Causality Rules: Performance Feedback on Hierarchically Related Goals and Capital Investment Variability
研究了企业如何通过优先级和因果两种注意力规则，根据中间生产率目标和最终盈利目标的绩效反馈，独立和共同影响资本投资的变动性。对理解多目标管理和有限理性下的决策有参考价值。
Abstract We extend March and Simon’s (1958) analysis of strategic decisions by distinguishing between two rules for allocating attention – priority versus causality. We develop theory concerning causality rules which have been largely overlooked in prior literature. Specifically, we examine how performance feedback on the intermediate productivity goal and the higher‐order profitability goal independently and jointly influence the variability of firm capital investments. Panel analysis of 2,477 Spanish manufacturing firms reveals that these goals jointly affect the variability of capital investments through both priority and causality attention rules. Our study provides new insights on how firms handle multiple goals, deconstruct performance feedback, and cope with the attentional constraints of bounded rationality.