Entrepreneurial Scripts and the New Transaction Commitment Mindset: Extending the Expert Information Processing Theory Approach to Entrepreneurial Cognition Research

In this study, we extend the expert information processing theory approach to entrepreneurial cognition research through an empirical exploration of the new transaction commitment mindset among business people in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Using analysis of covariance, multivariate analysis of variance, and hierarchical regression analysis of data from a cross–sectional sample of 417 respondents, our results provide a foundation for additional cross–level theory development, with related implications for increasing the practicality of expert information processing theory–based entrepreneurial cognition research. Specifically, this paper: (1) clarifies the nature of the relationship between entrepreneurial expert scripts and constructs that might represent an entrepreneurial mindset at the individual level of analysis; (2) identifies analogous relationships at the economy level of analysis, where the structure found at the individual level informs an economy–level problem; (3) presents a North American Free Trade Agreement–based illustration analysis to demonstrate the extent to which cognitive findings at the individual level can be used to explain economy–level phenomena; and (4) extrapolates from our analysis some of the ways in which script–based comparisons across country or culture can inform the more general task of making information processing–based comparisons among entrepreneurs across other contexts.