QUESTION 1

PROBLEM STATEMENT:

The understanding of entrepreneurial intuition is under-researched at the current time with several calls for closer examination. Much of the research to date involves theoretical development or laboratory experiments with little empirical research from field based studies. Strategy as practice is well placed to examine the role of strategists intuition but this has yet to take place. The focus on the situated individual that strategy as practice encourages, allows for an examination of individual practices such as cognition (Jarzabkowski, Balogun, & Seidl, 2007), of which intuition is a significant part. Despite this there is still a significant gap in the literature relating to how intuition is actually used in strategic practice. Further to this Regnr (2008: 579) notes that it is exactly creativity and imagination that a processual and dynamic view of strategy needs the strategy-as-practice approach has the potential to address the question of creativity and imagination It has also been suggested that in order to advance strategy as practice research simply observing practitioners in action is not sufficient but a deeper analysis of their underlying cognitive practices is required (Hodgkinson & Clarke, 2007; Wright, Paroutis, & Blettner, 2013). This study is intended to uncover how individual strategists operating within the information technology sector in Gauteng Province of South Africa use their entrepreneurial intuition in assessing and developing strategic opportunities in practice.

An underlying philosophy of interpretivism and the specific lens of strategy as practice (Johnson et al., 2007) will be adopted to examine the entrepreneurial intuition of seven high-tech strategists as they each seek opportunities and make sense of opportunities available to them in their strategic practice, and manage differing strategic situations. An ethnographic research method will be undertaken to explore cognitive causal mapping alongside the theoretical structure of dual process and creative action theories. A deductive research process will be employed to analyse the data including synthesis of existing literature, particularly dual process (Epstein, 1998) and creative action (Joas, 1996) theories. Novel viewpoints and knowledge relating to the key cognitive practices employed, extending previous models of strategic cognition (Hodgkinson & Healey, 2011) will hopefully emerge.

REQUIRED: You are part of a team of business researchers that has been contracted by a Venture Capitalist, MXM Management, to undertake an empirical investigation into the role of entrepreneurial intuition in the sensemaking of strategic opportunities. The team has been given six months to conclude the investigation and to submit a report of the investigation to the management of ABC Ltd. The following research questions of the investigation have been assigned to the team: Research Question: The key research questions that will be addressed is:

What constitutes entrepreneurial intuition for strategists operating in the information technology sector in Gauteng? How do strategists in the information technology sector in Gauteng approach the opportunity-sensing process? How do strategists in the information technology sector in Gauteng actually utilise entrepreneurial intuition in the opportunity-sensing process?

Please outline how you would go about conducting the investigation with reference to the following:

a. Suggest a title for this study.

b. State the aim(s) and the significance of this investigation

c. State THREE (3) Research Objectives of the investigation

d. Motivate a research philosophy, a research approach/paradigm and a research design to buttress the study/investigation.

e. Using appropriate academic sources, discuss the methodological choices you would make with respect to the following:

Sampling Methodology: - The reasons why sampling would be necessary in this investigation. - Identify the target population and explain how you would select an appropriate sample for this investigation. - Explain, with reasons, whether your sampling strategy would be probability or non-probability. - Specify, define, and substantiate your choice of a sampling method for this investigation, highlighting, among others, why your chosen sampling method is the most suitable for this investigation.

Method of Data Collection - Discuss how your philosophical stance in this investigation would inform the collection of data. - Discuss the data collection instrument(s) and/or method(s) you would employ in this investigation to achieve the objectives of the investigation. Your discussion should highlight the rationale for choosing your data collection method(s).

Method of Data Analysis - Discuss how your philosophical stance in this investigation would inform the analysis of the data collected. - Briefly discuss the method(s) of data analysis you would employ. Highlight, where necessary, the steps involved in the data analysis process for each of your research questions in c