In the dynamic and uncertain landscape of entrepreneurship, this study examines how entrepreneurs’ reliance on the availability heuristic influences their likelihood of initiating business pivots within the challenging ecosystem of a developing country. Drawing on data from 123 Iranian university-based startups, the research employs Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to test a model linking cognitive heuristics to business pivot decisions, moderated by entrepreneurial networking dimensions—grid style, interdependence and network links. The results demonstrate that the availability heuristic positively affects entrepreneurial pivoting and that networking dimensions significantly moderate this relationship by either amplifying or buffering this effect. Importantly, networking dimensions exert distinct moderating roles: Grid style amplifies the translation of heuristic judgments into strategic action, whereas interdependence and network links attenuate this relationship by enabling collective validation and access to diverse information. Among them, network links exert the strongest buffering effect, highlighting the importance of relational diversity in offsetting cognitive bias. These findings contribute to entrepreneurial cognition and developmental entrepreneurship literature by revealing how cognitive heuristics, when embedded within differentiated network structures, shape strategic responsiveness in resource-constrained ecosystems.
Parsanejad et al. (Mon,) studied this question.