Prior Knowledge and Entrepreneurial Cognition

Abstract

A series of studies have researched the role of prior knoweldge at the start of the entrepreneurial process. We assume that heterogeneity in individuals’ knowledge provides an answer to one of the most important questions in entrepreneurship research: Why do some individuals recognize new business opportunities while others do not? More specifically, we ask: How do different types of knowledge trigger the recognition of different types (e.g., commercial, sustainable, health-related, international) of opportunities? How do different sources of knowledge (internal and external to the entrepreneur) influence opportunity recognition? Having identified important types and sources of knowledge, how do cognitive processes, in particular structural alignment, in conjunction with prior knowledge impact opportunity identification? In Chap. 2, we address these questions drawing on extant research from both cognitive science and entrepreneurship.