关于认知和行为理论分析探究

Introduction 介绍

This essay aim to critically investigate the important cognitive and behavioural aspects of the entrepreneurial mindset in order to determine its distinctive features and the ways in which it distinguishes entrepreneurs from other individuals.
本文的目的，主要是，其对重要的认知和行为方面进行调查，以确定鲜明的特点和方式，用于区别于其他个体的企业家的创业心态。

Entrepreneurship has been extensively studied by management and behavioural experts and a distinct body of work has developed on the subject (Barringer & Ireland, 2010). Lazear, (2004), provides a description of an entrepreneur as a person who starts a fresh venture. This is a truly wide definition and equates, to my mind, a person who starts a new dry cleaning shop or a restaurant with Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com and Steve Jobs of Apple. 

Whilst such an assumption does nevertheless contain an element of truth, it shows that it is difficult to generalise conclusions on entrepreneurship because of the range of entrepreneurial activity and the diverse types of entrepreneurs (Barringer & Ireland, 2010). Research on entrepreneurship, among other things, attempts to address the reasons for development of entrepreneurship (Barringer & Ireland, 2010). Such research addresses issues like (a) the reasons behind the engagement in entrepreneurial activity by certain people, whilst others who are equally talented and dynamic do not do so, and again, (b) the reasons for the perception of entrepreneurial opportunities by some, although others are unable to do so (Brockhaus & Horwitz, 1986). 

I have attempted to answer these questions through the application of behavioural and cognitive theories.
我试图通过一些应用程序的行为和已经通过认知的理论来回答这些问题。
This essay critically analyses these two theories on the development of the entrepreneurial mindset. I have tried to apply entrepreneurial theory to the case of Jeff Bezos, in order to test the extent to which various aspects of cognitive and behavioural theories validate and explain the emergence and growth of Amazon.com, the legendary company he founded in 1994.  http://www.ukassignment.org/lxslw/

. Behavioural Theories行为理论

Behavioural theories have been applied to psychologists and behavioural specialists to explain leadership, but, in recent years also being used to explain entrepreneurial activity. 一些心理学家和行为专家会发表一些解释领导行为的理论，但是，近年来这些也被用来解释一些创业的行为活动。
 The behavioural theory is closely associated with the traits theory and essentially makes the point that entrepreneurs have some particular traits and characteristics that separate them from others. Timmons, et al, (1977), identified 14 significant behavioural characteristics of owners of enterprises, namely (1) self confidence, (2) energy and drive, (3) personal responsibility and initiative, (4) clear goal setting, (5) internal locus of control, (6) ambiguity tolerance, (7) absence of fear of failure, (8) ability to take risks, (9) constant use of feedback, (10) pragmatic approach to solving of problems, (11) self imposition of standards, (12) the use of money as a measure and not just an end, (13) self imposed standards and (14) willingness to use resources. 

Subsequent research studies on behavioural and personality differences have found that entrepreneurs share a number of personality traits with business executives and that it is difficult to differentiate entrepreneurs from successful business executives on the basis of psychological and behavioural traits (Brockhouse & Horwitz, 1986). 

Whilst the results of such research appear to indicate the existence of little difference between entrepreneurs and others, research by Dyer, et al, (2008) reveals that truly innovative entrepreneurs differ from others in their methods of acquiring information in four behavioural areas namely, questioning, observing, experimenting and idea networking. Their research concludes that entrepreneurs ask questions that challenge the existing state of things, spend time on intensely examining the world around them in their search for new ideas, constantly experiment by way of exploring their environment them with the intention of testing their hypotheses, and bounce their ideas of networks of individuals with different perspectives and behaviours. 

The study of Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, reveals that Bezos determined in 1994 that the web was expanding at more than 2000% a year. He thereafter quit a good Wall Street job to start investigating the ways in which he could achieve benefits from such phenomenal online growth. He first developed an online book exchange service that allowed people to exchange used and read books, and by doing so established a network of book lovers from whom he got ideas about their needs for books (Brandt, 2011).Whilst the behavioural theory has until not until now been truly supported by empirical observation, the history of Bezos does provide some empirical evidence on the logicality of the assertions made by Dyler and his associates.  

. Cognitive Theory认知理论

Although empirical support for the existence of behavioural differences between entrepreneurs and others appears to be scarce, considerable empirical evidence is emerging for the existence of cognitive differences between these two sets of people (Gustavsson, 2004). Some of the particular areas that have been taken up for such research include heuristic logic, perceived connections and alertness, entrepreneurial expertise, effectuation, and cognitive biases (Gustavsson, 2004).