A Stage-Mapped Framework for Neuroentrepreneurship: Linking Real-Time Decision Processes to Entrepreneurial Behavior

Entrepreneurship demands rapid judgments, timely commitments, and effective learning from outcomes—yet we know remarkably little about the moment-to-moment neural processes underpinning these abilities. This review synthesises existing neuroscience and decision-science evidence within a three-stage framework of entrepreneurial decision-making: evaluation of opportunities, commitment to action, and feedback-based learning. Using this structure, we highlight key field limitations—including small and selective samples, task and measurement heterogeneity, and weak linkage between laboratory paradigms and real-world entrepreneurial behavior—and introduce a stage-mapped, computationally explicit framework that renders these processes empirically testable. We propose practical steps to support cumulative progress, such as portable tasks suitable for field testing, single-trial analyses linking computational choice parameters to neural dynamics, and preregistration practices that preserve confirmatory rigor while allowing bounded exploration. Drawing on established decision-science paradigms (e.g., multi-armed bandit and foraging), we specify stage-linked behavioral and neural relationships that characterize how entrepreneurs evaluate uncertain opportunities, decide when to act, and update beliefs following success or failure. We conclude with priorities for research priorities and a roadmap toward a coherent science of neuroentrepreneurship that links brain processes to proximal decision behaviors which, across repeated cycles, may contribute probabilistically to entrepreneurial success.