ENTREPRENEURIAL INTENTIONS AND OUTCOMES: A COMPARATIVE CAUSAL MAPPING STUDY* MARK JENKINS GERRY JOHNSON Cran®eld School of Management ABSTRACT This paper uses a causal map methodology to consider the contrasts between entrepreneurial intentions and outcomes. In evaluating a series of propositions drawn from the extant literature the study ®nds that the elicited causal maps are consistent with contrasts in entrepreneurial intentions, but not outcomes. This suggests that the existing emphasis on entrepreneurial strategies being deliberate, conscious processes may be misplaced: non-deliberate, emergent strategies may be just as in¯uential in producing entrepreneurial outcomes. The study develops a series of output propositions suggesting that entrepreneurial outcomes are asso- ciated with causal maps which connect the internal operations of the business with the external environment. This implies that entrepreneurial success may be a result of intuitive systems thinking in which connections are made between the environment and the internal operations of the business. INTRODUCTION Entrepreneurship is a ®eld of research which has attracted widespread interest and research endeavour. While there is disagreement on the necessary de®nition of the entrepreneur (Gartner, 1990; Hornaday, 1990), there is consensus on the importance of understanding and explaining entrepreneurship and its contribu- tion to management practice (d'Amboise and Muldowney, 1988; Low and MacMillan, 1988). Much of the research in the area of entrepreneurship focuses on exploring the nature of entrepreneurial success or entrepreneurial outcomes. An entrepreneurial outcome is taken to represent a desired level of performance in the business, for example a particularly fast rate of sales revenue growth. There is, however, an implicit assumption in much of this research that entrepre- neurial intentions, the desires of the individual entrepreneur, lead to entrepre- neurial outcomes (Lafuente and Salas, 1989). Carland et al. (1984) consider that an entrepreneur is an individual who estab- lishes and manages a business for the purposes of pro®t and growth. In contrast, Journal of Management Studies 34:6 November 1997 0022-2380 # Blackwell Publishers Ltd 1997. Published by Blackwell Publishers, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA. Address for reprints: Mark Jenkins, Cran®eld School of Management, Cran®eld University, Cran®eld, Bedford MK43 0AL, UK.