14288 - Psychology of Entrepreneurship and Change Modulübersicht

Module Number: 14288
Module Title:Psychology of Entrepreneurship and Change
  Psychologie des Unternehmertums und Wandels
Department: Faculty 5 - Business, Law and Social Sciences
Responsible Staff Member:
  • Prof. Dr. Urbig, Diemo
Language of Teaching / Examination:English
Duration:1 semester
Frequency of Offer: Every winter semester
Credits: 6
Learning Outcome:After completing this module, students will understand how basic psychological theories of how individuals make decisions under uncertainty, complex interdependence, and intertemporal dynamics help explain the behavior of individuals who drive change, such as entrepreneurs and innovators. They will have developed a basic understanding of key psychological and behavioral economic theories related to decision-making under risk and ambiguity. Identify and explain critical thinking and decision-making patterns in the work context. Students will be able to apply theories to real-world situations.
Contents:In this module, we venture into the specifics of a wide range of decision-making theories. We travel through a diverse collection of seminal theories, including many that have formed the basis of Nobel Prize-winning research. We emphasize the interdisciplinary application of insights to ensure that students from a variety of disciplines can absorb and apply the knowledge gained in this module to their own professional decision-making scenarios. 

The topics include:
  • Satisficing and dual process theories
  • Risk aversion and ambiguity aversion
  • Prospect theory and loss aversion
  • Mental accounting and choice bracketing
  • Risk reduction strategies: Hedging, learning, and real options
  • Time preferences
  • Status-quo, escalation of commitment, and the not-invented-here effect
  • Personal initiative, sensation seeking, and entrepreneurship
  • Rational herding and individually irrational learning
  • Nash equilibrium and individually irrational cooperation
  • Exploiting human decision making: Nudging & Sludging
The concepts and theories are presented in lectures. Students practice their theory application skills by presenting and discussing critical issues and applications of these theories in seminar.
Recommended Prerequisites:None
Mandatory Prerequisites:No successful participation in modules "13811 Behavioral Resource Management" and "13514 Individuals in Transformation Processess".
Forms of Teaching and Proportion:
  • Lecture / 2 Hours per Week per Semester
  • Seminar / 2 Hours per Week per Semester
  • Self organised studies / 120 Hours
Teaching Materials and Literature:
  • Antons, D., & Piller, F. T. (2015). Opening the black box of "Not Invented Here": Attitudes, decision biases, and behavioral consequences. Academy of Management Perspectives, 29(2), 193-217.
  • Bernardo, A. E., & Welch, I. (2001). On the evolution of overconfidence and entrepreneurs. Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, 10(3), 301-330.
  • Bönte, W., Urbig. D. (2019) Connecting People and Knowledge: Knowledge Spillovers, Cognitive Biases, and Entrepreneurship (Chapter 34). In: E. E. Lehmann, M. Keilbach (eds.), From Industrial Organization to Entrepreneurship. Springer, pp. 385-397.
  • Ellsberg, D. (1961). Risk, ambiguity, and the savage axioms. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 75(4), 643-669.
  • Fehr, E., & Schmidt, K. M. (1999). A theory of fairness, competition, and cooperation. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 114(3), 817-868. 
  • Fox, C. R., & Tversky, A. (1995). Ambiguity aversion and comparative ignorance. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 110(3), 585-603.
  • Frederick, S., Loewenstein, G., & O'donoghue, T. (2002). Time discounting and time preference: A critical review. Journal of Economic Literature, 40(2), 351-401.
  • Kahneman, D., Tversky, A. (1979). Prospect theory: An analysis of decisions under risk. Econometrica, 47, 278.
  • Loewenstein, G. F., Weber, E. U., Hsee, C. K., & Welch, N. (2001). Risk as feelings. Psychological Bulletin, 127(2), 267–286.
  • Ostrom, E. (2000). Collective action and the evolution of social norms. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 14(3), 137-158.
  • Read, D., Loewenstein, G., Rabin, M., Keren, G., & Laibson, D. (2000). Choice bracketing. In S. Barbera, P. Hammond, & C. Seidl (Eds.), Elicitation of Preferences (pp. 171–202). Springer.
  • Samuelson, W., & Zeckhauser, R. (1988). Status quo bias in decision making. Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, 1(1), 7-59.
  • Simon, H. A. (1955). A behavioural model of rational choice. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 69(1), 99-118.
  • Staw, B. M. (1981). The escalation of commitment to a course of action. Academy of Management Review, 6(4), 577-587.
  • Thaler, R. (1985). Mental accounting and consumer choice. Marketing Science, 4(3), 199-214.
  • Trigeorgis, L., & Reuer, J. J. (2017). Real options theory in strategic management. Strategic Management Journal, 38(1), 42-63:
  • Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1973). Availability: A heuristic for judging frequency and probability. Cognitive Psychology, 5(2), 207-232.
  • Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1991). Loss aversion in riskless choice: A reference-dependent model. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 106(4), 1039-1061.
  • Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1992). Advances in prospect theory: Cumulative representation of uncertainty.Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, 5(4), 297-323.
Module Examination:Final Module Examination (MAP)
Assessment Mode for Module Examination:
  • Written exam, 90 min, a third of the exam is specific to Bachelor-level and Master-level programs, with Master-level programs focusing on the reading of the original articles and Bachelor-level programs focusing on the lecture and tutorials only
  • Bonus points of up to 10% for a graded theory-application paper (5 pages, doubles-spaced)
Evaluation of Module Examination:Performance Verification – graded
Limited Number of Participants:None
Part of the Study Programme:
  • Abschluss im Ausland / Betriebswirtschaftslehre / keine PO
  • Master (research-oriented) / Betriebswirtschaftslehre / PO 2017
  • Master (research-oriented) / Environmental and Resource Management / PO 2011
  • Master (research-oriented) - Double Degree / Environmental and Resource Management / PO 2021
  • Master (research-oriented) / Environmental and Resource Management / PO 2021
  • Master (research-oriented) / Transformation Studies / PO 2024
  • Master (research-oriented) / Umweltingenieurwesen / PO 2021
  • Bachelor (research-oriented) / Wirtschaftsinformatik / PO 2024
  • Master (applied) / Wirtschaftsingenieurwesen / PO 2018
  • Master (applied) - Extended Semester / Wirtschaftsingenieurwesen / PO 2018
  • Master (research-oriented) / Wirtschaftsingenieurwesen / PO 2019
Remarks:None
Module Components:Lecture/exercise/examination
Components to be offered in the Current Semester: