Confronting when uncertainty-as-unknowability is mismodelled in entrepreneurship

Richard J. Arend

Journal of Business Venturing Insights, 2022, vol. 18, issue C

Abstract: Uncertainty has been and continues to be misunderstood, in the forms it can take, in its definitions, and in how it and its effects are modelled. That confusion is unhelpful for theorizing in general and, more specifically, it is detrimental for the study of entrepreneurship, given our field’s intimate if not existential connection with uncertainty. When the confusion is caused by a mischaracterization of uncertainty that is represented in mathematical form – eliminating any definitional and operational ambiguities – then that poses a severe problem that requires redress if we are to remain legitimate as a scientific field. The focus of this piece is on a critical assessment of a recent and visible paper that claims to model uncertainty in its equations but we argue does not. We first to critique the example, focusing on uncertainty-related issues (while also considering other modelling problems that make the paper’s insights into uncertainty questionable), and second we consider feedback over our critique itself (so as to identify impediments to clarifying the issues surrounding uncertainty that exist in our field).

Keywords: Uncertainty; Mathematical modeling; Information asymmetry; Spin-offs; Entrepreneurship (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jobuve:v:18:y:2022:i:c:s2352673422000324

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbvi.2022.e00334

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