Authors : Aparajita Banerjee; Prem Singh Parihar; Rajeev Yadav

Volume/Issue : Volume 10 - 2025, Issue 12 - December

Google Scholar : https://tinyurl.com/5n6vzrra

Scribd : https://tinyurl.com/2426vw97

DOI : https://doi.org/10.38124/ijisrt/25dec610

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Abstract : Cognitive flexibility has emerged as a critical but undervalued soft skill shaping the survival prospects of early- stage start-ups in India’s dynamic entrepreneurial landscape. While discourse on start-up failure often dwells on funding constraints, market fit, or operational challenges, a growing body of literature illustrates that founders’ cognitive and behavioral aptitudes materially affect venture outcomes. This study defines cognitive flexibility as a strategic competence that involves switching between perspectives, updating mental models, tolerating ambiguity, and adjusting course in response to setbacks. Synthesizing literature from psychology, neuroscience, education, and organizational learning, the analysis clarifies how cognitive flexibility underpins entrepreneurial resilience, strengthens decision-making in the face of uncertainty, and catalyzes collaborative problem-solving. The findings further suggest that Indian entrepreneurship education greatly prioritizes procedural management tools over cognitive and emotional preparedness for entrepreneurship practice, with a spectrum of pedagogical deficiencies. These include inadequate exposure to perspective-taking, limited improvisational training, insufficient reflective practices, and the near absence of emotional regulation and ambiguity-rich experiential learning. To address these deficits, this paper provides a comprehensive set of recommendations that highlight behavioral training, reflective decision-making, simulation-based learning, the development of emotional resilience, and interdisciplinarity. In furtherance of the above argument, what is being proffered here is a view that embedding cognitive flexibility within entrepreneurship education is not merely a desirable but an indispensable element of strengthening the start-up ecosystem in India. Building this kind of mental fluidity can prepare founders to innovate responsively, learn iteratively, and manage the volatility intrinsic to the entrepreneurial environment, thereby making new ventures more sustainable in the long run.

Keywords : Cognitive Flexibility, Entrepreneurial Resilience, Start-Up Survival, Decision-Making Under Uncertainty, Entrepreneurship Education in India, Organizational Learning and Adaptation.

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