Sunk costs and irrational insistence: behavior in decision making in personal, organizational and public contexts
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21680/2176-9036.2019v11n2ID16310Keywords:
Sunk costs. Irrational insistence. Decision making. Decision Contexts.Abstract
Purpose: This study aims to verify if there is difference in behavior and significance of sunk costs and irrational insistence in decision making in different contexts: personal, organizational and public.
Methodology: This research consists of a laboratory experiment, and for this was used an intentional and random sampling, composed of undergraduate students of the course of Accounting Sciences in a public university. The final sample was 150 students. The research used predominantly the quantitative methods, through descriptive analysis, as well as the Correlation Test between the independent variables, Qui-Square Test and Logistic Regression.
Results: The results demonstrate that nature and context directly impact the effect of sunk costs and irrational insistence on the individual's decision making. Decisions in the organizational context were more influenced by the effect of sunk costs than in the personal and public contexts, thus presents the difficulty of decision makers in business contexts to recognize and assume errors of their decisions, leading them to an irrational insistence. It is also noticed that the personal characteristics of the decision makers, such as gender, income and perception of financial success, have a significant effect on their choices.
Contributions of the Study: This research fills the literature gap by performing a comparative analysis of behavior in making decisions affected by sunk costs in different contexts. It also contributes to the practice by recommending special attention to the effects of sunk costs and irrational insistence on decision-making in the different contexts analyzed, but especially to managers and administrators in private companies.
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