Good housekeeping: establishing an operationalisation baseline in the testing of transaction cognition entrepreneurship theory

A transaction-cognition theory (TCT) has been proposed by (Mitchell 2003, 2001) as the potential foundation for a general theory of entrepreneurship. TCT focuses on the thought processes or cognitions that individuals need in order to create value and achieve superior results. Two central tenets of this theory are that: 1) three sets of knowledge structures, Planning, Promise, and Competition cognitions, are required to create a transaction and sustained transaction streams; and 2) three countervailing sets of knowledge structures, fatalism, refusal, and dependency cognitions limit the ability to complete transactions and achieve superior economic performance. The study explores preliminary measures of fatalism, refusal, and dependency cognitions and their impact on intention to venture. In doing so it provides the first empirical investigation of the TCT countervailing tenet, contributing to the development of the theory.