Cognitive representations of institutional change: Similarities and dissimilarities in the cognitive schema of entrepreneurs

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the cognitive factors explaining how exogenous institutional change (IC) impacts on organizational actions.Design/methodology/approach – The authors interviewed 121 Romanian entrepreneurs, 69 before and 52 after Romania's ascension to the EU and used cognitive mapping to elicit their cognitive schemas about this macro‐IC. Similarities and differences between cognitive structures are explored and the aggregated cognitive maps before and after the IC are created, in order to understand how managerial cognition changed following IC.Findings – The results show that the richness of the cognitive schemas before the IC is lower than after the IC took place. Furthermore, the entrepreneurs who framed the IC as a threat adopted isomorphic actions and reported less positive organizational outcomes as compared to the entrepreneurs that represented the IC as an opportunity.Research limitations/implications – The research described is exploratory in nature and opens new...