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Cognitive Implications of Biculturalism: Impact on Entrepreneurial Intentions

Globalization has increased the number of individuals who identify with more than one culture. Studies in cultural psychology suggest that the manner in which bicultural individuals manage their dual cultural identities has important implications for them and for their host societies. While existing studies have examined the psychological and sociocultural consequences of biculturalism, only little attention has been paid to understanding its economic consequences. Importantly, the effect that managing dual cultural identities has on bicultural individual's entrepreneurial intentions has remained unexplored. Given the fact that entrepreneurship is vital to the economic success of nations and biculturals are said to play an important role as founders of several new business ventures, it has become critical to analyze the impact that biculturalism has on bicultural individual's propensity to start new business ventures. This dissertation aspires to fill this gap in research. In this dissertation, I used the identity integrationist perspective to argue that amongst biculturals, those with high identity integration will display greater entrepreneurial intentions than those with less identity integration. Further, I argued that cognitions, specifically cognitive cultural intelligence, cultural metacognition and cognitive flexibility, will mediate the effect of bicultural identity integration on entrepreneurial intentions. Empirical analysis supported the argument that biculturals with high identity integration display greater entrepreneurial intentions. Further, cognitive cultural intelligence and cultural metacognition were found to mediate the effect of identity integration on entrepreneurial intentions. I also assessed the role that attitude towards risk taking and attitude towards autonomy play in explaining biculturals' entrepreneurial intentions. I argued that biculturals with more positive attitude towards risk taking and more positive attitude towards autonomy will display greater entrepreneurial intentions. Empirical analysis supported this viewpoint. Further, based on entrepreneurial cognition stream of research, I argued that cognitions, specifically cognitive cultural intelligence, cultural metacognition and cognitive flexibility will positively influence biculturals attitude towards risk taking and attitude towards autonomy. Empirical analysis found support for the positive effect of cognitive flexibility on biculturals' attitudes towards risk taking and autonomy. Taken together, results of this dissertation offer a finer grained understanding of the factors and the mechanism that influence bicultural individual's entrepreneurial intentions. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2015. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:fau.edu/oai:fau.digital.flvc.org:fau_32077
ContributorsDheer, Ratan (author), Lenartowicz, Tomasz (Thesis advisor), Florida Atlantic University (Degree grantor), College of Business, Department of Management
PublisherFlorida Atlantic University
Source SetsFlorida Atlantic University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation, Text
Format283 p., application/pdf
RightsCopyright © is held by the author, with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder., http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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