The psychology of entrepreneurial performance—theoretical and applied: Robert A. Baron and Michael Frese, co-recipients of the 2024 Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research

Professors Robert A. Baron and Michael Frese are the joint recipients of the 2024 Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research. Their research contributions have helped establish the disciplinary foundation necessary to explore entrepreneurship from theoretical and applied psychological perspectives. From a theoretical psychological perspective, Professor Baron has repeatedly introduced a disciplinary scaffolding from cognitive psychology, social psychology, and judgment and decision-making psychology to develop the field’s socio-cognitive perspective. He has examined entrepreneurship’s basic “why” questions: (1) Why do some persons but not others choose to become entrepreneurs? (2) Why do some persons but not others recognize opportunities for new products or services that can be profitably exploited? (3) Why are some entrepreneurs so much more successful than others? From an applied psychological perspective, Professor Frese has examined entrepreneurship as the epitome of a proactive approach to work, advocating the benefits of personal initiative and the need for a self-regulatory approach to performance among both small business owners and employees in transition economies. Continually taking stock of what is known about the psychology of entrepreneurship through reviews and meta-analysis, he and his students have advanced an evidence-based approach to entrepreneurial training and performance in challenging contexts. Together, Professors Baron and Frese have served as ambassadors for the field of entrepreneurship, welcoming an entire generation of micro scholars to explore the entrepreneurial process and the psychology of the entrepreneurs who enact it. Plain English Summary The winners of the 2024 Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research, Robert Baron and Michael Frese, have improved our understanding of the psychology of entrepreneurship, introducing many of the conceptual tools needed to examine why some persons but not others become entrepreneurs, recognize opportunities, and succeed in entrepreneurship. Professor Baron illuminated the role of affect in the entrepreneurial process, developed the notion of opportunity recognition as pattern detection, and enabled the study of entrepreneurial cognition by articulating the potential of the cognitive perspective as an alternative to the personality traits approach. His efforts have helped facilitate the field’s rapid theoretical maturity, equipping it to examine not only its own knowledge frontier but