The Entrepreneurial Cognitive Flexibility. A Study at the Intersection of Neuroscience and Entrepreneurship

Today's world faces growing uncertainties, including climate change, biodiversity loss and geopolitical instability. To meet these challenges, we urgently need more people who can act under uncertainty, as entrepreneurs do. This dissertation focuses on cognitive flexibility, an important ability to navigate in highly uncertain environments, drawing on both the literature on entrepreneurial cognition and innovative approaches from neuroscience. Using neuroimaging, the study shows that habitual entrepreneurs have greater cognitive flexibility than managers, and reveals structural and functional differences in the brains of habitual entrepreneurs compared to managers. These differences are associated with cognitive flexibility. This exploratory research opens new avenues for interdisciplinary research at the intersection of neuroscience and entrepreneurship, offering promising opportunities to better understand and cultivate this crucial ability.