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Qual. research on heuristics in managerial decision-making

  • 1.  Qual. research on heuristics in managerial decision-making

    Posted 11-19-2019 06:09
    To those with decision-making and/or heuristics-related expertise in the MOC community, 

    Is anyone familiar with high-quality qualitative studies of heuristics in organisational decision-making contexts? My colleague and I are conducting a research project pertaining to entrepreneurial decision-making, but are struggling to find much literature to guide us on how to study decision-making heuristics more systematically within our qualitative methodology. 

    Any suggestions would be sincerely appreciated. 

    Thanks in advance!


    ------------------------------
    Georgia Hay
    Doctoral Student
    U. of Western Australia / Curtin University Future of Work Institute
    Perth WA
    georgia.hay@research.uwa.edu.au
    ------------------------------


  • 2.  RE: Qual. research on heuristics in managerial decision-making

    Posted 11-20-2019 06:13
    -

    ------------------------------
    Paula Ungureanu
    University of Modena and Reggio
    Reggio Emilia
    00393463977163
    ------------------------------



  • 3.  RE: Qual. research on heuristics in managerial decision-making

    Posted 11-20-2019 06:14
      |   view attached
    Dear Georgia,

    We recently published a qualitative paper that explores why, when and how decision biases accumulate in complex inter-organizational projects (attached)
    https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0170840618765575?journalCode=ossa

    In the paper we also show the important role played by materiality in merging cognitions and social processes responsible for decision-making biases. Since mechanisms of bias accumulation and material artifacts have received little attention in decision-making and heuristics literatures, they made a particularly fertile ground for qualitative research.
    Looking forward to continuing the conversation and to finding out about other studies: We focus on indecision, procrastination and escalation of commitment but our findings may also apply to other types of biases, was wondering whether other studies have looked at how material artifacts afford/constrain other types of biases?

    Best,

    Paula

    ------------------------------
    Paula Ungureanu
    University of Modena and Reggio
    Reggio Emilia
    00393463977163
    ------------------------------

    Attachment(s)



  • 4.  RE: Qual. research on heuristics in managerial decision-making

    Posted 11-21-2019 21:02
    Dear Paula,

    Thank you - I'm looking forward to reading your paper. The idea of exploring the mechanisms of bias accumulation, especially from a social process perspective, is really intruiging to me, and fits with some of the early themes emerging from our pilot interviews. However, rather than biases per se, we're focusing on (what we understand to be) Gigerenzer-style heuristics - so it will be interesting to think about how your ideas might translate to those. 

    Thanks again!

    Warm regards,
    Georgia

    ------------------------------
    Georgia Hay
    Doctoral Student
    U. of Western Australia
    Perth WA
    +61406878903
    ------------------------------



  • 5.  RE: Qual. research on heuristics in managerial decision-making

    Posted 11-20-2019 09:00

     

    1 new thread from 1 author in the "Managerial and Organizational Cognition (MOC)" community ... To those with decision-making and/or heuristics-related expertise in the MOC community,  Is anyone familiar with high-quality qualitative studies...


    Hi Georgia,

     

    You may be interested in our study of traders in investment banks in this context.

     

    FentonO'Creevy, M., Soane, E., Nicholson, N., & Willman, P. (2011). Thinking, feeling and deciding: The influence of emotions on the decision making and performance of traders. Journal of Organizational Behavior32(8), 1044-1061.

     

    Willman, P., Fenton-O'Creevy, M., Nicholson, N., & Soane, E. (2002). Traders, managers and loss aversion in investment banking: a field study. Accounting, organizations and society27(1-2), 85-98.

     

    Fenton-O'Creevy, M., Nicholson, N., Soane, E., & Willman, P. (2005). Traders: Risks, decisions, and management in financial markets. Oxford University Press

     

    Kind regards

     

    Mark
     

    1.

    Qual. research on heuristics in managerial decision-making

    Nov 19, 2019 6:09 AM

    Georgia Hay

    To those with decision-making and/or heuristics-related expertise in the MOC community, 

    Is anyone familiar with high-quality qualitative studies of heuristics in organisational decision-making contexts? My colleague and I are conducting a research project pertaining to entrepreneurial decision-making, but are struggling to find much literature to guide us on how to study decision-making heuristics more systematically within our qualitative methodology. 

    Any suggestions would be sincerely appreciated. 

    Thanks in advance!


    ------------------------------
    Georgia Hay
    Doctoral Student
    U. of Western Australia / Curtin University Future of Work Institute
    Perth WA
    georgia.hay@research.uwa.edu.au
    ------------------------------

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  • 6.  RE: Qual. research on heuristics in managerial decision-making

    Posted 11-21-2019 21:02
    Hi Mark,

    Thank you for suggesting these! I've come across the 2011 paper before - but will definitely have another look. Keep up the fascinating work. 

    Warm regards,
    Georgia

    ------------------------------
    Georgia Hay
    Doctoral Student
    U. of Western Australia
    Perth WA
    +61406878903
    ------------------------------



  • 7.  RE: Qual. research on heuristics in managerial decision-making

    Posted 11-20-2019 12:30
    Hi Georgia,

    The review piece by Artinger et al. 2015 will be a useful place to start regarding heuristics in organizations, particularly in contrasting naturalistic decision-making and heuristics and biases approaches (where the former is probably more appropriate for organizations than the latter). Empirical work by (and subsequent commentary on) Bingham and Eisenhardt's 2011 SMJ should also prove extremely useful, as will Luan, Reb, and Gigerenzer's recent AMJ. If you're interested in qualitative methods, I'd suggest Hoffman et al.'s 1995 fantastic (and under-appreciated, in my opinion) OBHDP on eliciting knowledge from experts, which takes a naturalistic decision-making perspective that is well-suited to surfacing heuristics in organizations. There is also an adjacent literature not on heuristics, but on how cognitive maps shape strategic decision-making following Porac et al.'s work on the knitwear industry, which Kaplan nicely reviewed in JMS in 2011. 

    Hope this helps and best of luck on your interesting project!

    References:
    Artinger, F., Petersen, M., Gigerenzer, G., & Weibler, J. (2015). Heuristics as adaptive decision strategies in management. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 36(S1), S33–S52. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.1950
    Bingham, C. B., & Eisenhardt, K. M. (2011). Rational heuristics: The 'simple rules' that strategists learn from process experience. Strategic Management Journal, 32(13), 1437–1464. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.965
    Vuori, N., & Vuori, T. (2014). Comment on "Heuristics in the strategy context" by Bingham and Eisenhardt (2011): Heuristics in the Strategy Context. Strategic Management Journal, 35(11), 1689–1697. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.2259
    Bingham, C. B., & Eisenhardt, K. M. (2014). Response to Vuori and Vuori's commentary on "Heuristics in the strategy context": Heuristics in Strategy and Organizations. Strategic Management Journal, 35(11), 1698–1702. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.2257
    Hoffman, R. R., Shadbolt, N. R., Burton, A. M., & Klein, G. (1995). Eliciting knowledge from experts: A methodological analysis. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 62(2), 129–158. https://doi.org/10.1006/obhd.1995.1039
    Luan, S., Reb, J., & Gigerenzer, G. (2019). Ecological Rationality: Fast-and-Frugal Heuristics for Managerial Decision Making under Uncertainty. Academy of Management Journal. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2018.0172
    Kaplan, S. (2011). Research in cognition and strategy: Reflections on two decades of progress and a look to the future. Journal of Management Studies, 48(3), 665–695. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2010.00983.x


    --





  • 8.  RE: Qual. research on heuristics in managerial decision-making

    Posted 11-22-2019 06:45
    Hi Ravi,

    Those suggestions are all incredibly helpful, thank you! I'm familiar with some of those papers (e.g., Bingham, Eisenhardt, Gigerenzer), but will definitely have a re-read; as well as reading the unfamiliar ones (e.g. Hoffman, Artinger, Porac). 

    Thanks again. 

    Warm regards,
    Georgia 

    P.s. I love seeing my 'Twittersphere' materialising in other places.

    ------------------------------
    Georgia Hay
    Doctoral Student
    U. of Western Australia
    Perth WA
    +61406878903
    ------------------------------



  • 9.  RE: Qual. research on heuristics in managerial decision-making

    Posted 11-20-2019 13:45
    Hi Georgia!

    Thanks for posting this! A colleague of mine and I are working on a similar project, and we appreciate the  references all of our fellow MOC members suggested. I'd love to chat with you more sometime about your research! :-)

    ------------------------------
    Jeremy Woods
    Assistant Professor
    California State Univ. Bakersfield
    Bakersfield CA
    (661) 654-3961
    ------------------------------



  • 10.  RE: Qual. research on heuristics in managerial decision-making

    Posted 11-22-2019 06:45
    Hi Jeremy,

    Glad that it's helping others, too! Would love to chat further. Please feel free to reach out to me via e-mail: georgia.hay@research.uwa.edu.au

    Cheers,
    Georgia

    ------------------------------
    Georgia Hay
    Doctoral Student
    U. of Western Australia
    Perth WA
    +61406878903
    ------------------------------



  • 11.  RE: Qual. research on heuristics in managerial decision-making

    Posted 11-21-2019 08:24
    Edited by Dominik Fischer 11-21-2019 08:27
    Hey Georgia,

    you might be also interested in a special Sub Theme of the EGOS Colloquium, which is about heuristics:
    https://www.egosnet.org/jart/prj3/egos/main.jart?rel=de&reserve-mode=active&content-id=1564449184268&subtheme_id=1542700474972

    Apart from that, check out:
    Gigerenzer, G., & Gaissmaier, W. (2011): "Heuristic decision making." Annual Review of Psychology, 62 (1), 451–482.


    Cheers,
    Dominik


    ------------------------------
    Dominik Fischer
    Technical University Munich
    München
    ------------------------------



  • 12.  RE: Qual. research on heuristics in managerial decision-making

    Posted 11-22-2019 06:45
    Hey Dominik,

    Thank you for point us towards the EGOS Sub Theme - there are a lot of familiar papers there in the references section, and many more to look at in more detail. I'd recommend this for others here looking for some literature on this topic. I see the Gigerenzer, G., & Gaissmaier, W. (2011) paper is there too. 

    Thanks again, Dominik!

    Warm regards,
    Georgia

    ------------------------------
    Georgia Hay
    Doctoral Student
    U. of Western Australia
    Perth WA
    +61406878903
    ------------------------------



  • 13.  RE: Qual. research on heuristics in managerial decision-making

    Posted 11-21-2019 11:06
    Dear Georgia,

    Nice of you to post this, thanks, everybody, for the resources! I also currently do qualitative research on managerial heuristics (I study CEOs), so perhaps we can continue the discussion and compare challenges. Please find below a selection of good qual papers on heuristics:

    Success from satisficing and imitation: Entrepreneurs' location choice and implications of heuristics for local economic development, Berg, 2014
    How firms learn heuristics: Uncovering missing components of organizational learning, Bingham and Haleblian, 2012
    Rational heuristics: the 'simple rules' that strategists learn from process experience, Bingham and Eisenhardt, 2011 (case study method, multiple cases, obviously 😊 )
    WHAT MAKES A PROCESS A CAPABILITY? HEURISTICS, STRATEGY, AND EFFECTIVE CAPTURE OF OPPORTUNITIES, Bingham et al, 2007
    Self-regulation and decision heuristics in entrepreneurial opportunity evaluation and exploitation, Bryant, 2007
    Quantitative and qualitative insights into consumers' sustainable purchasing behaviour: a segmentation approach based on motives and heuristic cues, Eberhart and Naderer, 2017
    Organisational design and development in a large rail tunnel project - Influence of heuristics and mantras, Eriksson and Kadefors, 2017
    New approaches to heuristic processes and entrepreneurial cognition of the market, Guercini, 2012
    Heuristics in customer‐supplier interaction, Guercini et al, 2015
    Decision making and uncertainty: The role of heuristics and experience in assessing a politically hazardous environment, Maitland and Sammartino, 2014
    Entrepreneurial Heuristics: A Comparison Between High PI (Pioneering-Innovative) and Low PI Ventures, Manimala, 1992 (very cool design plus a list of 180 proverb-like heuristics of entrepreneurs)
    Decision-making in high velocity environments, Oliver and Roos, 2005
    The Persistence of Multifamily Firms: Founder Imprinting, Simple Rules, and Monitoring Processes, Pieper et al, 2015 (nice setting)

    Kind regards,

    Radu Atanasiu
    Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam


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    Radu Atanasiu
    Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
    Bucharest
    ------------------------------



  • 14.  RE: Qual. research on heuristics in managerial decision-making

    Posted 11-22-2019 06:45
    Dear Radu,

    Excellent! Yes, let's keep the discussion going :-) 

    Thank you for your fantastic suggestions. Looks like I've got lots of bed-time reading. 

    Best of luck with your research. 

    Warm regards,
    Georgia

    ------------------------------
    Georgia Hay
    Doctoral Student
    U. of Western Australia
    Perth WA
    +61406878903
    ------------------------------