When Work Doesn’t Work: Cognitive Factors Impacting Employees Transition to Entrepreneurship Review

Abstract

Cognitive factors are useful in explaining employees’ transition from the workplace to entrepreneurship. The potential for understanding the factors that explain how and why some individuals opt to be entrepreneurs while others choose to remain employees is relevant; yet, little systematic effort has attempted to accumulate knowledge of cognitive related factors that underpin these transitions. The purpose of this review is to identify the cognitive factors that impact employees’ transition from the workplace into entrepreneurship and to identify the conceptual gaps in the literature. This review aims to extend theory on employee career transitions by systematizing this broad body of research using the Kaleidoscope Career Model (KCM). Analysis of 69 articles revealed that individuals tend to fall into the challenge dimension when leaving the workplace to pursue an entrepreneurial career. Further, research outlining has paid very little attention to longitudinal design and mixed methods. Based on our findings, this review offers several avenues for future research.