Corporate Governance: Behavioral Approach and Cognitive Mapping Technique

Abstract

Psychological biases represent new paradigms that complement traditional behavioral finance theory while introducing “behaviorist” aspects to the decision-making process. The aim of this paper is to examine the mental models of actors in Tunisian firms with respect to the behavioral approach to corporate governance. We use a cognitive map to observe these mental diagrams and to visualize ways to conceptualize the behavioral approach. The objective of this study is to understand the concept of “mental models” through the presentation and analysis of the cognitive maps of the actors in Tunisian firms. The paper uses a corporate governance perspective to examine the mental models. Each actor’s systematic exploration grid shows a balance of concepts that expresses their cognitive orientation. Thus, we visualize the concepts (variables) that structure the cognitive universe of the actors, which is projected in terms of influences and dependencies. We can distinguish four major categories of variables through the distribution of the scatter plot variables in the grids, particularly in relation to different quadrants.