Strategic decision-making processes: the role of information

Charles Louis Citroen

Research output: ThesisPhD Thesis - Research UT, graduation UT

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Abstract

The focus of this dissertation is on the use of information in the strategic decision-making process by executives in industrial organisations and how these processes have changed in recent years e.g. under the influence of increased availability of information resources. The emphasis thereby was on the process, not on the resulting decision itself. The executive that follows a rational approach collects and uses ample information in a structured decision-making process passing through a number of distinct phases in time.
For our fieldwork, we interviewed 14 executives, Board members of large (> 300M€ turnover) chemical and food processing industries in The Netherlands and Germany discussing by which process they have reached some recent decisions.
The value of information for strategic decision-making is supported by the results of our research. We observed that in rational decision-making, information relevant to the issues that have to be decided plays a crucial role in each phase of this process; executives have to acknowledge the facts in order to be able to consider an issue. The main reason for the use of information is a reduction of uncertainty needed to obtain the answer to an issue at hand.
We tested the rationality of the actual processes followed by observing whether there were arguments that pointed to other than the rational approach to strategic decision-making. We did not observe during our interviews any indication of these arguments, such as unduly great time pressure, ‘satisficing’ solutions or ‘bounded rational’ decisions due to limited cognitive capabilities of executives or of lack of information that might have resulted in intuitive approaches.
Original languageEnglish
QualificationDoctor of Philosophy
Awarding Institution
  • University of Twente
Supervisors/Advisors
  • Roosendaal, H.E., Supervisor
  • Geurts, P.A.T.M., Supervisor
Award date14 May 2009
Place of PublicationEnschede
Publisher
Print ISBNs978-90-365-2821-4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 14 May 2009

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