Abstract
This thesis investigates the cognitive factors involved all along the entrepreneurial process and their impact over the different activities underlying such process. We aim at answering the research question: What is the impact of entrepreneurial cognition on the successful implementation of an innovation?To tackle this question, we depicted the subject in three axes. The first essay proposes a conceptual model of individual innovation embedded in the entrepreneurial process. We conceptualize the different stages of creative idea generation, evaluation and implementation and examine the peculiarities of each stage and the influence of cognitive factors. The second paper presents an empirical analysis that tests the hypotheses issued from the model through an economic experiment with 70 entrepreneurs. The experimental design provides an objective measure of innovation and imitates every stage of the process: from the generation of ideas all throughout the implementation and performance of innovations in the market. Our findings show that although creativity is the source of innovations, the relationship between generation of ideas and its implementation is influenced by cognitive factors: overconfidence, optimism and risk-taking. The third essay focuses on the decision by innovative individuals to start a venture. Building on a quantitative study with 124 researches, from which 76 created their venture, we contribute to the debate about the link between innovation and entrepreneurship: being innovative is not enough for becoming an entrepreneur, self-efficacy beliefs an risk-taking behavior are two drivers of individual’s decision to start a venture.