Abstract
Entrepreneurship theories and research deal with a variety of behavioural and non-behavioural processes and issues that explain the nature of entrepreneurship in different ways. The advances made in entrepreneurship research now centre on entrepreneurial cognitions, entrepreneurial personality, and motivation even though the other areas of research are not without significance, considering the importance of the field.
The personalistic-cognitive platform model proposed accounts for the composite dynamics of the entrepreneurial behaviour that focus on the behavioural dynamics of the entrepreneur. The superimposition of the behavioural processes on the economic/social attributes of the environment gives rise to a platform of personality and cognition that overarches itself to the generalization, prediction, and dynamics of entrepreneurship. The platform is constructed based on the �bricks and mortars� of entrepreneurial syndrome, entrepreneurial motivational dynamics, environmental scanning, decisional processes, and cognitive mediation circumscribed in the entrepreneurial mental model.
Entrepreneurial syndrome is formed by the cluster of an array of entrepreneurial traits of venture significance. The syndrome gets manifested as a stable dynamic formation of personality that seeks new ventures and produces goods and services of economic value. Entrepreneurial motivational dynamics unravels the nature of entrepreneurial drive that has push and pull forces that direct the person to different economic realms. The performance motivation of the person is characterized by goal setting, expectancy, and selfefficacy motivation. Together they explain the motivational dynamics of entrepreneurial behaviour that aims to derive something of lasting value.
Scanning the environment enables the entrepreneur to distill the trends and the significant attributes that will lay the base of his entire business ventures. The scanned attributes are transformed in the person. As the decisional activity involves the identification of a specific alternative, the complexity that surrounds the selection of an alternative has special place in the entrepreneurial context. In the highly uncertain and novel situation, an entrepreneur is to take causal or effectual decisions.
The cognitive mediational activity exemplified in the entrepreneur�s mental model transforms the environmental complexity into useable forms of entrepreneurial outcomes. The cognitive strategies of differing natures help the entrepreneur in bringing about entrepreneurial ventures that are ultimately the products of entrepreneurial cognitions and related personal variables.