Entrepreneurial scanning behavior in new childcare ventures

This dissertation assessed two aspects of entrepreneurial scanning related to new ventures. The first was the information search and analysis these entrepreneurs performed when they made certain basic decisions necessary to start most business prior to commencement of operations. The second was the ongoing information search activities of entrepreneurs who had started childcare businesses and were managing them in their first few years of operation. In addition, this dissertation assessed the extent these scanning activities were consistent with a dual process theory of reasoning. Finally, the limitations of the study and suggested future research directions for research of entrepreneurial scanning were discussed. The results suggest an entrepreneur's scanning behavior at the start of the business may be different from scanning behavior that occurs once the business has been operating for a period of time. The need for cognition, exposure to statistical thinking and intelligence (operationalized in this study as the amount of formal education) were positively related to the kind of information search and analysis undertaken by the entrepreneur at the startup of the business that Kahneman (2003) and others describe as System 2 reasoning. The accessibility of information and the amount of formal education were positively related to scanning that was done in periods subsequent to startup by these childcare entrepreneurs. Work-family conflict was negatively related to scanning during this period.