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States that any decision aid assumes certain characteristics about the problem it is applied to. Proposes that the marketing situation is particularly one of aggregation – the marketing manager is continually facing the problem of aggregating individual behaviour into market responses which is the key determinant of his actions. Concludes that the fact that operational managers continue to use some techniques and reject others may not be related so much to ignorance of more sophisticated methods as to an explicit or implicit assessment of their relevance to the practical problems. The basic aim of the research is to investigate further this aspect in the area of decision aids to marketing.

Basing one's business decision on an approach that relies on experience may work sometimes. Experience is a useful part of the process, but it may also lock the decision maker into a method that cannot lead to an innovative solution. An alternative to this experience‐based (linear) way of problem solving is a certain skillful way of thinking known as lateral thinking. This paper aims to present a simple alternative approach to managerial decision making.

Here lateral thinking is defined as methods of thinking concerned with changing concepts and perception. Various tests are suggested that show how it might be measured. These tests were originally developed to identify creative thinking ability. One of these tests is used in an illustrative decision aid to reduce a common decision‐making “bias” labeled “hindsight bias”.

The simple decision aid reduced the hindsight effect for those decision makers who were deemed to be limited in their lateral thinking ability. Those who could already think laterally were not affected by the decision aid. The decision aid was decision‐making neutral for them.

Often, when attempting to improve decision making, the focus is on providing better information or models. Rarely is the cognitive ability of the manager specifically considered. Here, a simple decision aid has been suggested that appears to help managers adopt a different perception of the decision situation. For managers and organizations this is a low cost opportunity to achieve better results.

Auditors and audit researchers consider decision aids important for overcoming biases and for improving the effectiveness and efficiency of audits (see Messier, 1995 for a review). Decision aids are used to increase judgment consistency, and, therefore, have potential to improve both the effectiveness and efficiency of audits. This study investigates three levels of justification requirements (no justification, unconditional justification, and justification of disagreement) to determine their effects on decision-makers' agreement with an aid and performance in decision-making. We find that an unconditional justification requirement leads to better performance when there is no decision aid, but leads to no better performance or increased agreement with the aid when a decision aid is present. Justification of disagreement with a decision aid, however, leads to increased agreement with the aid's advice in all conditions. We also find partial support that justification of disagreement leads to better performance than unconditional justification. For those who would like to see a decision aid have more influence, justification of disagreement with a decision aid could be an easily and economically implemented management policy or software design component.

The innovation expected by clients is identified as a business success factor of industrial companies in the current decade and the accountability of it is primarily attributable to Research and Development (R&D), which makes it a strategic topic for studies on the decision-making process. In light of this, the purpose of this paper is to present a decision aiding methodology used to support R&D management in the technology-based company, specialised in refrigeration solutions and world leader in the hermetic compressor market.

It is an exploratory study and has deductive-inductive logic and uses a quail-quantitative approach. It uses the Knowledge Development Process Constructivist (ProKnow-C) to systemically revise the literature surrounding the theme in order to identify research opportunities in the subject and adopts the Multi-Criteria Decision Aiding Constructivist (MCDA-C) methodology as an instrument of organisational performance evaluation to fulfil the research opportunities identified.

In the theoretical aspect, this research fulfilled the opportunities observed in recent and qualified literature about R&D performance evaluation. The paper also offers practical implications for the performance evaluation in R&D, since the methodology allowed the R&D manager to build knowledge to understand the consequences of his decisions in the criteria deemed important by himself.

The importance of this work covers academic and practical interests, as it documents the application of MCDA-C and increases knowledge concerning R&D management, whilst developing a recurrent tool of decision aiding in the context of the company studied.

Disparities in health care for underserved populations have raised questions about the quality of decisions made by these patients. We explored the decision-making experiences and reactions to a decision aid in focus groups of African American, Hispanic, and Rural breast cancer survivors. All groups were taped, transcribed, and thematic analysis was performed. Individual differences were more common than differences among demographic groups. Decision aids appear to be acceptable without extensive targeting to specific groups. However, translating the decision aid would increase its usefulness for Hispanic populations.

Although noticeable improvements have been made in global health in recent years, the distribution is uneven throughout the world and many developing and low-income countries lack access to required medicine and vaccines. Thus, a model to strategically source vaccines for these nations can contribute a great deal. This paper aims to present an extensive review of strategic sourcing literature, and to identify the criteria and available models in making strategic sourcing decisions. The purpose is to develop a decision making framework for future empirical study of humanitarian aid networks, more specifically, sourcing and distribution of vaccines in developing countries.

A thorough review of several purchasing and supply chain management (SCM) journals was conducted to identify the strategic criteria in making sourcing decisions, hence “strategic sourcing”. In line with this, a number of sourcing strategies were reviewed to find the relevant strategic criteria. Secondary data from practice were also investigated for special characteristics of vaccine supply chains in humanitarian aid networks. Articles were then scrutinized and results categorized in order to develop a framework for future empirical studies.

The findings show the historical development of strategic sourcing and the criteria in making strategic sourcing decisions. More recent studies, while taking a look back in history, have revealed a mix of strategies for more flexible models. Quality has been noted to be a strategic criterion for sourcing vaccines and this has caused the supply market to be dispersed on a global scale.

Considering the extensive number of academic publications, due to the focus of this study being sourcing within humanitarian aid networks, a number of academic journals in logistics/SCM/sourcing were reviewed.

A decision making framework is presented for sourcing vaccines within the humanitarian sector. The criteria in making strategic sourcing decisions are further re-evaluated and a base model proposed. The framework will be used for further research on sourcing in the humanitarian aid sector as well as practical implications.

Evidence is lacking as to the superiority of dual-focused versus single-focused approaches in treating depression and alcohol use comorbidity. Different people may also value the different features of treatment options differently, necessitating a decision-support tool. This study aims to test the acceptability, feasibility, safety and potential usefulness of the Alcohol and Depression Decision-Aid for Psychological Treatments (ADDAPT).

ADDAPT was developed according to International Patient Decision-Aid Standards and in consultation with potential end users. Adults with depression and alcohol use comorbidity, who were considering/recently considered psychological treatments, were recruited via online advertisements. After clicking on the study URL, participants accessed the ADDAPT e-book and completed validated and purpose-designed questionnaires.

Of the 24 participants, most would recommend ADDAPT to others (79.2% agree) and endorsed it as easy-to-use (75%), useful in decision-making (79.2%), presenting balanced (87.5%), up-to-date (91.7%), easy-to-understand (79.2%) and trustworthy information (83.3%), which did not provoke anxiety (i.e. safety; 75%). Post-use, participants felt well prepared to decide on treatment (M = 3.48/5) and demonstrated good treatment knowledge (M = 65.83%). All but one participant indicated a treatment choice supported by best available evidence, and decisional conflict scores except for the uncertainty subscale were below the threshold for decisional delay (all M < 37.5/100).

ADDAPT is the first decision-aid of its kind, with pilot findings supporting its acceptability, feasibility, safety and potential usefulness for improving decision-making quality among people considering psychological treatment options for depression and alcohol use comorbidity.

This study examines the effect of using a computerized decision aid on student cognitive effort and learning in the first tax course. Students at a mid-western university in the United States prepared a 1040 tax return using either paper or tax software from a given set of taxpayer information. Students using paper forms reported higher levels of cognitive effort than did students using the tax software, however, no association between self-efficacy and cognitive effort was found. A test for association between decision aid type and inferential (higher-level) learning (the third level of Bloom's taxonomy) found cognitive effort to be statistically significant. The study also found a significant interaction between cognitive effort and experience. These results suggest that paper forms, which require students to work through task processes, may be better instructional tools for helping students acquire a deeper understanding of subject matter. Although tax software provides potential benefits of increased accuracy and speed, practitioners should be aware of its limitations as a learning tool.

This paper aims to examine the role of social capital as a strategic decision aid in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in different service sectors.

Data on 434 strategic decisions in service SMEs was gathered through computer‐aided telephone interviews and analyzed using structural equation modeling to test the mediating role of level of risk acceptance and confidence in the relationship between the breadth of social capital and decision effectiveness.

Evaluative judgments (risk acceptance and confidence) explain the negative effects of social capital on decision effectiveness. Service delivery and dependency on tacit know‐how account for differences between SMEs in different service sectors and serve as explanations for different effects of social capital as a decision aid.

The study sheds light on the psychological underpinnings of social capital effects in strategic decisions. Higher varieties of actors make decision makers more tolerant for risk and decrease their confidence, which in turn hampers decision effectiveness.

Previous work on social capital suggests that it is beneficial to outcomes. The literature and policy initiatives also stress the beneficial effects of social capital and networking. This research on strategic decision‐making shows that the positive effects of social capital are not as pronounced as expected for the service SMEs. This paper draws explicit attention to the negative effects for strategic decision‐making.

Auditing textbooks include summary level coverage of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) Code of Professional Conduct, but textbook coverage is too brief to support a strong understanding of auditor independence. Independence rules have the force of professional law for the independent auditor (PCAOB, 2015). Threats to firm independence can arise from events and circumstances such as investments in the client, loans from the client, past-due fees, contingent fees, deposits in the client, gifts and job offers. Student test results from a five-year rotation of alternative auditor independence lecture support materials demonstrate that using the actual AICPA Code of Professional Conduct reduces student performance. However, this drag on student performance was mostly offset by the positive impacts of simultaneous use of an independence decision tree developed for this chapter and tested as a teaching material for classrooms use.