Organizational attention, managerial bias, and strategic actions under unexpected disruption: Evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic

2022 Fiscal Year Research-status Report

• Project/Area Number: 22K13472
• Research Institution: Hitotsubashi University
• Principal Investigator: Lee Jinju (リジンジュ) 一橋大学, 大学院経営管理研究科, 講師 (30870224)
• Project Period (FY): 2022-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: Attention-based View / Covid-19 / Competition Strategy

Outline of Annual Research Achievements

Drawing upon the Attention-Based View (ABV) of strategy and behavioral strategy literatures, this research aims to achieve two main objectives. Firstly, it seeks to explore the types of organizational attention that have emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically focusing on selective focus and structural distribution of attention. Secondly, it aims to investigate the relationships between these types of organizational attention and the likelihood of managerial biases (such as myopic and normalcy biases) as well as the choice of strategic actions. Noteworthy accomplishments to date include conducting a comprehensive literature review, gathering data for pilot testing the hypotheses, and uncovering initial findings. The preliminary findings indicate that firms' attention towards either cost-saving or revenue-generating activities is influenced by factors such as ownership structure, past financial performance, and the presence of strategic alliance partners.

Current Status of Research Progress

3: Progress in research has been slightly delayed.

Reason

Three main tasks have been accomplished thus far. Firstly, a comprehensive literature review has been conducted, focusing on recent studies examining the impact of COVID-19 on firm behavior. The review also incorporates recent research that explores the diverse effects of the pandemic on various industries. Secondly, secondary data, including annual reports and media materials, has been collected for content analysis purposes. Lastly, pilot tests utilizing complexity and centrality tests have been carried out to generate initial findings for the developed hypotheses. These tests have allowed for preliminary assessments of the types of managerial attention patterns that have emerged due to COVID-19, as well as an evaluation of the impact of these patterns on different firm actions. It should be noted that due to the extensive volume of secondary data (exceeding 1,000 media documents per firm), there has been a slight delay in the collection and processing schedule.

Strategy for Future Research Activity

Data from approximately 30 global airlines and global pharmaceutical companies will be collected, focusing on the period from 2018 to 2021. The data will include relevant secondary sources such as annual reports and media materials. Content analysis and regression analysis techniques will be employed to analyze the collected data and uncover patterns and trends in managerial attention towards COVID-19. Specifically, the study will investigate the likelihood of managerial biases, including myopic and normalcy biases, and examine the strategic actions taken by the firms, such as the type of action, response time, and frequency of temporal actions. After the analysis, a research paper will be prepared and submitted to an international peer-reviewed journal or conference for presentation.

Causes of Carryover

The timing for the utilization of the database platform was postponed due to changes in the research execution.The platform subscription is scheduled for the second year of the research project.