Strategy Map Effects on Managers’
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STRATEGY MAP EFFECTS ON MANAGERS’ STRATEGY REVISION JUDGMENTS by Brian Dean Knox Bachelor of Science in Accountancy, Arizona State University, 2011 Master of Accountancy, Southern Utah University, 2013 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Business Administration University of Pittsburgh 2017 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH JOSEPH M. KATZ GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS This dissertation was presented by Brian Dean Knox It was defended on June 30, 2017 and approved by Jongwoon (Willie) Choi Assistant Professor of Business Administration and Fryrear Faculty Fellow in Accounting University of Pittsburgh Marc N. Coutanche Assistant Professor University of Pittsburgh Department of Psychology John H. Evans III Katz Alumni Professor and Area Director of Accounting University of Pittsburgh Dhinu Srinivasan Associate Professor of Accounting University of Pittsburgh Dissertation Advisor: Donald V. Moser Professor of Business Administration and Dean’s Excellence Faculty Fellow in Accounting University of Pittsburgh ii Copyright © by Brian Dean Knox 2017 iii ABSTRACT STRATEGY MAP EFFECTS ON MANAGERS’ STRATEGY REVISION JUDGMENTS Brian Dean Knox, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2017 Managers make strategy revision judgments, which are judgments that affect how well the firm can revise its strategy when new information comes to light. Using two studies, my dissertation examines how formatting the firm’s strategy as a strategy map affects two types of strategy revision judgments. First, I study middle managers’ judgments on passing along new information to upper management. Second, I study managers’ judgments of the relevance of new information and the appropriateness of the firm’s strategy. In my first study, I find that middle managers are more likely to withhold new information from upper management when they feel that information would be less impressive to upper management. Middle managers also tend to punish their subordinates with less positive performance evaluations when the subordinates provide them with such less impressive information. However, middle managers with sufficient experience who receive a strategy map are more likely to pass along such less impressive information to upper management than those with comparable experience who do not receive a strategy map. In my second study, I find that receiving a strategy map improves managers’ judgements of the relevance of new information. I also find that receiving a strategy map improves managers’ judgments about the appropriateness iv of the firm’s strategy in light of this new information. However, I find this latter effect depends on whether it is easy to understand the cause-and-effect relationships depicted in a strategy map. Finally, in an extensions chapter, I propose three neuroimaging studies that extend the above studies. One of these neuroimaging studies more fully describes the motivation, theory, and method of the study. This study approaches the relationship between strategy maps and strategy revision differently, extending prior research that suggests a strategy map leads workers to better allocate effort between short-term focused and long-term focused activities. I hope to provide evidence on the neural processing, and thus the thought processes, that underlie this prior finding. Such evidence would improve practitioners’ predictions of how long the effect would persist over time, which informs practitioners about whether to revise the firm’s strategy to include a strategy map. v TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE .................................................................................................................................... XI 1.0 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 1 2.0 BACKGROUND .......................................................................................................... 6 2.1 OBSTACLES TO STRATEGY REVISION ..................................................... 6 2.2 STRATEGY MAPS AND STRATEGY REVISION ....................................... 8 3.0 STUDY 1: THE EFFECT OF A STRATEGY MAP ON DECISIONS TO SHARE KNOWLEDGE ........................................................................................................................... 12 3.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 12 3.2 BACKGROUND ................................................................................................ 17 3.2.1 Knowledge Sharing and Subjective Performance Measures ..................... 17 3.2.2 Specific Knowledge and Strategy Revision ................................................. 20 3.3 HYPOTHESIS DEVELOPMENT ................................................................... 22 3.3.1 Impression Management and Disconfirmation Bias .................................. 22 3.3.2 Middle Managers’ Evaluations of Subordinates ........................................ 25 3.3.3 A Strategy Map and Impression Management ........................................... 26 3.4 METHOD ........................................................................................................... 28 3.4.1 Experimental Design ..................................................................................... 28 3.4.2 Participants .................................................................................................... 29 3.4.3 Experimental Task and Procedures ............................................................. 29 3.4.4 Measures and Constructs .............................................................................. 32 3.5 RESULTS ........................................................................................................... 34 vi 3.5.1 Descriptive Statistics and Factor Analysis .................................................. 34 3.5.2 Tests of H1 ...................................................................................................... 36 3.5.3 Tests of H2 ...................................................................................................... 39 3.5.4 Tests of H3 ...................................................................................................... 41 3.5.5 Tests of H4 ...................................................................................................... 44 3.6 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................. 46 4.0 STUDY 2: DOES THE EFFECT OF A STRATEGY MAP ON APPROPRIATENESS JUDGMENTS DEPEND ON STRONG CAUSAL LINKAGES? .. 49 4.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 49 4.2 HYPOTHESIS DEVELOPMENT ................................................................... 52 4.2.1 Memory and Managers’ Judgments ............................................................ 52 4.2.2 Causal Linkage Strength and Causal Relatedness ..................................... 55 4.2.3 Causal Relatedness and Appropriateness Judgments ................................ 58 4.3 METHOD ........................................................................................................... 60 4.3.1 Experimental Design ..................................................................................... 60 4.3.2 Participants .................................................................................................... 64 4.3.3 Experimental Task and Procedures ............................................................. 65 4.3.4 Dependent Variables ..................................................................................... 67 4.3.5 Independent Variables and Controls ........................................................... 68 4.4 RESULTS ........................................................................................................... 71 4.4.1 Descriptive Statistics and Manipulation Checks ........................................ 71 4.4.2 Tests of H1 ...................................................................................................... 73 4.4.3 Tests of H2 ...................................................................................................... 77 vii 4.5 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................. 82 5.0 PROPOSED NEUROIMAGING EXTENSIONS ................................................... 86 5.1 HOW DO SUBORDINATES REACT TO MIDDLE MANAGERS’ IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT?.................................................................................... 86 5.2 DIFFERENTIAL BRAIN ACTIVATION FROM A STRATEGY MAP .... 89 5.3 A NEUROIMAGING INVESTIGATION OF WHY COMMUNICATING CAUSAL LINKAGES IMPROVES WORKERS’ EFFORT ALLOCATIONS .......... 92 5.3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................... 92 5.3.2 Hypothesis Development ............................................................................... 96 5.3.2.1 Causal Linkages’ Effect on Workers’ Effort Allocations ................ 96 5.3.2.2 Hyperbolic discounting ....................................................................... 98 5.3.2.3 Model-free and Model-based Reinforcement Learning ................ 101 5.3.2.4 Measuring Neural Activation ........................................................... 103 5.3.3 Method .........................................................................................................