Research & Publications

Where science
meets strategy

Academic work at the intersection of neuroeconomics, entrepreneurship, and organisational decision-making, grounding practical advisory in rigorous research.

Intellectual focus

Core research
areas

Neuroeconomics & Decision-Making

How neural, cognitive, and affective processes interact to shape managerial decisions, particularly under conditions of Knightian uncertainty where outcomes cannot be quantified probabilistically and conventional rational models offer limited guidance.

Entrepreneurial Orientation

The neuro-cognitive microfoundations of entrepreneurial orientation and how experience-based, feedback-driven decision strategies develop and shape venture behaviour in emerging markets.

Emerging Market Turbulence

Organisational decision-making in high-volatility African markets, focusing on how managers develop adaptive heuristics and exploratory strategies when conventional rational models break down.

Leadership & Behavioural Economics

Drawing on prospect theory, bounded rationality, and the somatic marker hypothesis to understand how senior leaders actually process uncertainty and make high-stakes decisions rather than how economic theory assumes they should.

AI, Work & Human Agency

How AI adoption transforms decision governance, professional identity, and leadership, and what it takes for organisations to integrate intelligent systems in ways that preserve rather than erode human agency and ethical judgement.

Entrepreneurship Education

Neuro-informed approaches to teaching entrepreneurship, examining how uncertainty, heuristics, and AI-augmented tools are transforming entrepreneurial cognition and learning in higher education contexts.

Doctoral Research

Doctoral Research

Doctoral Thesis · Under Examination UCT Graduate School of Business

Managerial Decision-Making in Turbulent Contexts: A Neuroeconomic Analysis of Decision Strategies Among Managers in Emerging Markets

Elizabeth J Wallis

This thesis examines how experienced managers make decisions under Knightian uncertainty, meaning conditions where outcomes cannot be expressed probabilistically, in the turbulent business environments of West Africa. Using the Iowa Gambling Task as an empirical instrument, the research identifies four distinct decision phenotypes among managers in Ghana and Nigeria. The dominant phenotype, a Balanced/Exploratory strategy, challenges conventional assumptions about rational reward maximisation, suggesting that adaptive exploration is a more ecologically valid response to structural uncertainty than classical economic theory predicts. The work integrates bounded rationality, prospect theory, and the somatic marker hypothesis within a neuroeconomic framework, making both theoretical and practical contributions to leadership development and decision governance in emerging markets.

Scholarship

Publications &
contributions

Book Chapter 2026

Neuro-cognitive Microfoundations of Entrepreneurial Orientation under Knightian Uncertainty

Elizabeth J Wallis

Examines how neural, cognitive, and affective processes shape entrepreneurial orientation "from the inside out." Integrating neuroeconomic perspectives on uncertainty, heuristics, and experience-based learning, the chapter advances a model of entrepreneurial cognition grounded in somatic feedback and adaptive decision strategies.

Neuro-entrepreneurship Knightian Uncertainty Entrepreneurial Orientation
Research 2025

Decision Phenotypes in Turbulent Markets: Cluster Analysis of Managerial IGT Performance in Ghana and Nigeria

Elizabeth J Wallis

Empirical analysis using k-means clustering to identify four distinct managerial decision phenotypes from Iowa Gambling Task data collected across two West African markets. Findings challenge reward-maximisation assumptions and support an exploratory-adaptive model of managerial cognition under structural uncertainty.

Iowa Gambling Task Cluster Analysis Emerging Markets
Conference 2025

Behavioural Strategy in Practice: Integrating Neuroeconomic Insights into Organisational Advisory

Elizabeth J Wallis

Explores the translation of neuroeconomic research findings into practical tools for organisational consultants and board advisors, including decision architecture frameworks, cognitive bias audits, and leadership assessment protocols grounded in empirical decision science.

Behavioural Strategy Practice Decision Architecture
Essay 2024

When the Work No Longer Feels Like Work: On AI, Identity and What We Risk Losing

Elizabeth J Wallis

A reflective essay on how AI adoption is quietly reshaping professional identity, the meaning we derive from our work, and what leaders need to pay attention to before the erosion becomes irreversible.

Read on Substack

Academic collaborations & speaking

I welcome invitations to contribute to research collaborations, edited volumes, and academic conferences where neuroeconomics, entrepreneurship, and organisational behaviour intersect. I also speak at executive education programmes on behavioural strategy and decision-making under uncertainty.

Get in touch