Mechanisms that drive cognitive performance across business expertise development - An integrated cross-cultural study

Research on the trajectory of expertise development identifies significant differences between novices, intermediate and experts in terms of usage of discipline knowledge during reasoning, processing of information, ability to select relevant information and use of dynamical knowledge (Arts, 2007). Also, different historical and social background leads to clear differences in the mental models of the environment (Ross, 2004). The present study conceptualises the use of these propositions derived in expertise research to compare cognitive performance across two cultures closer in Hofstede's national culture scores. Though the defining construct used is national culture, the study also emphasises the mediating mechanisms (cognitive styles and achievement motivation) that drive cognition. The subjects for the study are novices, intermediates (from business schools) and business experts. The special contribution of this conceptual study is to design a cross-cultural model of richer and thicker description of cognitive approaches by emphasising on mechanisms that drive cognitive differences.