TY - JOUR A1 - Caliendo, Marco A1 - Cobb-Clark, Deborah A. A1 - Silva-Goncalves, Juliana A1 - Uhlendorff, Arne T1 - Locus of control and the preference for agency JF - European economic review N2 - We conduct a laboratory experiment to study how locus of control operates through people’s preferences and beliefs to influence their decisions. Using the principal–agent setting of the delegation game, we test four key channels that conceptually link locus of control to decision-making: (i) preference for agency, (ii) optimism and (iii) confidence regarding the return to effort, and (iv) illusion of control. Knowing the return and cost of stated effort, principals either retain or delegate the right to make an investment decision that generates payoffs for themselves and their agents. Extending the game to the context in which the return to stated effort is unknown allows us to explicitly study the relationship between locus of control and beliefs about the return to effort. We find that internal locus of control is linked to the preference for agency, an effect that is driven by women. We find no evidence that locus of control influences optimism and confidence about the return to stated effort, or that it operates through an illusion of control. KW - locus of control KW - preference for agency KW - decision-making KW - beliefs KW - optimism KW - confidence KW - illusion of control Y1 - 2024 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euroecorev.2024.104737 SN - 0014-2921 SN - 1873-572X VL - 165 IS - 104737 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Dörfler, Thomas T1 - The effect of expert recommendations on intergovernmental decision-making BT - North Korea, Iran, and non-proliferation sanctions in the Security Council JF - International relations : the journal of the David Davies Memorial Institute of International Studies N2 - The article explores whether and to what extent expert recommendations affect decision-making within the Security Council and its North Korea and Iran sanctions regimes. The article first develops a rationalist theoretical argument to show why making many second-stage decisions, such as determining lists of items under export restrictions, subjects Security Council members to repeating coordination situations. Expert recommendations may provide focal point solutions to coordination problems, even when interests diverge and preferences remain stable. Empirically, the article first explores whether expert recommendations affected decision-making on commodity sanctions imposed on North Korea. Council members heavily relied on recommended export trigger lists as focal points, solving a divisive conflict among great powers. Second, the article explores whether expert recommendations affected the designation of sanctions violators in the Iran sanctions regime. Council members designated individuals and entities following expert recommendations as focal points, despite conflicting interests among great powers. The article concludes that expert recommendations are an additional means of influence in Security Council decision-making and seem relevant for second-stage decision-making among great powers in other international organisations. KW - decision-making KW - expert recommendations KW - international organisation KW - rationalism KW - sanctions KW - Security Council Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/00471178211033941 SN - 0047-1178 SN - 1741-2862 VL - 36 IS - 2 SP - 237 EP - 261 PB - Sage CY - London ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Caliendo, Marco A1 - Cobb-Clark, Deborah A. A1 - Silva-Goncalves, Juliana A1 - Uhlendorff, Arne T1 - Locus of control and the preference for agency T2 - IZA discussion paper N2 - We conduct a laboratory experiment to study how locus of control operates through people's preferences and beliefs to influence their decisions. Using the principal-agent setting of the delegation game, we test four key channels that conceptually link locus of control to decision-making: (i) preference for agency; (ii) optimism and (iii) confidence regarding the return to effort; and (iv) illusion of control. Knowing the return and cost of stated effort, principals either retain or delegate the right to make an investment decision that generates payoffs for themselves and their agents. Extending the game to the context in which the return to stated effort is unknown allows us to explicitly study the relationship between locus of control and beliefs about the return to effort. We find that internal locus of control is linked to the preference for agency, an effect that is driven by women. We find no evidence that locus of control influences optimism and confidence about the return to stated effort, or that it operates through an illusion of control. KW - locus of control KW - preference for agency KW - decision-making KW - beliefs KW - optimism KW - confidence KW - illusion of control Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4416820 SN - 2365-9793 VL - No. 16061 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Sommerer, Thomas A1 - Squatrito, Theresa A1 - Tallberg, Jonas A1 - Lundgren, Magnus T1 - Decision-making in international organizations BT - institutional design and performance JF - The review of international organizations N2 - International organizations (IOs) experience significant variation in their decision-making performance, or the extent to which they produce policy output. While some IOs are efficient decision-making machineries, others are plagued by deadlock. How can such variation be explained? Examining this question, the article makes three central contributions. First, we approach performance by looking at IO decision-making in terms of policy output and introduce an original measure of decision-making performance that captures annual growth rates in IO output. Second, we offer a novel theoretical explanation for decision-making performance. This account highlights the role of institutional design, pointing to how majoritarian decision rules, delegation of authority to supranational institutions, and access for transnational actors (TNAs) interact to affect decision-making. Third, we offer the first comparative assessment of the decision-making performance of IOs. While previous literature addresses single IOs, we explore decision-making across a broad spectrum of 30 IOs from 1980 to 2011. Our analysis indicates that IO decision-making performance varies across and within IOs. We find broad support for our theoretical account, showing the combined effect of institutional design features in shaping decision-making performance. Notably, TNA access has a positive effect on decision-making performance when pooling is greater, and delegation has a positive effect when TNA access is higher. We also find that pooling has an independent, positive effect on decision-making performance. All-in-all, these findings suggest that the institutional design of IOs matters for their decision-making performance, primarily in more complex ways than expected in earlier research. KW - international organizations KW - institutional design KW - decision-making KW - global governance KW - performance Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s11558-021-09445-x SN - 1559-7431 SN - 1559-744X VL - 17 IS - 4 SP - 815 EP - 845 PB - Springer CY - Boston ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lundgren, Magnus A1 - Squatrito, Theresa A1 - Sommerer, Thomas A1 - Tallberg, Jonas T1 - Introducing the Intergovernmental Policy Output Dataset (IPOD) JF - The review of international organizations N2 - There is a growing recognition that international organizations (IOs) formulate and adopt policy in a wide range of areas. IOs have emerged as key venues for states seeking joint solutions to contemporary challenges such as climate change or COVID-19, and to establish frameworks to bolster trade, development, security, and more. In this capacity, IOs produce both extraordinary and routine policy output with a multitude of purposes, ranging from policies of historic significance like admitting new members to the more mundane tasks of administering IO staff. This article introduces the Intergovernmental Policy Output Dataset (IPOD), which covers close to 37,000 individual policy acts of 13 multi-issue IOs in the 1980–2015 period. The dataset fills a gap in the growing body of literature on the comparative study of IOs, providing researchers with a fine-grained perspective on the structure of IO policy output and data for comparisons across time, policy areas, and organizations. This article describes the construction and coverage of the dataset and identifies key temporal and cross-sectional patterns revealed by the data. In a concise illustration of the dataset’s utility, we apply models of punctuated equilibria in a comparative study of the relationship between institutional features and broad policy agenda dynamics. Overall, the Intergovernmental Policy Output Dataset offers a unique resource for researchers to analyze IO policy output in a granular manner and to explore questions of responsiveness, performance, and legitimacy of IOs. KW - international organizations KW - policy KW - policy agendas KW - decision-making Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s11558-023-09492-6 SN - 1559-7431 SN - 1559-744X VL - 19 SP - 117 EP - 146 PB - Springer CY - Boston ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Khaw, Khai Wah A1 - Camilleri, Mark A1 - Tiberius, Victor A1 - Alnoor, Alhamzah A1 - Zaidan, Ali Shakir T1 - Benchmarking electric power companies' sustainability and circular economy behaviors BT - using a hybrid PLS-SEM and MCDM approach JF - Environment, development and sustainability N2 - This research examines the impact of firms’ decision-making, crisis management, and risk-taking behaviors on their sustainability and circular economy behaviors through the mediating role of their eco-innovation behavior in the energy industry in Iraq. Firms are exploring applicable mechanisms to increase green practices. This requires the industry to possess the essential skills to overcome the challenges that reduce sustainable activities. We applied a dual-stage structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach to explore the linear relationships between variables, determine the weight of the criteria, and rank energy companies based on a circular economy. The online questionnaire was sent to 549 managers and heads of departments of Iraqi electric power companies. Out of these, 384 questionnaires were collected. The results indicate that firms’ crisis management, decision-making, and risk-taking behaviors are significantly and positively linked to their eco-innovation behavior. This study confirms the significant and positive impact of firms’ eco-innovation behavior on their sustainability and circular economy behaviors. Likewise, eco-innovation behavior has a fully mediating role. For the MCDM methods, ranking energy companies according to the circular economy can support policymakers’ decisions to renew contracts with leading companies in the ranking. Practitioners can also impose government regulations on low-ranked companies. Thus, governments can reduce the problems of greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental pollution. KW - eco-innovation KW - circular economy KW - crisis management KW - decision-making KW - risk-taking KW - sustainability Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-023-02975-x SN - 1387-585X SN - 1573-2975 VL - 35 PB - Springer CY - Dordrecht ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gehring, Thomas A1 - Dorsch, Christian A1 - Dörfler, Thomas T1 - Precedent and doctrine in organisational decision-making BT - the power of informal institutional rules in the United Nations Security Council’s activities on terrorism JF - Journal of international relations and development N2 - We examine how and under what conditions informal institutional constraints, such as precedent and doctrine, are likely to affect collective choice within international organisations even in the absence of powerful bureaucratic agents. With a particular focus on the United Nations Security Council, we first develop a theoretical account of why such informal constraints might affect collective decisions even of powerful and strategically behaving actors. We show that precedents provide focal points that allow adopting collective decisions in coordination situations despite diverging preferences. Reliance on previous cases creates tacitly evolving doctrine that may develop incrementally. Council decision-making is also likely to be facilitated by an institutional logic of escalation driven by institutional constraints following from the typically staged response to crisis situations. We explore the usefulness of our theoretical argument with evidence from the Council doctrine on terrorism that has evolved since 1985. The key decisions studied include the 1992 sanctions resolution against Libya and the 2001 Council response to the 9/11 attacks. We conclude that, even within intergovernmentally structured international organisations, member states do not operate on a clean slate, but in a highly institutionalised environment that shapes their opportunities for action. KW - decision-making KW - doctrine KW - international organisations KW - precedent KW - Security Council KW - terrorism Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1057/s41268-017-0101-5 SN - 1581-1980 SN - 1408-6980 VL - 22 IS - 1 SP - 107 EP - 135 PB - Palgrave Macmillan CY - Basingstoke ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ullrich, André A1 - Vladova, Gergana A1 - Marquart, Danny A1 - Braun, Andreas A1 - Gronau, Norbert T1 - An overwiew of benefits and risks in open innovation projects and the influence of intermediary participation, decision-making authority, experience, and position on their perception JF - International journal of innovation management : IJIM N2 - This paper presents an exploratory study investigating the influence of the factors (1) intermediary participation, (2) decision-making authority, (3) position in the enterprise, and (4) experience in open innovation on the perception and assessment of the benefits and risks expected from participating in open innovation projects. For this purpose, an online survey was conducted in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The result of this paper is an empirical evidence showing whether and how these factors affect the perception of potential benefits and risks expected within the context of open innovation project participation. Furthermore, the identified effects are discussed against the theory. Existing theory regarding the benefits and risks of open innovation is expanded by (1) finding that they are perceived mostly independently of the factors, (2) confirming the practical relevance of benefits and risks, and (3) enabling a finer distinction between their degrees of relevance according to respective contextual specifics. KW - Open innovation KW - intermediaries KW - benefits KW - decision-making KW - experience; KW - risks Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1142/S1363919622500128 SN - 1363-9196 SN - 1757-5877 VL - 26 IS - 02 PB - World Scientific Publ. CY - Singapore ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Heinzel, Mirko Noa T1 - Mediating power? BT - Delegation, pooling and leadership selection at international organisations JF - The British journal of politics & international relations : BJPIR N2 - The selection of the executive heads of international organisations represents a key decision in the politics of international organisations. However, we know little about what dynamics influence this selection. The article focuses on the nationality of selected executive heads. It argues that institutional design impacts the factors that influence leadership selection by shaping the costs and benefits of attaining the position for member states’ nationals. The argument is tested with novel data on the nationality of individuals in charge of 69 international organisation bureaucracies between 1970 and 2017. Two findings stand out: first, powerful countries are more able to secure positions in international organisations in which executive heads are voted in by majority voting. Second, less consistent evidence implies that powerful countries secure more positions when bureaucracies are authoritative. The findings have implications for debates on international cooperation by illustrating how power and institutions interact in the selection of international organisation executive heads. KW - decision-making KW - delegation KW - executive head KW - institutional design KW - international organisations KW - pooling KW - selection Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/1369148121992761 SN - 1467-856X SN - 1369-1481 VL - 24 IS - 1 SP - 153 EP - 170 PB - Sage CY - London ER - TY - THES A1 - Henike, Tassilo T1 - Cognition and entrepreneurial business modelling BT - the impacts of cognitive dispositions, search activities and visual framing BT - Die Einflüsse kognitiver Dispositionen, Suchaktivitäten und visuellen Framings N2 - Although the search for promising business models (BMs) is crucial for every profit-oriented venture, searching for those challenges in particular entrepreneurs. Limited resources, missing expertise and absolute uncertainty call entrepreneurs to strongly rely on their cognition in searching for a promising BM. However, as prior studies have examined cognitive search activities in isolation and neglected cognitive differences, explanations of how cognitive factors affect the BM process and outcomes are thus far insufficient. Addressing the overall question of how BMs emerge, the dissertation contributes to the cognitive perspective in entrepreneurship and BM research. Building on the dual-process theory from cognitive psychology, the micro-foundations of managerial decision-making and insights from framing literature, this dissertation explicitly investigates the impacts of different cognitive dispositions, search activities and visual framing effects. The core assumption is that cognitive dispositions and entrepreneurs’ searches for information determine their BM decision-making. Furthermore, BM visualisations have become popular instruments with which to explain and manage today’s complex business interactions. As they abstract from reality, they can also unfold impacts on the cognitive processes. This dissertation offers new explanations to these aspects and consists of three studies and one reflective article. The first study explores the impacts of differences in search activities and cognitive dispositions in a qualitative study with 70 entrepreneurship students. The second qualitative study explores the cognitive impacts of 103 BM visualisations. Third, a quantitative PLS-SEM experiment with 197 entrepreneurs illuminates the link between BM visualisations and cognition. The reflective article expresses the results’ meaning for the teaching of BMs. In sum, the studies have resulted in a new theory of stabilising factors explaining how cognitive dispositions, search activities and visual framing determine entrepreneurs’ decisions to imitate or deviate from existing BMs. It indicates that the decision depends on the context-dependent strategic orientation and cognitive disposition-dependent cognitive safety, that is the correspondence between characteristics of cognitive dispositions and search activities. Moreover, the studies identified five visual framing effects that are independent of cognitive dispositions and prior experiences. This provides fertile contributions to the literature on BM methods and how BM visualisations affect decisions. Most importantly, BM visualisations provide an emotionally stabilising function to rational entrepreneurs, a cognitively stabilising function to experiential participants and do not affect indifferent participants in general. N2 - Die Suche nach vielversprechenden Geschäftsmodellen (GMen) ist für jedes gewinn-orientierte Unternehmen essenziell. Die Suche fordert vor allem Neugründer heraus. Aufgrund begrenzter Ressourcen, fehlender Erfahrungen und hoher Unsicherheit beruht deren Suche stark auf deren Kognition. Die bisherigen Erklärungen, wie sich kognitive Faktoren auf GM-Prozesse und -Ergebnisse auswirken, sind jedoch unzureichend. Diese vernachlässigen indivi¬duelle Unterschiede und betrachten ausschließlich einzelne, kognitive Suchaktivitäten. Diese Dissertation befasst sich folglich mit der allgemeinen Frage, wie GMe entstehen. Aufbauend auf der Dual-Process-Theorie, den Mikro-Grundlagen der Entscheidungsfindung und Framingeffekten werden die Auswirkungen verschiedener kognitiver Dispositionen, Suchaktivitäten und visueller Framingeffekte auf GM-Prozesse und -Ergebnisse untersucht. Grundlegend bestimmen die kognitive Disposition und Suchaktivitäten den Prozess. Darüber hinaus können auch GM-Visualisierungen Einflüsse entfalten, da sie von der Realität abstrahieren. Die Beantwortung der Frage, welche Einflüsse sie ausüben, ist bedeutend, da sie genutzt werden, um heutige, komplexe Geschäftsbeziehungen zu erklären und zu steuern. Die Dissertation bietet neue Erklärungen zu diesen Aspekten und besteht aus drei Studien und einem Reflexionsartikel. Die erste Studie untersucht die Auswirkungen von Unterschieden bei Suchaktivitäten und kognitiven Dispositionen in einer qualitativen Studie mit 70 Entrepre¬neurship-Studierenden. Die zweite, qualitative Studie untersucht die kognitiven Auswirkungen von 103 GM-Visualisierungen. Drittens beleuchtet ein quantitatives PLS-SEM-Experiment mit 197 Gründern die Beziehung zwischen GM-Visualisierungen und Kognition. Der Reflexions¬artikel beschreibt die Bedeutung der Ergebnisse für die GM-Lehre. Zusammenfassend trägt diese Dissertation zur kognitiven Perspektive der GM- und Ent¬repreneurship-Forschung bei. Die Ergebnisse eröffnen eine neue theoretische Erklärung und erweitern das Wissen über GM-Methoden. Sta¬bilisierende Faktoren wie der Zusammenhang zwischen Disposition und Suchaktivitäten sind Grundvoraussetzung für Gründer, um neuartige GMe zu entwickeln. Diese neue Erkenntnis wird durch das neue Konzept, kognitive Sicherheit, als kontext-unabhängige GM-Auswirkung be¬schrieben. Die strategische Orientierung wirkt sich kontextabhängig aus. Des Weiteren wurden fünf visuelle Framingeffekte identifiziert, die unabhängig von Disposition und Vorwissen Entscheidungen beeinflussen. Am bedeutendsten zeigt sich, dass GM-Visualisierungen emotional-stabilisierende Auswirkungen auf rationale und kognitiv-stabilisierende Auswirkungen auf erfahrungsgetriebene Gründer haben. T2 - Kognition und unternehmerische Geschäftsmodellierung KW - business models KW - cognition KW - visual tools KW - entrepreneurship KW - decision-making KW - Geschäftsmodelle KW - Kognition KW - visuelle Instrumente KW - Entrepreneurship KW - Entscheidungsfindung Y1 - 2019 ER -