Business Commons^™

Managing Strategic Intellectual Property Assets In The Fuzzy Front End Of New Product Development Process, Yonghee Cho, Tugrul U. Daim

Joseph Cho

National-Cultural Differences In Ethical Decision Making: A Comparison Between Oman And United States University Business Students, Candace Mehaffey-Kultgen, Babu P. George, Gregory Weisenborn

Babu George

Successful Operating Strategies In The Performance Of U.S.-China Joint Ventures, Gregory E. Osland

Gregory E. Osland

Evaluations of the performance of international joint ventures (IJVs) in China have produced mixed conclusions. This study sought to uncover performance criteria used by various groups of managers and to identify critical factors in IJV performance in China. Using in-depth case studies, matched data were collected from personal interviews with managers from Chinese and U.S. parent companies, joint venture operating managers from both partners, and government officials from both countries. The performance criteria used by joint venture participants appear to be converging, with profitability emerging as the dominant element. This exploratory study uncovered four important strategic factors in the performance …

From The Head And The Heart: Locating Cognition- And Affect-Based Trust In Managers' Professional Networks, Roy Y. J. Chua, Paul Ingram, Michael W. Morris

Roy Chua

This article investigates the configuration of cognition- and affect-based trust in managers' professional networks, examining how these two types of trust are associated with relational content and structure. Results indicate that cognition-based trust is positively associated with economic resource, task advice, and career guidance ties, whereas affect-based trust is positively associated with friendship and career guidance ties but negatively associated with economic resource ties. The extent of embeddedness in a network through positive ties increases affect-based trust, whereas that through negative ties decreases cognition-based trust. These findings illuminate how trust arises in networks and inform network research that invokes trust …

Teaching Hrm And Managerial Skills With The 'Living Case' Exercise: An Evaluation, Cynthia D. Fisher, Carol A. Dickenson, James B. Shaw, Gregory N. Southey

Cynthia D. Fisher

Extract:The purpose of this paper is to describe and evaluate an innovative approach to teaching human resource management. The approach involves students working in small groups on a semester-long project in the form of an on-going case study (here after called the 'living case'). After setting up a simulated organisation complete with identification of strategies, structure and culture, students are required to make and defend a series of HR decisions in which they apply theory and classroom learning about HRM to their "real" organisation. The approach emphasises the context of HRM decisions and helps to develop a range of both …

Performance Appraisals As Heuristic Judgments Under Uncertainty, Jochen Reb, Gary J. Greguras, Shenghua Luan, Michael A. Daniels

Jochen Reb

Employees are constantly making decisions and judgments that have the potential to affect themselves, their families, their work organizations, and on some occasion even the broader societies in which they live. A few examples include: deciding which job applicant to hire, setting a production goal, judging one’s level of job satisfaction, deciding to steal from the cash register, agreeing to help organize the company’s holiday party, forecasting corporate tax rates two years later, deciding to report a coworker for sexual harassment, and predicting the level of risk inherent in a new business venture. In other words, a great many topics …

Decision Making Regarding Access To Training And Development In Medium-Sized Enterprises: An Exploratory Study Using The Critical Incident Technique, Alan Coetzer, Janice Redmond, Jalleh Sharafizad

Alan Coetzer

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop an understanding of factors that impinge on managerial decision-making processes regarding employee access to structured training and development (T&D) opportunities that are at least partially funded by the firm. Design/methodology/approach – Semi-structured interviews incorporating the Critical Incident Technique (CIT) were conducted with 14 managers of medium-sized enterprises based in Perth, Western Australia. The interviews explored decisions managers have actually made regarding employee access to T&D and yielded 42 useable critical incidents that served as the unit of analysis. Findings – There were three key findings: first, employee access to T&D …

Using The Critical Incident Technique To Research Decision Making Regarding Access To Training And Development In Medium-Sized Enterprises, Alan Coetzer, Janice Redmond, Jalleh Sharafizad

Alan Coetzer

Employees in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) form part of a 'disadvantaged' group within the workforce that receives less access to training and development (T & D) than employees in large firms. Prior research into reasons for the relatively low levels of employee participation in training and development has typically involved surveys of owner/manager opinions. A novel and potentially more fruitful line of inquiry is investigating decisions managers have actually made regarding employee access to T & D. Building on this idea, we describe how the critical incident technique (CIT) was applied in our exploratory study of managerial decision making …

Using The Critical Incident Technique To Research Decision Making Regarding Access To Training And Development In Medium-Sized Enterprises, Alan Coetzer, Janice Redmond, Jalleh Sharafizad

Janice Redmond Dr

Employees in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) form part of a 'disadvantaged' group within the workforce that receives less access to training and development (T & D) than employees in large firms. Prior research into reasons for the relatively low levels of employee participation in training and development has typically involved surveys of owner/manager opinions. A novel and potentially more fruitful line of inquiry is investigating decisions managers have actually made regarding employee access to T & D. Building on this idea, we describe how the critical incident technique (CIT) was applied in our exploratory study of managerial decision making …

Regret In Cancer-Related Decisions, Terry Connolly, Jochen Reb

Jochen Reb

Decision-related regret is a negative emotion associated with thinking about a past or future choice. The thinking component generally takes the form of a wish that things were otherwise and involves a comparison of what actually did or will take place with some better alternative--a counterfactual thought. For predecisional (anticipated) regret, the thinking involves a mental simulation of the outcomes that might result from different choice options. Prior research has focused on regret associated with decision outcomes, addressing especially (a) the comparison outcome selected and (b) whether the outcome resulted from action or inaction. More recent research examines regret associated …

Towards Interactive, Internet-Based Decision Aid For Vaccination Decisions: Better Information Alone Is Not Enough, Terry Connolly, Jochen Reb

Jochen Reb

Vaccination decisions, as in choosing whether or not to immunize one's small child against specific diseases, are both psychologically and computationally complex. The psychological complexities have been extensively studied, often in the context of shaping convincing or persuasive messages that will encourage parents to vaccinate their children. The computational complexity of the decision has been less noted. However, even if the parent has access to neutral, accurate, credible information on vaccination risks and benefits, he or she can easily be overwhelmed by the task of combining this information into a well-reasoned decision. We argue here that the Internet, in addition …

Regret Salience And Accountability In The Decoy Effect, Terry Connolly, Jochen Matthias Reb, Edgar E. Kausel

Jochen Reb

Two experiments examined the impact on the decoy effect of making salient the possibility of post-decision regret, a manipulation that has been shown in several earlier studies to stimulate critical examination and improvement of decision process. Experiment 1 (N = 62) showed that making regret salient eliminated the decoy effect in a personal preference task. Experiment 2 (N = 242) replicated this finding for a different personal preference task and for a prediction task. It also replicated previous findings that external accountability demands do not reduce, and may exacerbate, the decoy effect. We interpret both effects in terms of decision …

How To Make Unethical Decisions, Andrew Sikula Sr., John Sikula

Andrew Sikula, Sr.

People make decisions and solve problems in a variety of ways. Oftentimes, little if any thought goes into choice selection. Sometimes, even very important decisions are made without serious contemplation of potential alternatives and their consequences. Many different tools/techniques and rationales are utilized in problem solving and decision making with little or no regard to ethical judgment and/ or aftermaths. Some ways of making choices are worse than others when using pity parameters. This article discusses commonly used but ethically unsound methods of making selections. Later in the writing, appropriate standards and benchmarks for determining ethical action will be presented.

Hidden Consequences Of The Group Serving Bias: Causal Attributions And The Quality Of Group Decision Making, Jack Goncalo, Michelle M. Duguid

Jack Goncalo

A long stream of research in attribution theory suggests that groups are biased toward attributing their success to factors that are internal to their group. However, the existing research has confounded two types of attributions that are both internal to the group, but theoretically distinct: (1) Attributions that differentiate between the contributions made by each individual group member and (2) attributions that focus on the group as a whole. This dichotomy is important because, drawing on theories of social influence, we predict that different types of attributions will have different consequences for the quality of group decision making. In experiment …

An Empirical Investigation Of The Evaluative Criteria Of Industrial Buyers, Daniel H. Mcquiston, Rockney G. Walters

Daniel H. McQuiston

A factor analytic methodology is used to measure and interpret the evaluative criteria used by the functional roles represented in an industrial decision making unit during their consideration to purchase a piece of capital equipment. The results of the study indicate that the criteria employed by each decision maker during the evaluation of this equipment varied by functional role. The attributes contained in each evaluative dimension were directly related to each functional role primary job responsibility.

Teaching Hrm And Managerial Skills With The 'Living Case' Exercise: An Evaluation, Cynthia D. Fisher, Carol A. Dickenson, James B. Shaw, Gregory N. Southey

James B Shaw

Extract:The purpose of this paper is to describe and evaluate an innovative approach to teaching human resource management. The approach involves students working in small groups on a semester-long project in the form of an on-going case study (here after called the 'living case'). After setting up a simulated organisation complete with identification of strategies, structure and culture, students are required to make and defend a series of HR decisions in which they apply theory and classroom learning about HRM to their "real" organisation. The approach emphasises the context of HRM decisions and helps to develop a range of both …

Bad Apples In Bad Barrels Revisited: Cognitive Moral Development, Just World Beliefs, Rewards, And Ethical Decision Making, Neal M. Ashkanasy, Carolyn Windsor, Linda K. Trevino

Carolyn Windsor

In this study, we test the interactive effect on ethical decision-making of (1) personal characteristics, and (2) personal expectancies based on perceptions of organizational rewards and punishments. Personal characteristics studied were cognitive moral development and belief in a just world. Using an in-basket simulation, we found that exposure to reward system information influenced managers' outcome expectancies. Further, outcome expectancies and belief in a just world interacted with managers' cognitive moral development to influence managers' ethical decision-making. In particular, low-cognitive moral development managers who expected that their organization condoned unethical behavior made less ethical decisions while high cognitive moral development managers …