A social cognitive perspective: investment decisions in early-stage ventures

The Russian psychologist Bekhterev, was a student of Wilhelm Wundt’s and a follower of his approach to the ‘subjective study of mental processes’. However, in contrast to Wundt, Bekhterev developed an integrated/interdisciplinary approach to the study of objective physiological phenomena which lead to the development of personality psychology in Russia (see Prokhorov & Popov, 2010). These theoretical approaches contribute to the development of social and cognitive psychology, utilising the integrated research methods and theories that can better explain phenomena in psychology (Eysenck, 1997). Moreover, new areas of research have been using the integrated theories and methods from social and cognitive science. For example, cognitive approaches to entrepreneurship research investigate how agents in dynamic environment make investment decisions under uncertainty (Dane & Pratt, 2007; Wiltbank Read, Dew, & Sarasvathy, 2009; Maxwell, Jeffrey, & Levesque, 2011; Mitchell et al., 2007). Also, the study of entrepreneurial decision-making (low probability of success and high uncertainty) explores the influence of personality and individual differences on risky decisions (Sarasvathy et al., 2011). For instance, researchers have explored decision behaviour of a particular type of investors, known as business angels (Levesque et al., 2011) or angel investors (Huang & Pierce, 2015), who invest in early stage formation of entrepreneurial high risk but high return ventures. In this article we argue for an integrated approach in social cognition research; we also aim to explore the use of qualitative and quantitative methods employed in social science and entrepreneurship studies.