Top managers play a pivotal role in shaping organizational strategy and outcomes, yet their decisions are often influenced by heuristics: cognitive shortcuts that can lead to systematic biases. This special issue looks at research exploring how these heuristics and biases affect key management decisions, from resource allocation and risk-taking to innovation and strategic direction. By examining the interplay between experience, intuition, organizational context, and uncertainty, these studies shed light on when heuristics can support effective decision-making and when they may lead to costly errors.
Beyond individual decision-making, the issue also investigates how top managers’ cognitive patterns interact with organizational processes, social dynamics, and firm characteristics. Articles examine the influence of heuristics across different organizational contexts, including start-ups, family firms, and multinational enterprises, offering insights into how leaders can recognize and mitigate potential biases while leveraging heuristics as practical decision-making tools.
Read the full issue here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/14676486/2023/60/5 or browse the individual articles below:
The Heuristics and Biases of Top Managers: Past, Present, and Future by Gerard P. Hodgkinson, Barbara Burkhard, Nicolai J. Foss, Dietmar Grichnik, Riikka M. Sarala, Yi Tang and Marc Van Essen
A Simple Rule is Born: How CEOs Distill Heuristics by Radu Atanasiu, Riku Ruotsalainen and Svetlana N. Khapova
Linking Experience to Intuition and Cognitive Versatility in New Venture Ideation: A Dual-Process Perspective by Leonie Baldacchino, Deniz Ucbasaran, Laure Cabantous
What’s in a Name? How Senior Managers use Name-Based Heuristics to Allocate Financial Resources in Multinational Corporations by Jelena Cerar, Benoit Decreton and Phillip C. Nell
The Role of Organizational Structure in Senior Managers’ Selective Information Processing by Sebastian Junge, Johannes Luger and Jan Mammen
How Does CEO Decision Style Influence Firm Performance? The Mediating Role of Speed and Innovativeness in New Product Development by Sebastian Kruse, David Bendig and Malte Brettel
I Did It My Way: CEO Core Self-Evaluations and the Environmental Contingencies on Firm Risk-Taking Strategies by Christian J. Resick, Sucheta Nadkarni, Jenny Chu, Jianhong Chen, Wan-Chien Lien, Jaclyn A. Margolis, Ping Shao
Problem Solving or Responsibility Avoidance? The Role of CEO Internal Attribution Tendency in Shaping Corporate Downsizing in Response to Performance Shortfalls by Wei Shi, Guoli Chen and Boshuo Li
Top Manager Heuristics Under Knightian Uncertainty: Control Versus Prediction and the Moderating Impact of Framing by Willem Smit
Capability Development in Infrequent Organizational Processes: Unveiling the Interplay of Heuristics and Causal Knowledge by Natalia Vuori, Tomi Laamanen and Maurizio Zollo
List of Reviewers for this Special Issue
