Title: The influence of cognitive frames on small business entrepreneurs' perception of risk concepts

Authors: Mike Peters; Janette Walde; Johannes Brustbauer

Addresses: Department of Strategic Management, Marketing and Tourism, School of Management, University of Innsbruck, Karl-Rahner-Platz 3, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria ' Department of Statistics, Faculty of Economics and Statistics, Leopold-Franzens-University of Innsbruck, Universitaetsstrasse 15, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria ' Department of Banking and Finance, School of Management, University of Innsbruck, Karl-Rahner-Platz 3, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria

Abstract: This study aims at analysing the influence of cognitive frames on small business entrepreneurs' perception of risk concepts in certain stages of their working life. A principal component analysis (PCA) based on the results of a survey questionnaire reveals that entrepreneurs perceive risk according to the entrepreneurship literature, i.e., as opportunity, as variance, and as downside loss. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) results show a statistically significant influence of cognitive frames, operationalised by personal characteristics, on one risk concept: While the perception of risk as downside loss increases with education and age, it decreases when reaching a certain level of experience. The approach also reveals that personal characteristics are practically not influencing the perception of risk concepts.

Keywords: SMEs; small and medium-sized enterprises; entrepreneurs; perception; risk concepts; cognitive frames.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMED.2018.093537

International Journal of Management and Enterprise Development, 2018 Vol.17 No.3, pp.224 - 243

Received: 03 Feb 2017
Accepted: 28 May 2017
Published online: 27 Jul 2018 *

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