Business Commons^™

Learning And Adaptation Under Uncertainty And Ambiguity, Lei Zheng

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

The first essay is about how high and moderate aspiration levels compare in terms of affecting the decision making and reinforcement learning in an uncertain environment. After developing a thought experiment and a computational model, I used lab experiments to test the model’s predictions: a high (moderate) aspiration level reduces (increases) feedback ambiguity about the relative attractiveness of different options, thus increases the exploitation (exploration) tendency of the decision maker. The behavioural difference suggests that high aspirations lead to better performance in stable environments, but worse performance after disruptive shocks. The second essay investigates whether organizations should commit more (or …