The Chair for Research and Science Management and Neurophysiological Leadership Laboratory congratulate Dr. Leidy Cubillos-Pinilla for successfully defending her dissertation! We learned about the cognitive science of smart rule-breaking tendencies and their relationship with entrepreneurship. We also learned about the mixture of neuroscience, management, and entrepreneurship. Moreover, we were able to engage in the ethical discussions that these topics have in the praxis at the first hand of experts.
We want to thank Dr. Nicola Breugst and Dr. Peter Fischer for their expertise and for making this dissertation defence possible.
Dr. Cubillos-Pinilla’s dissertation contributes crucial insights to psychology, management research, cognitive science, and organizational neuroscience. The present dissertation contributes to the theory in the following ways: (a) it provides research communities with a well-standardised novel methodology to evaluate deliberative rule-breaking tendencies, cognitive-conflict and cognitive-conflict-capacity via a computerised task and neuroscientific methods such as electroencephalography, eye-tracking, mouse-tracking and psychophysics; (b) it introduces deliberative rule-breaking tendencies as a behavioural precursor which when interplaying with other personal characteristics favours the formation of the entrepreneurial mindset; (c) it provides a neurocognitive foundation for the antecedents of entrepreneurial mindset and especially those of entrepreneurial self-efficacy. This dissertation characterised for a completed and successful aim for a multi-method approach of several data sources that were collected and cross-analysed including self-reports, behavioural responses, electroencephalography, eye-tracking, mouse-tracking, and psychophysics. Besides the theoretical contributions, this dissertation also has the following practical implications: (a) it benefits recruiters because this knowledge can help them to improve their hiring strategies; (b) this research also helps practitioners to recognise personal characteristics and incorporate individualised support into the design of entrepreneurship training throughout an individual’s career or for teams within an enterprise. This dissertation can even be a springboard to an early step in the process of using new technologies for entrepreneurship training (e.g., neurofeedback); (c) this work can benefit both entrepreneurs and individuals involved in modern occupations as recognising the antecedents of entrepreneurial mindset described in her research can help individuals to proactively navigate economic, social, and technological shifts in their jobs.
Again, we want to thank you, Dr. Cubillos-Pinilla, for your dissertation defense and, a little bit less informal but not less important, we want to thank you for the excellent team party you organised after the presentation, the delicious food, and the marvelous company!
Dr. Cubillos-Pinilla, we rejoice ourselves with your well-deserved triumph, your hard-work, your good attitude, and we hope to keep working together in the future!