Ignorance and International Entrepreneurship. Two Sides of a Blade in the Decision to Enter a Foreign Market

The aim of this chapter is to further explore and understand the role of a topic seldom discussed so far in the decision to enter a foreign market for entrepreneurs, namely ignorance. Rather than providing an extensive literature review of the topic, we will explore why entrepreneurship scholars so far neglected the topic of how entrepreneurs, and their firms, “don’t know.” Specifically, this chapter will be focused on the entrepreneur as an individual when making the decision to enter a foreign market. Throughout this chapter, we shall analyze ignorance from different perspectives when foreign entry decisions on an individual level have to be made. We will discuss that widespread international knowledge may not naturally advance International Entrepreneurship opportunities, point out the idea that individual decisions are cognitively influenced by ignorance, and point to the relevance of knowing what you do not know in IE. Finally, the chapter calls for an integration of ignorance within the decision-making framework in IE.