In Search of a Ratio for a Non-Rational Domain

The decision-making process is characterized by limited rationality, being affected by strong limitations of human cognitive abilities. Individuals, with their behavior, often violate the axioms of rationality even when facing with problems of an economic nature or linked to the management of economic organizations. Kahneman (2002, pp. 449–450) stated that there are "two generic modes of cognitive function: an intuitive mode in which judgments and decisions are made automatically and rapidly, and a controller mode, which is deliberate and slower" and "focused on errors of intuition". Rational choice theory (for a review see: Oppenheimer, 2008 and Sugden, 1991) seems unresponsive to interpreting reality, since it is unrealistic to think that the decision maker is able to consider and understand the large number of factors that can influence the final result of the decision (March, 1994). Entrepreneurs or managers make decisions that will meet expectations rather than optimize choices. Decisions depend on the level of information and follow heuristics, or "shortcuts of thought" (Cuervo-Cavurra, Narula and Un, 2015) which reduce decision-making costs. However, heuristics are associated with biases. Although heuristics can be useful for dealing with complex decisions, they can lead to serious and systematic errors (Guercini, 2012; Guercini et al., 2015). Limited rationality and the recognition of heuristic-and-biases mechanisms had a relevant influence on the entrepreneurial behavior literature (Simon and Houghton, 2000; Haley and Stumpf, 1989; Schwenk, 1984). Recently, the presence of heuristics has also been recognized by international business scholars, who have emphasized how heuristics based on cognitive mechanisms can be involved during the decisions of entrepreneurs/managers to initiate an internationalization process (Bingham, Eisenhardt and Furr, 2007, Musso and Francioni, 2013; Musso, 2020).