This study provides novel quantitative evidence of the multi-level and partial autonomous relation between institutional logics and individuals which is the driving element in institutional logic theory. Specifically, it provides new knowledge on the cognitive micro-processes that bridge institutional logics and the individual. We combine a unique longitudinal dataset (2004-2012) on individuals with a research design that exploit the financial crisis as natural experiment. This helps to understand the complex mutual relationships between alertness and entrepreneurial behaviour on the individual level and radical changes to institutional market logics on the macro level. We find that radical changes in market logics caused by the financial crisis in 2008 both constrain and enable individuals to discover new opportunities depending on their cognitive scheme of alertness. Moreover, individuals who respond with entrepreneurial alertness to the uncertain and contractive crisis environment collectively shape a new and dominating market logic that is gradually adapted by mimetic followers.