The Effect of Risk Perception and Cognitive Biases on the Evaluation of Opportunity in Family and Non-Family Entrepreneurs: The Case of Tunisian Entrepreneurs

Najoua Dali and Sana Harbi
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Najoua Dali: Institut Supérieur de Gestion de Sousse, Tunisia

Journal of Enterprising Culture (JEC), 2016, vol. 24, issue 03, 281-312

Abstract: This study uses cognitive biases to examine opportunity evaluation among family and non-family entrepreneurs, and investigated the effect of risk perception in this type of entrepreneurs. The aim of this paper is to examine empirically if family entrepreneurs differ in terms of risk perception and opportunity evaluation from non-family entrepreneurs. We use a sample of 144 established businesses to run both test hypothesis and regression analysis. Our results indicate that there is no significant difference between the two categories of entrepreneurs. The structural regression analysis suggests that risk perception mediates opportunity evaluation and that (i) the belief in the law of small numbers and (ii) the illusion of control decreases risk perception among entrepreneurs when evaluating an opportunity.

Keywords: Cognitive biases; entrepreneurship; family business; risk perception (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wsi:jecxxx:v:24:y:2016:i:03:n:s0218495816500114

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DOI: 10.1142/S0218495816500114

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