Does entrepreneurial expertise exist?

Exploring the growth mindset of entrepreneurs

In our last post we talked about the role of ambition in business growth and how it might form one aspect of an individual’s ‘growth mindset’. Continuing with this theme, we will be exploring another possible aspect: the idea of entrepreneurial expertise. This also links back to our second post on cognition and the use of heuristics and suggests that as entrepreneurs gain experience they develop expert scripts over time. As a reminder, a ‘script’ is a mental map – essentially an internal set of instructions. In simple terms, the research on entrepreneurial expertise says that, over time, entrepreneurs’ mental maps become more highly developed and they get better at things like spotting new opportunities, bringing together resources and working out how to see things though.

If you’ve read our previous posts you’ll know that most entrepreneurship research focuses on the start-up stage and on entrepreneurship in general. The work on expert scripts is no exception, but we think that the idea may also apply to business growth. That would mean people develop expert scripts for how to grow a business (which is different from starting a business). Logically then, having grown one business it should become easier to grow subsequent ones – or to guide the same business through a later phase of growth.

If growth expertise is part of a growth mindset, then it is also likely to have different components – and this is when research becomes a bit like peeling an onion! A particularly interesting idea is metacognition, which has more simply been described as “thinking about thinking”. This is a new idea in entrepreneurship research and refers to the process of selecting a decision making strategy. In our post on entrepreneurial cognition we explained that entrepreneurs are more likely to use heuristics (mental shortcuts or biases) more than other people (managers for example). This can be good and can lead people to take risks and start businesses. However, it can also have negative consequences, as for example, a business might fail because of reckless and uncalculated risk taking. Metacognitive ability enables people to know when to go with their ‘gut’ and when to take a more considered and rational approach to making decisions.

As well as helping to moderate risk without crushing entrepreneurial creativity, metacognitive strategies may also help people with their reflective processes and assist learning. Research tells us that entrepreneurs learn mainly from experience and that reflection is critical for learning. But too much reflection, or the wrong kind of reflection, can actually be counterproductive, undermining confidence and stopping people from getting things done. Metacognition might help people to work out when to reflect, what to reflect on and how much to reflect, resulting in the creation of a virtuous circle and supporting the development of expert maps for growth.

Importantly, research shows that metacognition is itself a skill that can be learned – and this fits with the idea that people can develop growth expertise – but it’s also possible that some people may ‘naturally’ possess greater metacognitive ability than others. This raises questions about the extent to which genetics might have a role in growth entrepreneurship, an interesting topic and the subject of our next (and final) post.

Dr Clare Schofield

Deputy Director of the Centre for Enterprise, Manchester Metropolitan University Business School

 

Further Blog Posts:

Post 1 – Why are MMU researchers exploring the growth mind-set of entrepreneurs

Post 2 – Entrepreneurial cognition and the use of heuristics

Post 3 – Growth intention and the role of ambition in entrepreneurship

Post 4 – Does entrepreneurial expertise exist?

Post 5 – Could there be a gene for business growth?