Psychology of Entrepreneurship and Change
Psychologie des Unternehmertums und Wandels
6 LPWiSeENFÜS
Voraussetzungen
Zwingend, im Wortlaut
No successful participation in modules • 13811 Behavioral Resource Management • 13514 Individuals in Transformation Processess
Inhalte
In this module, we venture into the specifics of a wide range of decision-making theories. We travel through a diverse collection of seminal theories, including many that have formed the basis of Nobel Prize-winning research. We emphasize the interdisciplinary application of insights to ensure that students from a variety of disciplines can absorb and apply the knowledge gained in this module to their own professional decision-making scenarios. The concepts and theories are presented in lectures. Students practice their theory application skills by presenting and discussing critical issues and applications of these theories in seminar. The literature is presented in the lecuture and students can afterwards read the literature in depth. The topics include: • Satisficing and dual process theories • Risk aversion and ambiguity aversion • Prospect theory and loss aversion • Mental accounting and choice bracketing • Risk reduction strategies: Hedging, learning, and real options • Time preferences • Status-quo, escalation of commitment, and the not-invented-here effect • Personal initiative, sensation seeking, and entrepreneurship • Rational herding and individually irrational learning • Nash equilibrium and individually irrational cooperation In each session of the module, we will focus on one or two articles that present a specific theory or topic. To collect data, all students take part in a survey that measures some of the constructs addressed in the module, allowing lectures and seminars to use student data as a basis for discussion.
Lernziele
After sucessfully completing this module, students will understand how fundamental psychological theories of decision-making under uncertainty, complex interdependence, and intertemporal dynamics can help explain the behavior of individuals who drive change, such as entrepreneurs, innovators, and social activists. They will have developed a basic understanding of the key psychological and behavioral economics theories related to decision-making under risk, uncertainty, and with intertemporal consequences. Students will be able to identify and explain critical patterns of thinking and decision-making in workplace contexts. Students will also be able to apply these theories to real-world situations.
Prüfungsleistung
Prerequisite for the final module examination: • Data collection (allowing lectures and seminars to use student data as a basis for discussion) Final module examination: • Written examination, 90 minutes Bonus marks of up to 10 per cent for a theory-application paper (essay), 1,200 - 1,500 words
Literatur (19)
- Bernardo, A. E., & Welch, I. (2001). On the evolution of overconfidence and entrepreneurs. Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, 10(3), 301-330.
- Bönte, W., Urbig. D. (2019) Connecting People and Knowledge: Knowledge Spillovers, Cognitive Biases, and Entrepreneurship (Chapter 34). In: E. E. Lehmann, M. Keilbach (eds.), From Industrial Organization to Entrepreneurship. Springer, pp. 385-397.
- Crant, J. M. (2000). Proactive behavior in organizations. Journal of Management, 26(3), 435-462.
- Ellsberg, D. (1961). Risk, ambiguity, and the savage axioms. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 75(4), 643-669.
- Evans, J. S. B., & Stanovich, K. E. (2013). Dual-process theories of higher cognition: Advancing the debate. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 8(3), 223-241.
- Fehr, E., & Schmidt, K. M. (1999). A theory of fairness, competition, and cooperation. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 114(3), 817-868.
- Fox, C. R., & Tversky, A. (1995). Ambiguity aversion and comparative ignorance. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 110(3), 585-603.
- Frederick, S., Loewenstein, G., & O'donoghue, T. (2002). Time discounting and time preference: A critical review. Journal of Economic Literature, 40(2), 351-401.
- Kahneman, D., Tversky, A. (1979). Prospect theory: An analysis of decisions under risk. Econometrica, 47, 278.
- Loewenstein, G. F., Weber, E. U., Hsee, C. K., & Welch, N. (2001). Risk as feelings. Psychological Bulletin, 127(2), 267–286.
- Ostrom, E. (2000). Collective action and the evolution of social norms. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 14(3), 137-158.
- Read, D., Loewenstein, G., Rabin, M., Keren, G., & Laibson, D. (2000). Choice bracketing. In S. Barbera, P. Hammond, & C. Seidl (Eds.), Elicitation of Preferences (pp. 171–202). Springer.
- Samuelson, W., & Zeckhauser, R. (1988). Status quo bias in decision making. Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, 1(1), 7-59.
- Simon, H. A. (1955). A behavioural model of rational choice. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 69(1), 99-118.
- Staw, B. M. (1981). The escalation of commitment to a course of action. Academy of Management Review, 6(4), 577-587.
- Thaler, R. (1985). Mental accounting and consumer choice. Marketing Science, 4(3), 199-214.
- Trigeorgis, L., & Reuer, J. J. (2017). Real options theory in strategic management. Strategic Management Journal, 38(1), 42-63:
- Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1973). Availability: A heuristic for judging frequency and probability. Cognitive Psychology, 5(2), 207-232.
- Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1991). Loss aversion in riskless choice: A reference-dependent model. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 106(4), 1039-1061.
Bemerkungen
The module is open to both Bachelor’s and Master’s students.
Quelle: Modulbeschreibung der BTU · abgerufen 19.10.2026Original