Dominique VIAN, PhD

About my Phd research: Identifying, structuring, and optimizing the cognitive process of innovator-entrepreneurs has thus far proved elusive. The objective of this thesis is to demonstrate that the knowledge universe of innovators can be broken down into categories, leading to the development of an information system that provides tangible guidelines for designing an effective strategy. The ramifications of having the ability to develop an IT tool to map the innovator’s cognitive process are twofold: 1- Knowledge is rendered explicit and communicable; innovator-entrepreneurs are no longer restricted by the limits of their own mental representations 2- Converging mental representations can be constructed from diverging ones; the IT tool acts as a mediator between innovators and business coaches. The knowledge universe of an innovator-entrepreneur (IE) can be conceptualized using maps of categories or cognitive taxonomy (Brännback and Carsrud, 2010). The information possessed by an entrepreneur following a high-tech invention (Mohr et al, 2003) constitutes “knowledge structures” (Walsh, 1995) sharable with people involved in the innovation design process. Through work on these structures with the IEs and then their business coaches, an information system can be created. From initial maps of categories a near-decomposable system as a hierarchy of components can be developed, dictated by effectual logic (Sarasvathy & Simon, 2000; Sarasvathy, 2001). The hierarchy of components related to the model developed enables a new and better design of maps of category, which in turn makes the artifact (method) more cohesive and relevant. The artifact thus comprised, an “effectual information system” which can be simultaneously used by entrepreneurs and business coaches, plays the role of mediator and fosters the emergence of heuristics to develop strategy during participation in a business incubation program.