Expanding Entrepreneurial Cognition's Toolbox: Potential Contributions from the Field of Cognitive Science

Abstract

Several measures and methods developed by the field of cognitive science may prove useful to researchers investigating various aspects of entrepreneurial cognition. These techniques include ones that have not, as yet, been applied to entrepreneurial cognition, such as reaction time, priming, measures of working memory, and measures of creative cognition. Because the questions addressed by any field are shaped, to an important degree, by the tools at its disposal, incorporating these measures into the study of entrepreneurial cognition may help to broaden the scope of this ongoing work. Specifically, these techniques may provide researchers with tools useful in exploring issues that have not previously been investigated in detail (e.g., the nature of entrepreneurs’ knowledge structures; their characteristic modes of thought). This, in turn, may enhance our understanding of the cognitive factors that influence key aspects of the entrepreneurial process.