A New Venture's Cognitive Legitimacy: An Assessment by Customers

Many legitimacy problems associated with new ventures appear to stem from a lack of customers' knowledge and understanding of the new venture. Of particular concern to entrepreneurs is cognitive legitimacy. The findings of this article suggest that customers appear to have a preference for greater rather than lesser information about a new venture's product, organization, and management (holding the content of that information constant). Furthermore, customers appear to use a contingent decision policy. For an independent startup business that is perceived as new on all three dimensions, priority should be given to building customer knowledge in the product, followed by building customer knowledge in the organization. Less attention should be given to building the customer's knowledge in the management team, although such actions still will build cognitive legitimacy.     

A Mixed-Data Evaluation in Group TOPSIS with Differentiated Decision Power

This main objective of this paper is to provide decision support for mixed data in group Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Idea Solution (TOPSIS) with differentiated decision power. We use a signum function to compare the ordinal performance of alternatives on any qualitative criterion, or the partial information provided by decision makers. The proposed process for ordinal information is uniformly coherent with the traditional TOPSIS steps, preserving the characteristic of distance-based utilities. Ordinal weights are also considered herein, and the decision power of the group members is formulated by their weights under an agreement in the group. Two examples demonstrate that the proposed approach has some benefits and achieves robustness with two types of sensitivity analyses. Some discussions and their limitations to the approach are also provided.     

Young Adults and Politics: Investigating Factors Influencing Voter Decision Making

Many parallels have been drawn between politics and marketing; however, the application of consumer behavior decision making to voter decision making is still an important research focus. Results from general elections around the world show that the turnout among young adults tends to be lower than in the general electorate, suggesting low interest and involvement in politics. This qualitative study investigated low-involvement decision making of young adult voters in Australia. Data were compiled from semistructured face-to-face interviews conducted with 29 young adults to explore their views, and NVivo software was used to assist with thematic analysis. Findings suggest that with low-involvement voter decision making, perceived knowledge and passive information seeking are important factors. Exposure to the media also plays an important role, and young voters rely more on traditional media such as newspapers and television than on social media for current political information.     

Selection of a Representative Value Function for Robust Ordinal Regression in Group Decision Making

In this paper, we introduce the concept of a representative value function in a group decision context. We extend recently proposed methods UTA^GMS-GROUP and UTADIS^GMS-GROUP with selection of a compromise and collective preference model which aggregates preferences of several decision makers (DMs) and represents all instances of preference models compatible with preference information elicited from DMs. The representative value function is built on results of robust ordinal regression, so its representativeness can be interpreted in terms of robustness concern. We propose a few procedures designed for multiple criteria ranking, choice, and sorting problems. The use of these procedures is conditioned by both satisfying different degrees of consistency of the preference information provided by all DMs, as well as by some properties of particular decision making situations. The representative value function is intended to help the DMs to understand the robust results, and to provide them with a compromise result in case of conflict between the DMs.     

Cultural and Ethical Effects on Managerial Decisions: Examined in a Throughput Model

Financial and cost accounting information is processed by decision-makers guided by their particular need to support decisions. Recent technological advances impacting on information as well as organizations such as the European Community mandating financial reporting requirements for many countries is rapidly changing the landscape for decision making using accounting information. Hence, the importance of individuals' decision making is more important than it was previously. These decisions are also influenced by individuals' ethical beliefs. The Throughput Modeling approach to cultural and ethical concerns provides a way of dealing with accounting information processed through various pathways by decision-makers. This modeling approach captures different philosophical perspectives from which to understand what is involved in "thinking scientifically." In the Throughput Modeling approach, pathways highlight the importance of how different philosophical perspectives may be used by individuals in arriving at a decision. This paper highlights key concepts involved in rethinking the basis of moral decision making in terms of an underlying process, rather than focusing on the application of principles or the development of a virtuous character. Examples are provided from both English and Spanish settings to help emphasize the importance of modeling ethical decision making globally.     

Multicriteria Decision Analysis of Stream Restoration: Potential and Examples

Within stream restoration practice there has been little use of formal decision analysis methods for evaluating tradeoffs in selecting restoration sites and design alternatives. Restoration planning suffers from poorly defined objectives, confusion of objectives and means, and a lack of consideration of tradeoffs. Multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) methods have the potential to improve restoration decision making by quantifying non-economic objectives, communicating tradeoffs, facilitating consistent and explicit valuation, and focusing negotiation on ultimate objectives. To explore the potential usefulness of MCDA, we first review restoration practices and define the characteristics of projects that are good candidates for MCDA. We also present two case studies. The first study is a prioritization of stream reaches for restoration that illustrates how value judgments can affect such decisions. The second study addresses the proposed removal of the Ballville Dam on the Sandusky River in Ohio. An important challenge in the dam removal decision is the linking of habitat improvements to changes in species populations and ecological services that people value. The analysis shows how MCDA can assist decision making by clarifying tradeoffs, in this case by showing that the key issues are conflicts among ecological criteria—not all of which are improved by restoration.     

Window displays and consumer shopping decisions

Window displays are an ubiquitous and prominent but under-researched element of retail strategy. This paper explores how the store and product category information communicated by a store's windows are related to consumers’ shopping decisions, such as store entry and product purchase, and how these relationships vary for consumer segments that differ in terms of their knowledge of the retailer's product(s). Results of a study conducted in the context of clothing retailers demonstrate that the store entry decision is related both directly as well as indirectly (through acquisition of inferred, store-related information) to the acquisition of observed, store-related information from window displays. However, it is product category-related information (e.g. fashion and product-self fit) rather than store-related information (e.g. merchandise and store image) that is more strongly associated with the product purchase decision. Moreover, consumers with medium levels of clothing knowledge are more influenced by windows in their shopping decisions than those with low or high levels.     

Food choice: student consumers' decision‐making process regarding food products with limited label information

Food label information theoretically facilitates consumer decision‐making and food choice, but the extent to which consumers actually use this information during decision‐making is a subject of considerable debate. Therefore, this study focused on the importance of label information in student consumers' decision‐making process when exposed to limited label information food in a cafeteria environment. Because of a paucity of research in this area, a qualitative research approach that was exploratory in nature was used, accompanied by semi‐structured interviewing and a vignette. Undergraduate students from the North‐West University, Potchefstroom Campus, in South Africa served as the target population. The findings suggest that internal and product‐related strategies are applied when food choices are made whereby the importance of label information only features in the latter strategy. Student consumers with a label interest were more inclined to use label information strategies in the absence of complete label information to base food choice on. Those with a lack of label interest made use of alternative strategies using product and personal‐related information, such as freshness and product knowledge to make decisions. The decision‐making process was more complex because of insufficient label information and product appearance, and thus previous experiences and habitual purchasing became more important to participants. Student consumers should be supported to make healthier food choices through food manufacturers supplying cafeteria products with more complete label information and by providing students with the knowledge to use label information correctly through educational programmes.     

The nature of information and overconfidence on venture capitalists' decision making

Venture capitalists (VCs) are considered experts in identifying high potential new ventures—gazelles. Thus, the VC decision process has received tremendous attention within the entrepreneurship literature. Yet, most studies on VC decision-making focus on which decision criteria are central to selecting gazelles. Although informative, the majority of these studies has neglected cognitive differences in how VCs make decisions. This is surprising considering the influence cognitive differences are likely to have on the exploitation of an opportunity as well as its influence on likely success. The current study investigates whether VCs are overconfident, as well as the factors surrounding the decision that lead to overconfidence.Overconfidence describes the tendency to overestimate the likely occurrence of a set of events. Overconfident people make probability judgments that are more extreme than they should, given the evidence and their knowledge. In the case of the new venture investment decision, overconfident VCs may overestimate the likelihood that a funded company will succeed.The results of the current study indicate that VCs are indeed overconfident (96% of the 51 participating VCs exhibited significant overconfidence) and that overconfidence negatively affects VC decision accuracy (the correlation between overconfidence and accuracy was 0.70). The level of overconfidence depended upon the amount of information, the type of information, and whether the VC strongly believes the venture will succeed or fail.As more information becomes available, people tend to believe they will make better decisions; they are making a “more informed decision.” More information ideally should enable the VCs to assess any potential pitfalls. However, additional information makes the decision more complex. Information factors may contradict and relate to other information in unexpected ways. Even if more information is available, people usually don't analyze all of it (even though they believe they do). Thus, more information creates greater confidence, but it also leads to lower decision accuracy.The type of information that is available also impacts overconfidence and decision accuracy. VCs are intuitive decision makers. When people are familiar with a decision and the structure of the information surrounding that decision, they resort to automatic information processing. On the other hand, if information surrounding the decision is structured in an unfamiliar way, people need to decipher what each piece of information means and how that impacts their overall accuracy. In the case of expert VCs, that means they must deviate from their intuitive style. It seems that forcing them outside their “comfort zone” has a negative effect on their confidence and has an even greater effect (negative) on their accuracy.There is evidence of an “availability bias” in VC decision-making; VCs rely on how well the current decision matches past successful or failed investments. VCs are overconfident in their prediction of venture success when they predict a very high level of success. VCs are also overconfident in their prediction of venture failure when they predict a very low likelihood of success. This high level of overconfidence in success predictions (or failure predictions) may encourage the VC to limit information search and fund a lower potential investment (or prematurely reject a stronger potential investment).Although overconfidence in itself does not necessarily lead to a wrong decision, the bias is likely to inhibit learning and improving the decision process. Overconfident VCs may not fully consider all relevant information, nor search for additional information to improve their decision. Moreover, the natural tendency for people to recall past successes rather than failures may mean that VCs will make the same mistakes again. VCs can take simple steps to reduce the effect of overconfidence, including counterfactual thinking (i.e., imaging scenarios where current assumptions might not hold), formally recording how past decisions were made at the time of the decision (versus trying to recall how that decision was made from memory), and using actuarial decision aids that decompose decisions into core components. Reducing overconfidence may lead to stronger decisions. It is hoped that this study illustrates the power of cognitive theories for understanding VC decision-making.     

Fair,Efficient and Envy-Free Bargaining: An Experimental Test of the Brams-Taylor Adjusted Winner Mechanism

The Adjusted Winner mechanism for two-player bargaining has been theoretically shown to produce “fair” (efficient and envy-free) outcomes (Brams and Taylor 1996). We study this claim experimentally in a bilateral bargaining game of incomplete information for two divisible goods using three information conditions. Results indicate that the Adjusted Winner mechanism can be quite effective in achieving both efficient, equitable and envy-free outcomes in an experimental setting but results vary greatly depending on the knowledge that each party has of the preferences of their bargaining partner. Under conditions of common knowledge, when players have competing preferences, their bilateral decisions converge toward efficient outcomes, yet only one-third can be classified as “envy-free.” In an environment where there is more uncertainty about preferences, pronounced strategic bidding emerges yet the result is twice as many envy-fee outcomes with increased levels of efficiency. Despite the fact that players dramatically misrepresent their true valuation for objects when ordinal preferences are commonly known to be complementary, both efficiency and envy-freeness approach maximum levels.     

Statistical formats to optimize evidence-based decision making: A behavioral approach

Statistical information is crucial for managerial decision making. The decision-making literature in psychology and mathematical cognition documents how different statistical formats can facilitate certain types of decisions. The present analysis is the first of its kind to assess the impact of statistical formats in the presentation of data from market research on both the optimality of market decisions and the time required to perform the decision-making process. An economic experiment provides the data for this study. The experiment presents statistical information in simple frequencies and relative frequencies using numerical and pictorial representations in the context of different informational environments. The key findings are that statistical information presented in terms of relative frequency formats gives rise to more accurate decision making than data presented in terms of simple frequencies, independently of the informational environments. When time is the relevant variable, numerical formats lead to a faster interpretation than pictorial ones. Since the number of factors defining the four statistical formats and the different informational environments is quite large, an orthogonal design offers a suitable experimental design. This design keeps the experiment manageable without substantially reducing its analytical power.     

Islamic Ethics and the Implications for Business

As global business operations expand, managers need more knowledge of foreign cultures, in particular, information on the ethics of doing business across borders. The purpose of this paper is twofold: (1) to share the Islamic perspective on business ethics, little known in the west, which may stimulate further thinking and debate on the relationships between ethics and business, and (2) to provide some knowledge of Islamic philosophy in order to help managers do business in Muslim cultures. The case of Egypt illustrates some divergence between Islamic philosophy and practice in economic life. The paper concludes with managerial implications and suggestions for further research.     

Goal achievement and satisfaction of joint venture partners

Joint venturing is recommended to avoid some of the obstacles to successful business venturing, such as capability limitations and organizational resistance. However, the high dissolution rates for joint ventures suggest a need to learn how to utilize this cooperative strategy more effectively. Two frequently reported problem areas in joint venturing are unrealistic corporate expectations and inadequate planning. Thus, this study sought to examine the impact of strategic intent on joint venture success as measured by partner goal achievement and satisfaction.A review of the literature on strategic goals and goal consensus suggested that two variables are likely to affect joint venture performance: the number of partner goals pursued and the overlap in partners' goals. The type of goals pursued may also affect performance; that is, some goals may be more achievable through joint venturing than are other goals.The purpose of this research was two-fold: (1) to empirically explore the relative importance of a variety of partner goals for their joint ventures, and (2) to determine if goal disparity, and the number and type of goals pursued affected joint venture success. This approach draws attention to the expectations of partners rather than to the venture itself, the traditional focus in entrepreneurship.The hypotheses and exploratory propositions were tested using data from U.S. firms involved in manufacturing joint ventures. A categorization of partner goals was developed through factor analysis, in which five categories of goals emerged: knowledge transfer, market power, financial performance, efficiency, and financial structure. Partners were found to have pursued multiple goals simultaneously, with knowledge transfer and market goals being most frequently rated as critically important. These findings suggest the need to expand traditional performance measures to account for the diverse and nonfinancial nature of partner goals.When examined separately, it was found that a large goal set facilitated partner goal achievement and satisfaction, and that an overlap in partners' goals promoted partner satisfaction. The large goal set was argued to be necessary in the volatile environments that are often attractive for joint venturing. A large goal set reflects adaptation to environmental change and facilitates prudent strategy selection by subjecting alternatives to multiple goal hurdles. The overlap in partners' goals reflects a meshing of individual partner goals and helps to minimize conflict, which could stall strategy development and drain resources. However, when an integrated model was developed from multiple regression findings, the overlap in partners' goals became a moderator variable. This model exposed the negative as well as the positive effects of the overlap in partners' goals.Analysis further suggested that the joint venture strategy may be better suited to achieving efficiency goals than financial goals. Possible explanations for the difficulty in achieving financial goals include: insufficient time (or short lifespan of the joint venture), the complex structure inherent in joint ventures, and the possibility of disagreement between the partners about how the financial goals should be achieved. On the other hand, efficiency goals, such as vertical integration and economies of scale, require expansion or extension of operations and thus fit well with the pooling of skills and resources that are characteristic of joint venturing. Further, both partners contribute to and gain from efficiency goals, unlike with market access or knowledge transfer goals where one firm contributes more than it gains or vice versa for that particular goal.Additional analysis revealed that the goal types explained more variance in partner goal achievement and satisfaction than did the size of goal sets or the extent of overlap in partners' goals. Taken in combination, the various aspects of partners' goals explained 26% of the variance in partner goal achievement and 38% of the variance in partner satisfaction. When partner goal achievement was included in the multiple regression model for partner satisfaction, the amount of explained variance increased to 69%. The results suggest that a partner firm may be able to significantly enhance its chances of judging a joint venture to be successful if its goals focus on efficiency rather than revenues and profits, if it has a relatively large goal set, and if it concentrates on achieving the set of stated goals.     

A study of the antecedents of slogan liking

A slogan is an integral component of a brand's advertising platform that helps shape its identity and define its positioning. While prior literature has focused on the recall of slogans, knowledge regarding why consumers like some slogans more than others is still limited. This paper uses data from a large field study to explore the key factors that determine the likeability of slogans. It uses a bilinear mixed model to assess the relative importance of slogan characteristics, media expenditure, and respondent characteristics as antecedents of slogan likeability. The findings suggest that the liking for a slogan may be unrelated to media expenditure, and driven largely by the clarity of the message, the exposition of the benefits, rhymes, and creativity. Further, in sharp contrast to industry practice and conventional belief, the study finds that jingles or brevity have no systematic effects on the likeability of slogans.     

An overview of corporate social responsibility in Greece: perceptions,developments and barriers to overcome

The objective of this paper is to provide an overview of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Greece and present the challenges that need to be met in order to further promote socially responsible business behaviour in the domestic economy. This is the first attempt to provide a systematic analysis of CSR in Greece and adds to the existing pool of knowledge of CSR embeddedness in countries where CSR awareness is still rather low, a literature field that is still quite limited. Drawing from prior literature, the paper is built around three basic questions in relation to the Greek context: how is CSR perceived by Greek business professionals? How is CSR practised in Greece? And which issues evident in the modern domestic environment act as underlying barriers to the broader dissemination of CSR in Greece? The extant empirical work suggests that, while CSR in Greece appears to be developing, there is still scope for improvement and further diffusion of relevant practices. While some of the patterns shaping CSR in Greece have been analysed, much work still remains to be carried out in extending and deepening our knowledge in this part of Europe.     

Electricity awareness and consumer demand for information

With the envisioned growth in the residential electricity demand and increased share of intermittent renewables in the supply mix, consumers will need to be better informed about their electricity consumption and to play an active role in managing their electricity use. However, consumer inattention and lack of information are ubiquitous, especially in household energy‐related settings. Thus, using a novel survey and actual monthly electricity consumption data, this study set out to measure the level of awareness about electricity bills, prices and costs among some Finnish households—as captured by the answers to six questions—and to investigate whether higher levels of “electricity awareness” are associated with electricity savings. In addition, this study analyses the willingness to receive extra information about energy consumption and savings and how it differs between “electricity aware” and “electricity unaware” respondents. The results indicate low levels of “electricity awareness” among the respondents of the survey. Compared to the respondents with little knowledge about electricity bills, prices and costs, the respondents with higher levels of “electricity awareness” tend to consume less electricity. Higher levels of awareness about electricity use and consumption might “materialize” inconspicuous consumption patterns, as opposed to more general facts about the largely invisible environmental consequences of everyday practices. More than two‐thirds of the total number of respondents would like to receive additional information about energy consumption and how to save energy. However, there exists a significant portion of “electricity unaware” respondents who are not only unwilling to receive such information, but are also unaware of their own knowledge deficits. To maximize the impact of any information strategy, decision makers should attempt to engage with this type of consumer; by becoming more aware of their knowledge deficits, people might become more receptive to information that can benefit them.     

A Multiagent Approach for Collective Decision Making in Knowledge Management

In this paper we propose an argumentative multiagent model based on a mediator agent in order to automate the resolution of conflicts between decision makers for identifying knowledge that need to be capitalized and that we call “crucial knowledge”. We follow both an argumentative approach and a multi-agent system based on a mediator agent. This new approach allows the mediator agent to elicit preference of decision makers which can be different or even contradictory while exploiting and managing their multiple points of view to identify crucial knowledge. Concrete experiments have been conducted on real data from an automotive company and on randomly generated data. We have observed that a non-argumentative approach is more sensitive to the variation of the number of knowledge than an argumentative one. Indeed, the classification results using the multiagent system are consistent with classifications of human decision makers in nearly 80% of studied cases.     

Exploring the Business Development Process of Swedish Firms in the Baltic States and Poland

On the basis of internationalization theory, a model is developed to study the business development process of Swedish firms in the Baltic States and Poland. The model focuses on two aspects of behavior: the pre-entry and positioning of the firms. The results, based on an investigation of 40 firms, indicate differences in the pre-entry behavior between large and small firms. Strategic considerations were the most important factors that influenced the large firms' decision process while personal motives were more often the main motive among small firms. The subsequent positioning behavior, in terms of knowledge development and commitments,was influenced by the network of large firms while small firms had to gain knowledge by utilizing external factors or finding information on their own.     

MCDA Framework for Fishing Rights Allocation in South Africa

The work discussed in this paper relates to the allocation of fishing rights within the Western Cape province of South Africa. Many of these fisheries are under threat through over-exploitation, and yet are a traditional source of livelihood in many communities. We describe a sequence of interventions during which principles and processes of multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA) formed the framework for structuring the problems, for facilitating group consensus on the decision making process, and for designing a decision support template for use in future allocations. Interactions with community representatives and with the the national Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism revealed a high degree of consistency in perceptions of the management goals that need to be taken into consideration. These goals could be structured and summarized in the form of an integrated value tree, which in turn formed the basis for a formalized decision support structure that could provide a transparent, coherent and auditable basis for the allocation of fishing rights in a fully goal-directed manner.