Aspiration Level Adaptation: An Empirical Exploration

Lant, Theresa K.

doi:10.1287/mnsc.38.5.623

Cited by 435 publications

(356 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…Because the prior experience was successful, an individual is likely to conclude that she has the appropriate knowledge at hand and understands the situation. Therefore, rather than revisiting her existing assumptions, beliefs, and schemas, she is likely to refine them (Piaget 1963;Weick 1984;March 1991;Lant 1992). …”

Section: Hypothesis Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Learning from My Success and from Others' Failure: Evidence from Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery

Staats

Gino³

2013

Management Science

202

133

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Learning from past experience is central to an organization's adaptation and survival. A key dimension of prior experience is whether an outcome was successful or unsuccessful. Although empirical studies have investigated the effects of success and failure in organizational learning, to date, the phenomenon has received little attention at the individual level. Drawing on attribution theory in psychology, we investigate how individuals learn from their own past experiences with both failure and success and from the experiences of others. For our empirical analyses, we use 10 years of data from 71 cardiothoracic surgeons who completed more than 6,500 procedures using a new technology for cardiac surgery. We find that individuals learn more from their own successes than from their own failures, but they learn more from the failures of others than from others' successes. We also find that individuals' prior successes and others' failures can help individuals overcome their inability to learn from their own failures. Together, these findings offer both theoretical and practical insights into how individuals learn directly from their prior experience and indirectly from the experiences of others. AcknowledgmentsWe thank Mike Luca, Ella Miron-Spektor, Lamar Pierce, and Enno Siemsen for valuable comments on earlier drafts of the paper. We are grateful to Jesper Sørensen, the associate editor, and to the referees who provided constructive and developmental assistance throughout the review process. All errors remain our own.-1 - Learning from My Success and From Others' Failure:Evidence from Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery AbstractLearning from past experience is central to an organization's adaptation and survival. A key dimension of prior experience is whether an outcome was successful or unsuccessful. While empirical studies have investigated the effects of success and failure in organizational learning, to date the phenomenon has received little attention at the individual level. Drawing on attribution theory in psychology, we investigate how individuals learn from their own past experiences with both failure and success and from the experiences of others. For our empirical analyses, we use ten years of data from 71 cardiothoracic surgeons who completed over 6,500 procedures using a new technology for cardiac surgery. We find that individuals learn more from their own successes than from their own failures but learn more from the failures of others than from others' successes. We also find that individuals' prior successes and others' failures can help individuals overcome their inability to learn from their own failures. Together, these findings offer both theoretical and practical insights into how individuals learn directly from their prior experience and indirectly from the experiences of others.

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Section: Hypothesis Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Learning from My Success and from Others' Failure: Evidence from Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery

Staats

Gino³

2013

Management Science

202

133

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“…The improvement rate, P n , is then evaluated relative to a goal-the rate of defect reduction, P n *, predicted by the process half-life-to calculate the improvement rate as a fraction of the objective, p n (equation 2.4). The formulation is consistent with the "aspiration" concept of Cyert and March (1992) whereby performance is evaluated relative to an explicit goal or aspiration (see Lant 1992 for an empirical test).…”

Section: Specificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Simulation-Based Approach to Understanding the Dynamics of Innovation Implementation

Repenning

2002

Organization Science

254

198

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Abst ractThe history of management practice is filled with innovations that failed to live up to the promise suggested by their early success. A paradox facing organization theory is that the failure of these innovations often cannot be attributed to an intrinsic lack of efficacy. To resolve this paradox, in this paper I study the process of innovation implementation. Working from existing theoretical frameworks, I synthesize a model that describes the process through which participants in an organization develop commitment to using a newly adopted innovation. I then translate that framework into a formal model and analyze it using computer simulation. The analysis suggests three new constructs-reversion, regeneration and the motivation threshold-characterizing the dynamics of implementation. Taken together, these constructs offer an alternative explanation for the paradox of innovations that produce early results but fail to find a permanent home in the organizations that adopt them. 1 Int roductionThe history of management practice is filled with innovations that failed to live up to the promise suggested by their early success. Examples include job enrichment (Hackman 1975), quality circles (Lawler and Morhman 1987), Total Quality Management (TQM) (The Economist 1995), Business Process Re-engineering (White 1996), and various attempts to implement new computer technology (e.g. Orlikowski 1992). A paradox currently facing organizational theory is the fact that the failure of these innovations often cannot be attributed to an intrinsic lack of efficacy. Instead, there is often compelling evidence suggesting that, were the innovation in question appropriately adopted and implemented, the organization would benefit significantly. For example, while numerous studies find that the dedicated use of TQM improves quality, productivity, and overall competitiveness (Easton and Jarrell 1998, Hendricks and Singhal 1996, Barron and Paulson Gjerde 1996, a recent survey found that among US managers TQM is "…deader than a pet rock" (Byrne 1997). The situation is similar for a wide range of other innovations (Klein and Sorra 1996).Unfortunately, existing theory has little to offer on the question of why potentially useful innovations often fail to find a permanent home in the organizations that try to implement them.TQM is one of the more widely studied management techniques, but Dean and Bowen (1994:393) conclude that "...TQ initiatives often do not succeed, but as of yet there is little theory available to explain the difference between successful and unsuccessful efforts." The theoretical landscape is similarly bleak for other types of innovations (Klein and Sorra 1996). While the collection of tools and techniques designed to improve organizational effectiveness continues to grow, the knowledge about how to use them effectively apparently does not. This paper offers a theoretical framework for understanding the phenomenon of failed efforts to improve organizational effectiveness via innovation adoption and implementation...

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“…Following previous studies (Audia and Greve, 2006;Bromiley, 1991;Cyert and March, 1992;Lant, 1992;Wiseman and Bromiley,1996;Greve, 2003b;Miller and Chen, 2004;Iyer and Miller, 2008), we use a firm's Return on Assets (ROA) in year t-2 as the firm's expected performance (A i,t-2 ), and the firm's ROA in year t-1 as the firm's actual performance (P i,t-1 ). The difference between actual performance and expected performance represents the firm's performance discrepancy.…”

Section: Measurement Of Performance Discrepancymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of Business Life Cycle and Performance Discrepancy on R&D Expenditures-Evidence from Taiwan

Chang¹,

Chiu²,

Wu³

2017

AFR

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The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of business life cycle and performance discrepancy on Research and Development (R&D) expenditure. Specifically, we argue that managers of firms in different stages of business life cycle make R&D decisions according to their perception of performance discrepancy. We investigate three stages of business life cycle: growth stage, maturity stage, and stagnant stage. Based on a sample of firms listed in Taiwan Stock Exchange, we find that managers of firms in the growth stage tend to increase R&D expenditure when they experience positive performance discrepancy. This implies that growing firms' slack-resource-driven behavior leads to the increase in R&D expenditure. There is some evidence that managers of firms in the mature stage tend to increase R&D spending when they experience negative performance discrepancy, which indicates that negative performance discrepancy triggers the problem-driven search behavior of managers of mature firms.

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Aspiration Level Adaptation: An Empirical Exploration

Cited by 435 publications

References 33 publications

Learning from My Success and from Others' Failure: Evidence from Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery

Learning from My Success and from Others' Failure: Evidence from Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery

A Simulation-Based Approach to Understanding the Dynamics of Innovation Implementation

The Impact of Business Life Cycle and Performance Discrepancy on R&D Expenditures-Evidence from Taiwan

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