The Central Question in Entrepreneurial Cognition Research 2007

Abstract

In this article, we take note of advances in the entrepreneurial cognition research stream. In doing so, we bring increasing attention to the usefulness of entrepreneurial cognition research. First, we offer and develop a central research question to further enable entrepreneurial cognition inquiry. Second, we present the conceptual background and some representative approaches to entrepreneurial cognition research that form the context for this question. Third, we introduce the articles in this Special Issue as framed by the central question and approaches to entrepreneurial cognition research, and suggest how they further contribute to this developing stream. Finally, we offer our views concerning the challenges and opportunities that await the next generation of entrepreneurial cognition scholarship. We therefore invite (and seek to enable) the growing community of entrepreneurship researchers from across multiple disciplines to further develop the "thinkingdoing" link in entrepreneurship research. It is our goal to offer colleagues an effective research staging point from which they may embark upon many additional research expeditions and investigations involving entrepreneurial cognition.

Focus on opportunities as a mediator of the relationship between business owners' age and venture growth

“…A main focus of upper echelons theory with regard to the psychological mechanisms that link the individual with the firm is the top managers' approach towards information processing. In the entrepreneurship literature, scholars adopted a cognitive perspective to explain why the entrepreneur influences firm levels outcomes and focused on concepts such as biases in the entrepreneurial decision making processes, entrepreneurial expertise, alertness, or effectuation (Baron, 2004;Mitchell et al, 2007). In addition to these processes, we suggest that business owners' focus on opportunities, which describes how many new goals, plans, options, and opportunities they believe to have in their occupational future, is an important psychological mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the effects of business owners' age.…”

“…Another important task for future research is to examine how focus on opportunities relates to other concepts discussed by entrepreneurial cognition researchers (Baron, 2004;Baron & Ward, 2004;Mitchell et al, 2007). For example, Baron (2004) suggested that business owners with a strong promotion focus (Higgins, 1998) are more likely to search for opportunities and to generate hypotheses concerning opportunities.…”

An Identity-Based Approach to Social Enterprise

“…This involves drawing together insights about target markets, resources, revenue streams, and costs to develop a model for how a venture will create and capture value. These efforts evolve through an iterative process of internal development and evaluation, through which an entrepreneur applies her knowledge and competencies to develop a business model (Mitchell et al, 2007), and external feedback, where she seeks advice on the quality and potential of the nascent venture (Sarasvarthy, 2001;.…”

How Perceptions of the Global Economic Slowdown Impact and Local Risks Adversely Affect Perceived Opportunities and Subsequent Startup Activities

“…Equally important, this manuscript is the first to leverage cognitive theory to and perceptive variables of interest to explain entrepreneurial phenomena of interest. Hence, these findings contribute entrepreneurship research and extend entrepreneurial cognition theory (Mitchell et al, 2002;Mitchell et al, 2004;Mitchell et al, 2007) in meaningful ways by establishing mediated relationships between the perceived global economic slowdown and startup activity and between perceived local risks and startup activities with perceived opportunity as the mediator.…”

“…More specifically, we leverage a specific type of cognitive theory, entrepreneurial cognitions (Mitchell, Buseniz, Lant, McDougall, Morse, and Smith, 2002;Mitchell, Buseniz, Lant, McDougall, Morse, and Smith, 2004;Mitchell, Buseniz, Bird, Gaglio, McMullen, Morse, and Smith, 2007), to examine the phenomena discussed in this manuscript. "Entrepreneurial cognitions are the knowledge structures that people use to make assessments, judgments, or decisions involving opportunity evaluation, venture creation, and growth."…”