Thinking about cognition and its central role in entrepreneurship: confessions of a ‘reformed’ behaviourist

Abstract

Cognition is now widely recognized as an important key to understanding central aspects of entrepreneurship -everything from opportunity recognition and alertness, on the one hand, through planning, improvisation, strategy formulation, and even the decision to exit from a new venture, on the other. However, this was not always the case; the present author started his own career as a 'hard-nosed behaviorist,' believing that cognition was unobservable and therefore not an appropriate topic for research. Only gradually did he come to recognize its central importance in virtually every aspect of complex human behavior, including entrepreneurship. In order to investigate its role in entrepreneurship, we can draw on several different sources of knowledge (e.g., input from successful entrepreneurs). Among these, however, systematic research offers the most effective approach. Future studies can draw on current knowledge of cognition to investigate a myriad of intriguing issues, including the role of self-regulation in entrepreneurs' success, and the role of several cognitive factors in entrepreneurs' high levels of philanthropy -their widely recognized tendency to 'give back' by sharing their wealth with others (e.g., universities, charitable organizations).There's nothing better [than] when something comes and hits you and you think 'YES!' J.K. Rowling I never made one of my discoveries through the process of rational thinking.

Self-exploitation or successful entrepreneurship? The effects of personal capital on variable outcomes from self-employment

“…It also complements the "cognitive turn" in entrepreneurship research, which has looked at cognition broadly, and in particular heuristic biases such as over-confidence and over-exuberance, as a means of better understanding entrepreneurship (e.g. Baron, 2014;Cassar, 2010). Where this study diverges from behavioural and cognitive perspectives is in the consideration of physiological, i.e.…”

Psychological time of green entrepreneurs: a mixed methods study of SMEs

“…The most widely studied cognitive features of green entrepreneurs include mindfulness (Kalyar et al ., 2021), knowledge of the natural and social environment (Hanohov and Baldacchino, 2018), opportunity recognition (Hanohov and Baldacchino, 2018), creativity (Jiang et al ., 2020), risk-taking (Qazi et al ., 2021) and alertness (Baron, 2014; Chen and Tseng, 2021). Other studies have also attempted to investigate the motives of green entrepreneurs (Gunawan et al ., 2021; Hameed et al ., 2021; Hanohov and Baldacchino, 2018; Kaesehage et al ., 2019; Nikolaou et al ., 2018), their personal values (Gunawan et al ., 2021), emotional characteristics (De Bernardi and Pedrini, 2020; Feng and Chen, 2020) and behavioral features (De Bernardi and Pedrini, 2020; Feng and Chen, 2020; Kosmynin, 2022).…”

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“…In summary, it can be argued that the field of entrepreneurial cognition encompasses all aspects of cognition that can potentially play a key role in various aspects of the entrepreneurial process (Sánchez et al, 2011). Therefore, entrepreneurial cognition is becoming increasingly useful to help establish the phenomenon associated with entrepreneurship, since this theory helps us to understand how an entrepreneur absorbs, processes, organizes and relates information (Baron, 2014;Tabares et al, 2020).…”