms.
Using the literature review a priori a questionnaire was developed and a cognitive style
instrument (CSI) was used to contrast and compare findings, not only across cases but also
across thinking styles. This research then used a multi-method, pooled case study approach using
the CSI and the semi-structured interviews to achieve the final results.
Whilst the results show that entrepreneur’s have a greater propensity for intuitive
decision-making. This does not suggest that they ignore available information; to the contrary,
many do rely on their experiences and available information. The results suggest that intuition
and rational decision-making are not on the same continuum ie: entrepreneurs are neither one nor
the other; they can be both rational and intuitive in their decision-making style.
