The cognitive perspective: a valuable tool for answering entrepreneurship's basic “why” questions
Section snippets
Executive summary
The cognitive perspective emphasizes the fact that everything we think, say, or do is influenced by mental processes—the cognitive mechanisms through which we acquire store, transform, and use information. It is suggested here that this perspective can be highly useful to the field of entrepreneurship. Specifically, it can assist the field in answering three basic questions it has long addressed: (1) Why do some persons but not others choose to become entrepreneurs? (2) Why do some persons but
Why do some persons but not others choose to become entrepreneurs?
Why did I, personally, decide to become an entrepreneur—to risk my time, accumulated wealth, and energy, in an effort to bring a new product to market? Clearly, many factors played a role. It seems very unlikely that I would ever have decided to adopt this course of action if I had not previously been exposed to actual entrepreneurs, either directly through personal contact, or indirectly through the media. In fact, I had observed entrepreneurs in both contexts: my grandfather started and ran a
Why do some persons but not others recognize opportunities?
Identification of a viable economic opportunity is an important initial step in the entrepreneurial process. In fact, entrepreneurs' decisions to found new ventures often stem from their belief that they have identified an opportunity no one else has yet recognized and so can benefit from being first to enter the marketplace. (Interestingly, however, growing evidence suggests that being an early follower may be more advantageous than being first in terms of order of entry into a market; Durand
Why are some entrepreneurs more successful than others?
That a large proportion of new ventures fail is clear; indeed, more than half vanish within a few years of being founded (Cooper et al., 1989). Yet others go on to major success and generate large amounts of wealth for their founders, many employees, and the communities in which they are located. This raises a question that is central to the field of entrepreneurship: What factors play a role in the financial success of new ventures? Clearly, the answer to this question is complex and involves
Benefits of a cognitive perspective: some concluding thoughts
The major conclusion of this paper can be stated quite succinctly: a cognitive perspective can prove extremely valuable to the field of entrepreneurship in its efforts to address several basic issues. As shown in Table 2, a wide range of cognitive factors and processes may prove helpful in this respect. Overall, then, including this perspective in the field's overall “tool kit” appears to offer the potential for significant benefits.
In concluding, it is important to note, once again, that a
References (44)
Cognitive mechanisms in entrepreneurship: why and when entrepreneurs think differently than other people
J. Bus. Venturing
(1998)- et al.
Person-entrepreneurship fit: the role of individual difference factors in new venture formation
J. Bus. Venturing
(2003) - et al.
Differences between entrepreneurs and managers in large organizations: biases and heuristics in strategic decision-making
J. Bus. Venturing
(1997) - et al.
Age, order of entry, strategic orientation, and organizational performance
J. Bus. Venturing
(2001) - et al.
Perceived risks and choices in entrepreneurs' new venture decisions
J. Bus. Venturing
(2000) Promotion and prevention: regulatory focus as a motivational principle
- et al.
Cognitive biases, risk perception, and venture formation: how individual decide to start companies
J. Bus. Venturing
(2000) - et al.
Does money matter? Wealth attainment as the motive for initiating growth-oriented technology ventures
J. Bus. Venturing
(2000) Self-efficacy: The exercise of control
(1997)Counterfactual thinking and venture formation: the potential effects of thinking about “what might have been”
J. Bus. Venturing
(2000)
Visual object recognition
Regulatory focus theory and the entrepreneurial process
J. Bus. Venturing
Exploring the “planning fallacy”: why people underestimate their task completion times
J. Pers. Soc. Psychol.
Entrepreneurship and the initial size of firms
J. Bus. Venturing
Mood and judgment: the affect infusion model (AIM)
Psychol. Bull.
The psychological basis of opportunity identification: entrepreneurial alertness
J. Small Bus. Econ.
Development of regulatory focus: promotion and prevention as ways of living
Achievement orientations from subjective histories of success: promotion pride versus prevention pride
Eur. J. Soc. Psychol.
Brain mechanisms and vision
Sci. Am.
Timid choices and bold forecasts: a cognitive perspective on risk taking
Cited by (687)
Entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial behaviour: Do self-efficacy and attitude matter?
2024, International Journal of Management EducationFlip the tweet – the two-sided coin of entrepreneurial empathy and its ambiguous influence on new product development
2024, Journal of Business VenturingA temporal typology of entrepreneurial opportunities: Implications for the optimal timing of entrepreneurial action
2024, Journal of Business VenturingIntegrating entrepreneurial and spiritual identities under uncertainty
2023, Journal of Business Venturing InsightsWhy am I so successful? Self-presentation and deliberative attributions of success in entrepreneurship
2023, Journal of Business Venturing InsightsPredicting entrepreneurial activity using machine learning
2023, Journal of Business Venturing Insights