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For organizational neuroscience to progress, it requires an overarching theoretical framework that locates neural processes appropriately within the wider context of organizational cognitive activities. In this chapter, we argue the case for building such a framework on two foundations: (1) critical realism, and (2) socially situated cognition. Critical realism holds to the importance of identifying biophysical roots for organizational activity (including neurophysiological processes) while acknowledging the top-down influence of higher-level, emergent organizational phenomena such as routines and structures, thereby avoiding the trap of reductionism. Socially situated cognition connects the brain, body, and mind to social, cultural, and environmental forces, as significant components of complex organizational systems. By focusing on adaptive action as the primary explanandum, socially situated cognition posits that, although the brain plays a driving role in adaptive organizational activity, this activity also relies on the body, situational context, and cognitive processes that are distributed across organizational agents and artifacts. The value of the framework that we sketch out is twofold. First, it promises to help organizational neuroscience become more than an arena for validating basic neuroscience concepts, enabling organizational researchers to backfill into social neuroscience, by identifying unique relations between the brain and social organization. Second, it promises to build deeper connections between neuroscience and mainstream theories of organizational behavior, by advancing models of managerial and organizational cognition that are biologically informed and socially situated.

In response to recent calls to better understand the brain’s role in organizational behavior, we propose a series of theoretical tests to examine the question “can brains manage?” Our tests ask whether brains can manage without bodies and without extracranial resources, whether they can manage in social isolation, and whether brains are the ultimate controllers of emotional and cognitive aspects of organizational behavior. Our analysis shows that, to accomplish work-related tasks in organizations, the brain relies on and closely interfaces with the body, interpersonal and social dynamics, and cognitive and emotional processes that are distributed across persons and artifacts. The results of this “thought experiment” suggest that the brain is more appropriately conceived as a regulatory organ that integrates top-down (i.e., social, artifactual and environmental) and bottom-up (i.e., neural) influences on organizational behavior, rather than the sole cause of that behavior. Drawing on a socially situated perspective, our analysis develops a framework that connects brain, body and mind to social, cultural, and environmental forces, as significant components of complex emotional and cognitive organizational systems. We discuss the implications for the emerging field of organizational cognitive neuroscience and for conceptualizing the interaction between the brain, cognition and emotion in organizations.

The purpose of this chapter is to explore whether and how angel investors’ emotions unfold in the investment opportunity evaluation process as they interact with the social environment. Complementing recent research that has emphasized the financial calculations, we add angel investors’ own emotional arousal to the list of tools that may help them to rate investment opportunities.

Drawing on semi-structured qualitative interviews, we develop a phenomenological analysis of the investment opportunity evaluation process at the level of angel investors’ lived experience.

Our findings indicate that when angel investors use their emotional arousal in evaluating investment criteria, they engage in a developmental process characterized by three elements: subjective validation, social validation, and investment decision.

We illuminate how discrete emotions can complement rational considerations in the opportunity evaluation journey. Capturing the nature of emotion as action oriented, embodied, socially situated, and distributed, we embrace its adaptive socially situated dynamics.

Taking a step toward better understanding of the soft aspects in the relationship development that leads to investments, we hope this study will help not only those entrepreneurs who need funding but also those policymakers who design new incentives that improve the flow of investment into promising new ventures.

We demonstrate how angel investors’ emotions can complement their rational considerations in the investment opportunity evaluation process as they interact with the social environment. Identifying boundary values for the conditions that are necessary and sufficient to advance in the process, we have demonstrated how emotion can serve as a driving or restraining force not only during subjective validation but also during social validation.

This chapter sets forth how and why diary data analysis can help significantly advance inquiry into the intersubjective aspects of entrepreneurial opportunities. We start the chapter with a presentation of the sensemaking perspective for the study of intersubjectivity in entrepreneurship. Next, we address epistemological limitations of retrospective data collection methods and examine the relevance of real-time, prospective data, specifically diary data, for the study of intersubjective phenomena associated with entrepreneurial activity. Furthermore, we describe our experiences with application of this method to the study of entrepreneurial cognitive development in the context of longitudinal, diary data-based research on this topic. We also address limitations of the diary data collection method and propose future research avenues for studies on intersubjective dimensions of entrepreneurial agency, before concluding this chapter.

Despite the extensive research on the determinants and consequences of firm growth, research focusing on how the actual process unfolds is still evolving. An important part of firm growth process research is entrepreneurial cognition. The purpose of this chapter is to explore the relationship between entrepreneurial cognition and firm growth intentions. Specifically, we propose a theoretical model of entrepreneurial cognitive interpretation and categorization of market information as it relates to firm growth intentions. Drawing from the strategic cognition literature in general and strategic issue interpretation literature in particular, we propose that entrepreneurs’ interpretation of market information as opportunity or threat, gain or loss, and controllable or uncontrollable influences their firm growth intentions. Furthermore, our theoretical model discusses the condition under which favorable interpretation of market information leads to higher growth intentions by incorporating insights from the Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) construct. This chapter extends our understanding of firm growth processes by highlighting the important role cognitive interpretation and categorization play in facilitating or hindering entrepreneurial firm growth.

Educators are increasingly required to develop creativity and entrepreneurial capabilities amongst students, yet within the fields of entrepreneurship and innovation these are presented as separate processes. We explore the theoretical and conceptual similarities and differences between these processes, and relate this to a range of experiential and digitally enhanced learning activities in formal education settings.

We present a conceptual model of the iterative nature of creativity and entrepreneurship as separate cognitive and social processes leading to aesthetic or sense-making outcomes. This leads to a discussion of how these processes may be experienced by students within an educational setting.

We propose a framework of learning activities which support the development of creativity through teaching entrepreneurially, at primary, secondary, and tertiary education levels. A range of different approaches is critically evaluated according to their relevance, including business planning, simulations, roleplay, co-creation, and flashmobs. Flashmobs are proposed to be most suitable and an outline learning activity design is mapped in detail against creative and entrepreneurial processes.

This chapter supports educational practice and research on learning through entrepreneurship in allowing educators and researchers to evaluate how learning activities may directly contribute to students’ learning through experience and the development of their creative and entrepreneurial mind-set.

This chapter is of value to educators as it explains how creative and entrepreneurial processes may be experienced by students through different forms of learning activity. It is of further value to research on entrepreneurial learning in considering how the creative process may inform entrepreneurial action.

This chapter overviews how neuroscience can provide a new lens to understand leadership processes in organizations. We describe how neurological scanning can be applied to leadership research, as well as its potential advantages over more traditional techniques, such as surveys. Research to date is summarized pertaining to how neuroscience can inform such conceptualizations as transformational, complex/adaptive, and ethical forms of leadership. Findings indicate that effective versus not-so-effective leaders can be distinguished neurologically, and such assessment can benefit the prediction of important leadership outcomes. We caution that context needs to be taken into account in that not only can neurological variables associated with leaders affect organizational behavior and outcomes, but it is equally important to understand how the context can affect neurological qualities of individuals. Finally, we describe how it may be possible to use neurofeedback techniques to help develop leadership qualities of people in industry and in education programs, such as those in business schools.

We argue that voice – the sound that people produce when they speak – is an important resource for entrepreneurs, especially when they are pitching to potential investors. We integrate evidence from entrepreneurship, social psychology and linguistics to show that the voice can be regarded both as a tool for entrepreneurs to utilize and as a vital source of information allowing listeners to make judgements about the speaker and their message. To better understand how the voice may be used and interpreted in investment pitches, we develop a model of the relationship between the entrepreneurial voice and investor judgments. Voice depends on entrepreneurs’ characteristics including gender and communication goals but can be utilized to express emotions (purposefully or not) and signal qualities such as competence and trustworthiness. How potential investors interpret these displays depends on cultural expectations and stereotypes. Our review illustrates that female entrepreneurs may find it more difficult to persuade investors due to their naturally higher voice pitch and bias against speech patterns prevalent among young women. We highlight directions for future research exploring the voice as a unique cultural resource for entrepreneurs.