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Hi Colleagues:

Entrepreneurial cognition research has developed perspectives and methods that can ably serve the larger entrepreneurship research community.  Along with like-minded colleagues, we – as Editors and Advisory Board – are gathering the best work in the "how to" of entrepreneurial cognition research, to publish it in the "Handbook of Entrepreneurial Cognition." 

We believe that as cognition research moves from static to dynamic, this is the moment in time in the development of the entrepreneurial cognition research stream when, as a field, we are ready to invite many more interested researchers to join the effort. This Handbook can enable this invitation to become a reality through gathering and making more explicit the tacit and explicit knowledge of entrepreneurial cognition researchers worldwide. Please read the call (reminder) included in this email and seriously consider making a contribution.  Thanks in advance for your consideration.

Warmly for the Editors,

Ron Mitchell, Co-Editor

_____________________________
RONALD K. MITCHELL, CPA, Ph.D.
Professor of Entrepreneurship
Jean Austin Bagley Regents Chair in Management

Area of Management Doctoral Program Advisor

Rawls College of Business
Texas Tech University


www.ronaldmitchell.org

CALL FOR PAPERS

Handbook of Entrepreneurial Cognition

Due date: December 1, 2012

Editors:

Rob Mitchell, Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario

Ron Mitchell, Rawls College of Business, Texas Tech University

Brandon Randolph-Seng, Rawls College of Business, Texas Tech University

Advisory Panel:

Robert Baron, Oklahoma State University

Melissa Cardon, Pace University

Andrew Corbett, Babson College

Joep Cornelissen, VU University Amsterdam

Denis Gregoire, Syracuse University

Jeff McMullen, Indiana University

As a stream of research, the study of entrepreneurial cognition has shown appeal and resiliency as a narrative that contributes explanations to questions concerning how entrepreneurs think (Mitchell et al., 2007).  As this literature has developed, the rich variety in both theoretical and empirical work has been manifest in what, to some observers, might seem to be a somewhat separate set of conversations, depending upon focus.  Helpfully, recent developments in cognitive psychology provide an opportunity for synthesis in entrepreneurial cognition research.

That is, whereas much entrepreneurial cognition research to date has reflected a more static kind of representation of abstract disembodied cognitive structures or boxologies (see e.g., Smith & Semin, 2004), more recent research has begun to broaden conceptualizations of entrepreneurial cognition.  Recent conceptualizations suggest that entrepreneurial cognition is socially situated (Cornelissen & Clarke, 2010; Haynie, Shepherd, Mosakowski, & Earley, 2010; Mitchell, Randolph-Seng, & Mitchell, 2011).

The Handbook of Entrepreneurial Cognition adopts the lens of socially situated cognition as a generally applicable approach to the examination of the many facets of entrepreneurial cognition research.  A socially situated cognition approach to entrepreneurial cognition reflects how, as the entrepreneurial process unfolds, "social objects not only constitute the content of thought but also shape the process underlying thought and behavior" (Mitchell et al., 2011: 774).  Four broad themes constitute a socially situated approach to entrepreneurial cognition (Mitchell et al., 2011: 774-775; Smith & Semin, 2004):

(1)   Entrepreneurial cognition is action-oriented (i.e., captures the positive or negative evaluations of, or motivations toward an object or concept)

(2)   Entrepreneurial cognition is embodied (i.e., captures the interrelationship between the physical brain and body to capture how the body shapes the mind)

(3)   Entrepreneurial cognition is situated (i.e., captures the communicative context, relational context, and group context in which cognition and action occur), and

(4)   Entrepreneurial cognition is distributed  (i.e., captures the variety that occurs in the distribution of cognition across social agents and the environment)

The purpose of this Handbook is to bring together the top scholars in entrepreneurial cognition research to address best practices and research questions that – broadly construed – might be encapsulated within the four themes laid out above. Our plan for the book contemplates three sections. The first section will contain chapters that address and develop each of the specific themes using an entrepreneurship lens. The chapters in this section may typically do either or both of the following; they either review and explore past topics within entrepreneurial cognition research but consider how they can be reconsidered and rethought from the perspective of a socially situated approach, or they import concepts and ideas from social and cognitive psychology on this perspective which are then extended to, and blended with, the entrepreneurial context. The second section will contain chapters that bridge two or more themes (i.e., extending research in one theme to other themes). Chapters in this section will synthesize different elements of the socially situated approach, combining embodied activity with mental states, cognitive processes with content, and individual and collective levels of analysis in entrepreneurship research. Lastly, the third section will provide chapters that extend entrepreneurial cognition research beyond the themes in the socially situated cognition view (either in a broader or narrower context), e.g., to address antecedent, process, levels, and interdisciplinary linkage-focused perspectives (cf., Grégoire, Corbett & McMullen, 2011). Chapters in this could include, for example, expansive and reflective contributions on the insights and explanations provided by the socially situated approach, and reflect on its position and research agenda in relation to past research on entrepreneurial cognition. Both empirical and theoretical manuscripts are encouraged.  

By organizing the most current ideas from top scholars around a more dynamic conceptualization of entrepreneurial cognition – the socially-situated cognition research in general, and these themes in particular – we suggest the opportunity for new directions for research to be imagined, and for a more-comprehensive/ inclusive framework to be offered.  We envision a book where past, current, and future research can itself be compiled into a highly-useful locus of the latest "thinking about entrepreneurial thinking."  

All manuscripts that are submitted to the Handbook of Entrepreneurial Cognition will receive blind reviews.  Please feel free to contact the Editors below to discuss paper ideas for this handbook.  We also welcome the opportunity to informally discuss paper ideas for this handbook at any time prior to the December 1, 2012 deadline.  Our hope is that the resulting collection of papers will further expand the boundaries of entrepreneurial cognition research.

Contact: Rob Mitchell, 519-850-2463, rmitchell@ivey.ca; Ron Mitchell, 806-834-1548 ronald.mitchell@ttu.edu; Brandon Randolph-Seng, 806-834-2044, b.randolph-seng@ttu.edu

References:

Cornelissen, J. P., & Clarke, J. S. 2010. Imagining and rationalizing opportunities: Inductive reasoning and the creation and justification of new ventures. Academy of Management Review, 35(4): 539-557.

Grégoire, D. A., Corbett, A. C., & McMullen, J. S. 2011. The cognitive perspective in entrepreneurship: An agenda for future research. Journal of Management Studies,, 48(6): 1443-1477.

Haynie, J. M., Shepherd, D. A., Mosakowski, E., & Earley, C. 2010. A situated metacognitive model of the entrepreneurial mindset. Journal of Business Venturing, 25(2): 217-229.

Mitchell, R. K., Busenitz, L., Bird, B., Gaglio, C. M., McMullen, J. S., Morse, E. A., & Smith, J. B. 2007. The central question in entrepreneurial cognition research 2007. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 31(1): 1-27.

Mitchell, R. K., Randolph-Seng, B., & Mitchell, J. R. 2011. Socially situated cognition: Imagining new opportunities for entrepreneurship research (Dialogue). Academy of Management Review, 36(4): 774-776.

Smith, E. R., & Semin, G. R. 2004. Socially situated cognition: Cognition in its social context. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 36: 53-117. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

_____________________________
RONALD K. MITCHELL, CPA, Ph.D.
Professor of Entrepreneurship
Jean Austin Bagley Regents Chair in Management

Area of Management Doctoral Program Advisor

Rawls College of Business
Texas Tech University


www.ronaldmitchell.org