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INFORMATION SUPPORT FOR DECISION‐MAKER LEARNING IN A COMPETITIVE ENVIRONMENT: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY
Author(s) -
Chorba Ronald W.,
New Joan L.
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
decision sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.238
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 1540-5915
pISSN - 0011-7315
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-5915.1980.tb01164.x
Subject(s) - decision maker , quality (philosophy) , computer science , product (mathematics) , process (computing) , production (economics) , decision process , marketing , decision support system , knowledge management , operations research , business , process management , artificial intelligence , microeconomics , economics , mathematics , philosophy , geometry , epistemology , operating system
An experimental study of decision‐maker learning in a competitive environment was conducted using a computer simulation game. The subject decision makers included practicing managers, professionals, and management graduate students. The subjects competed in a simulated market and made decisions concerning price, product quality, production level, and marketing effort. The objective of the study was to identify patterns of information usage exhibited by decision makers during the learning process under conditions controlling the availability and cost of information. The experiment convincingly demonstrated that decision makers that have the opportunity to select the data reported to them tend to progress faster in identifying a successful strategy than those that receive an externally prescribed report. This tendency is exhibited independently of the amount of data in the externally prescribed report. Further, there is substantive evidence from the experiment to show that when decision makers are given the opportunity to select their own data, the amount and type of data chosen follows a stable pattern over time during the learning process.