Capability Modeling for Corporate Cognition

Several arguments support the proposition that corporations can be viewed as cognitive entities. But accepting that corporations perform cognitive functions raises questions about how we might describe and assess those functions. In this paper I propose that we can address such questions by viewing corporate cognition in terms of capabilities that are adapted from human cognition. To illustrate this idea, I use the concept of schemas, a human cognitive capability identified by Piaget, which I recast as a corporate cognitive capability. To develop this example, I review schemas as understood in psychology; use scenarios from corporate settings to motivate their relevance to corporations; and describe a hypothetical capability for corporate cognitive schemas using a template that addresses common concerns in enterprise capability modeling. This example gives support to the idea that cognitive capabilities are relevant on the corporate level. It shows that a corporate cognitive capabilities can be practically modeled like conventional business capabilities and that corporate cognitive capabilities can be related to business goals. This work points to a path for practical investigations and applications of a view of corporations as cognitive entities. It further opens a new domain for software process programming.