Presented at CCSBE, Victora BC, May 2013byNorris Krueger, Max Planck Institute & Entrepreneurship Northwest

(thanks to great colleagues, Mellani Day, Angela Stanton, Isabell Welpe and so many more)

Neuroentrepreneurship: What Can Entrepreneurship Scholars & Educators (& Practitioners) Learn from Neuroscience?

Example: Libet, et.al. (1983):

Experimenter can detect intent almost 500 milliseconds before subject perceives it

Suggests neurological antecedents to: Intentions Behavior

What does this mean with regards to antecedents of entrepreneurial intent?

Why Neuro-entrepreneurship? Behavior starts at the “neuro” level Current methods don’t reach this

deep Opportunity to ask questions:

That we could not answer before That we couldn’t think to ask before In a better way To get better answers then ever before

Latest Work such as...

Entrepreneurship becoming focus? Sahakian team – 'hot' cognitions Wald team - dopamine

Nemmers Prize talk May 7, 2005

Activation in cingulate cortex & spindle cell density

Ultimatum games: This is your brain on unfairness

Herb Simon’s (1963) Levels

Economically-important regions of the human brain

Cingulate (yellow), orbitofrontal (pink), amygdala (orange), somatosensory (green), insula (purple)

Neuroeconomics has shown us that Experimental Methods Can: Reveal gaps in current theory Lead to better specified hypotheses

and propositions (Dolan 2008). Identify and analyze antecedent

states and their effects upon decision-making

Identify reflexive versus reflective behaviors and effects

What can neuroscience offer? Look into the “ultimate black box” Rigorous experimental

methodologies Can allow us to:

Understand deeper structures of entrepreneurial cognition

Map pre-decisional dynamics Conceptualize and measure

entrepreneurial decision-making Overcome “retrospective bias” and the

interactions among independent variables

Domains of neuroentrepreneurship and experimental entrepreneurship

Domain of Experimental Entrepreneurship

Neuroentrepreneurship

Limitations of Neuroscience What about group behaviors of

entrepreneurs as versus the individual?

Complex behaviors and systems of the brain – what are we seeing/measuring… really?

How to control for the influence of external or extraneous stimuli – are we measuring what we think we are measuring?

Learning to use the tools, methods and procedures – a new way of thinking about the issues (steep learning curve... turf?)

Interesting and relevant discoveries thus far…

Pre-entrepreneurial processes: affective & cognitive reasoning

Automatic versus Intentional Processing (reflexive versus reflective)

Mental prototypes – deeply held assumptions for the good or for the bad

Fluid intelligence – ability to solve new problems

Change blindness – focus on the little ball…

Relevant issues in current entrepreneurship research?

Common variance bias – attributes of entrepreneurs may indeed be correlated with attributes of the perceived opportunities

Dynamism of entrepreneurial processes Conflicting effects of independent

variables Perceived value of opportunities

Neuroscience Designs as Solutions? Design not just methodology proposed

Allows for current analysis of entrepreneurial decision process, but also…

…controls for situational specifics of entrepreneurial opportunities

Researchers must develop hypotheses and test explanations before the fact

Modeling dynamics and causes can reveal gaps in current theory; map dynamics of pre-entrepreneurial decision processes

Where to begin? What questions might we start with?

Deeper cognitive structures (Mitchell, 2000) E.g. Detect entrepreneurial scripts and

switches (on/off)? When does the idea become an

opportunity? When is that opportunity triggered as

something to act upon?

Detecting discontinuous changes – “Aha!”

Potential topics for research?

Behavioral Decision Theory: Framing Effects and Paradoxes Preferences Utilities

Game Theory Perceptions Emotions & Affect

Affect Passion & Fear Trust

Much, much more – applications in your area of research

Conclusion

Neuroscience methodologies and designs have much to offer

Could substantially advance the field of entrepreneurship

Exciting new world to explore and apply

We will undoubtedly be surprised and may very well have to change some current beliefs and assumptions

Thank you!

Norris.krueger@gmail.com@entrep_thinking (also FB, L-In)

Insula and low strategic IQ

Strategic IQ (x-axis): How much you earn from choices & beliefs

Correlated (-) with activity in L insula in choice task

Are overly self-focussed people poor strategic thinkers?

Overview of fMRI

Example: Entrepreneurial Opportunity

Various issues in current research: Dependent and independent variables

not specified or confounding variables not recognized or controlled for (Shane, 2000, 2004; Venkataraman, 1997)

Static versus dynamic perspective Opportunity characteristics not

recognized or matched with entrepreneur

Absence of experimental approaches