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Adopting a dual processing cognitive perspective, this study explores the decision-making processes past the start-up stage that small entrepreneurial businesses employ to grow. The author examines how entrepreneurs evaluate and make decisions on growth opportunities in their business environment. The author uses cognitive style as a theoretical lens to capture differences in information processing, combining interviews and psychometric questionnaires to analyse cognitive styles. The longitudinal mixed methods approach illustrates the richness of the entrepreneur’s decision-making process, which the author tracks over a two-year period. The author determines how intuitive and analytical cognitive styles are used by entrepreneurs and the contribution these styles make to decision-making. The findings show that the two cognitive styles are versatile as entrepreneurs adjust and adapt their cognitive style over time, in keeping with the situational factors of their business environment. The author also finds marked differences between novice and mature entrepreneurs and that experienced entrepreneurs exhibited greater levels of cognitive versatility, which was directly linked to their prior experience. The study has significant implications for future research, which should consider the question how an entrepreneur’s cognitive style is dependent on the business context and their prior experience.

This article aims to analyze how gender and decision-making styles of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) impact the financial performance of the firms they manage.

Data were obtained for 2017 for 185 SMEs in Chile, an emerging economy, including firm information, CEO's sociodemographic characteristics and CEOs' decision-making styles. Generalized Least Squares (GLS) models were estimated to explain the influence of gender and decision-making styles on firm performance, controlling for a series of covariates. To test whether gender moderates the effect of decision-making styles on firm performance, interaction terms were included. Furthermore, models were subject to several robustness procedures, with no significant differences in results.

The authors find evidence of significant relationships for both gender and the avoidant style. Likewise, the authors find evidence of interaction effects between gender and decision-making styles, particularly between gender and the dependent style.

Findings contribute to prior research by analyzing the relationship between CEO gender and SME performance in the context of a Latin American emerging economy; by providing evidence of the impact of decision-making styles on the financial performance of SMEs; and by examining how a specific decision-making style, namely the dependent style, operates differently according to CEO gender, shedding some light on its ambiguous character as described by prior research. For policymakers and authorities, findings indicate the importance of incorporating women to SMEs and supporting their way towards higher management.

Esta investigación analiza cómo el género y los estilos de toma de decisiones de los gerentes generales (CEOs) de las pequeñas y medianas empresas (PYMEs) impactan en el desempeño financiero de las empresas que administran.

Se obtuvieron datos del año 2017 para 185 PYMEs ubicadas en Chile, una economía emergente, incluyendo información de la empresa, así como características sociodemográficas y estilos de toma de decisiones de los gerentes generales. Se estimaron modelos de Mínimos Cuadrados Generalizados (GLS) para explicar la influencia del género y los estilos de toma de decisiones en el rendimiento de la empresa, controlando por una serie de covariables. Para determinar si el género modera el efecto de los estilos de toma de decisiones en el rendimiento de la empresa, se incluyeron términos de interacción. Además, los modelos fueron sometidos a varios procedimientos de robustez, sin encontrar diferencias significativas en los resultados.

Los autores encuentran evidencia de relaciones significativas tanto para el género como para el estilo evitativo. Asimismo, los autores encuentran evidencia de efectos interacción entre el género y estilos de toma de decisiones, particularmente entre el género y el estilo dependiente.

Los hallazgos contribuyen a investigaciones anteriores al analizar la relación entre el género del CEO y el rendimiento de las PYMEs en el contexto de una economía latinoamericana emergente; al proporcionar evidencia del impacto de los estilos de toma de decisiones en el rendimiento financiero de las PYMEs; y al examinar cómo un estilo de toma de decisiones específico, a saber, el estilo dependiente, opera de manera diferente según el género del CEO, esclareciendo su carácter ambiguo tal como ha sido descrito en investigaciones anteriores. Para las autoridades y los responsables de políticas, los hallazgos indican la importancia de incorporar mujeres a las PYMEs y apoyarlas en su ascenso hacia la alta administración.

The purpose of this paper is to show that participants read vignettes in which managers were assigned different roles. The vignettes depicted managers with two leadership styles (transformational/transactional) and two decision‐making approaches (comprehensive/restrictive). The managers were then rated on patterns of organizational justice (social/ structural). Leadership and decision‐making styles affected different forms of justice.

Participants rated performance‐evaluation vignettes depicting leadership style, decision‐making approach, and organizational justice patterns on the part of hypothetical managers/leaders.

Managers portrayed as transformational leaders were rated high on social justice, whereas leaders rated as transactional were high on structural justice. Managers portrayed as restricted in their decision‐making approach were rated lower on social justice compared with managers who used a more comprehensive decision style. Justice ratings were significantly influenced by leadership style and decision

It is suggested that an increased awareness regarding organizational justice is imperative for all decision and leadership styles, and that social justice can occur in brief but powerful encounters that can be executed by any manager or leader.

If organizations, managers, and leaders attend to justice issues, they will foster healthier and more productive workplace environments that extend beyond immediate performance indicators (e.g. budget, quarterly profits, sales and revenue). A focus on organizational justice will create long‐term performance cultures (by fostering employee development, extending genuine regard for employee contributions and wellbeing, and leveraging employee commitment), and lead companies to sustainability.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the effect of management and decision‐making styles on the job satisfaction of academic staff in a Malaysian Research University.

The sample consisted of 218 respondents. The instruments used in the study were the Teacher Job Satisfaction Questionnaire and the Decision Style Inventory. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used to determine the influence of decision‐making style and management style on the job satisfaction.

The findings showed that the research university had adopted an analytical decision‐making style. The hygiene factors were the predictors of job satisfaction as perceived by the academic staff at the research university in Malaysia.

This research selected a top Malaysian research university and small samples were selected from the whole population under consideration, thus, the findings can be generalized as similar to other research universities. In addition, the university management determines the decision‐making style, and the job satisfaction of the academic staff is affected by the decision‐making style of the university.

A contribution is made to the literature as the research reinforces the view that the management style and decision‐making style can predict or affect the job satisfaction of the academic staff.

The purpose of this study is to fill the gap by investigating the relationship between age and other demographics on decision-making and leadership styles of executives in the non-profit sector.

This study is a quantitative research using correlation analysis and analysis of variance. The quantitative approach establishes facts, makes predictions and tests stated hypothesis and used the Pearson correlation coefficient, the ANOVA and the two-way analysis of variance. This study used surveys to collect data.

H1 states that there will be no significant difference in the decision-making models used among non-profit organizational leaders (rational, intuitive, dependent, spontaneous and avoidant) based on demographic variables: gender and age. H2 states that there will be no significant difference in the leadership style used among non-profit organizational executives (selling, telling, delegating and participating) and different dimensions of demographic variables: gender and age.

This study explored the relationship between the demographics, age and gender and the decision-making models (rational, intuitive, dependent, spontaneous and avoidant) and leadership styles (selling, telling, delegating and participating) of executives in non-profit organizations. The age of the executives also showed to be important factors that influenced executive’s leadership styles and decision-making models as well.

Rational decision-making as reflected to in this study has been used by older, possibly more experienced non-profit executives. This model is favorable towards making decisions on complicated issues. The final choice rational decision-makers select will maximize the outcome; it is assumed that the decision-maker will choose the alternative that rates the highest and get the maximum benefits (Robbins and Decenzo, 2003, pp. 141-142). The researcher suggests that non-profit executives, especially the younger executives, should attend management and leadership conferences that focus on rational decision-making models as concerns business strategies and making the best choices based on possible alternatives.

Rational decision-making as reflected to in this study has been used by older, possibly more experienced non-profit executives. This model is favorable towards making decisions on complicated issues. The final choice rational decision-makers select will maximize the outcome; it is assumed that the decision-maker will choose the alternative that rates the highest and get the maximum benefits (Robbins and Decenzo, 2003, pp. 141-142). The researcher suggests that non-profit executives, especially the younger executives, should attend management and leadership conferences that focus on rational decision-making models as concerns business strategies and making the best choices based on possible alternatives.

This is an original piece of research that contributes to the literature on leadership style.

The purpose of this study is to segment consumers according to their decision-making styles in the context of social commerce. Additionally, the differences among consumer segments in consumer innovativeness, perceived risk, satisfaction and demographic characteristics are evaluated.

A total of 384 respondents who shopped for restaurant deals through social commerce participated in this study through an online survey. Two-step cluster analyses were used to segment social commerce consumers into groups, using their decision-making styles.

The results showed three types of social commerce consumers of restaurant deals: innovative brand-preferring consumers; realistic consumers; and passive consumers. Innovative brand-preferring consumers chose specific brands and showed the most innovativeness, while realistic consumers and passive consumers were price-conscious and far more cautious in purchasing restaurant deals using social commerce. Passive consumers were, in addition, confused by overchoice. All three consumer groups perceived higher risks to privacy in purchases using social commerce. Passive consumers were especially aware of the risk, while the innovative brand-preferring consumers and the realistic consumers were less concerned about risk. Consumers were especially likely to perceive economic risk, performance risk, social risk, psychological risk, privacy risk and time risk. Innovative brand-preferring consumers were more likely to be innovative and showed a higher level of satisfaction, while passive consumers showed the lowest satisfaction and the least innovativeness.

This study provides additional insights on consumer decision-making styles in the context of social commerce in Korea.

Consumer decision-making styles can help restaurant managers to develop deals tailored to specific types of consumers, as well as create customized products and services.

This study is one of the very few attempts to investigate consumer decision-making styles in social commerce for restaurant deals, so it contributes to the literature on social commerce in the hospitality industry. This study shows that consumer decision-making styles are important in understanding the behavior of social commerce consumers.

This paper aims to examine managerial decision-making approaches, their antecedents and consequences in the Arabian Gulf context. Using recent survey data, the study offers a critical assessment of prevailing myths about decision-making styles in the Arabian Gulf.

Survey data were collected from a sample of 432 managers working in public and private sector companies in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). A combination of statistical techniques including confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and hierarchical regression analysis was used to test research hypotheses.

The findings of this study question the myth that UAE or Gulf managers mostly pursue consultative and participative styles of management. Most UAE managers continue to practice an autocratic and a pseudo-consultative style of decision-making, undermining the value of employee input in the decision-making process. The data revealed a strong negative relationship between autocratic management style and a range of personal and organizational outcomes such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment, organizational citizenship behavior, performance and innovative human resource management practices pertaining to work-family life balance and diversity programs. Most employees perceived autocratic management style as a major source of job stress, absenteeism and turnover. Socio-demographic characteristics of managers and their work organizations, considered as antecedents of decision-making styles, played a limited role in shaping decision-making approaches or their consequences. Globalization and associated socio-cultural changes that UAE and other Gulf region countries have experienced over the past two decades seem to have only a marginal impact on decision-making styles.

Use of perceptual survey data places some constraints on the generalizability of our findings. Future research may address this issue with multiple data sources including an in-depth case study.

The findings of this research should be of special interest to both domestic and multinational companies in seeking alignment of their management approaches with the emerging competitive business environment in UAE and other Gulf countries. Theoretically, the paper documents the value of the continuum theory of managerial behavior in UAE and the Arabian Gulf context.

The study represents a first major effort to develop and test a comprehensive conceptual model of antecedents and consequences of managerial decision-making styles in UAE, which may be extended to other countries in the Arabian Gulf region. The value-added contribution of the study may be seen in its critical analysis of prevailing beliefs and assumptions about management practices in the Arabian Gulf.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the association of gender and travel decision-making style of generation Y (Gen Y) – recreational, price conscious, impulsive, perfectionist, high quality, novelty seeker, habitual, confused by over-choice – to the use of social networking sites (SNS) for travel information share. The study focuses on purchase decision pattern of young travelers by examining the travel decision-making styles.

The author has adopted the quantitative approach for the fulfillment of the objectives of the study. The exploratory method is used to get a better understanding of different concepts used in the study, Social Networking Sites and Decision-Making Style and Gen Y, and the primary information is collected from the structured questionnaire. Using travel decision-making style and gender as grouping variables, different tests were performed to test the hypothesis and to understand the influence of different travel decision-making style and gender on travel information share on SNS.

The present study identifies the existing seven travel decision-making styles of Gen Y, which are Confused by over-choice, Habitual, Novelty seeker, Price conscious, Perfectionist high-quality conscious, Recreational and Impulsive. The results of the study reflect that confused by over-choice, habitual, perfectionist, price conscious travel dimensions have an association with SNS for travel information share. In addition, gender also has an association with usages of SNS for travel information share.

This study has only used consumer typology approach to study decision-making styles, whereas other variables like personality and attitude can be further studied. Second, the study is limited by the spatiotemporal limitation, as the study is just restricted to one geographical area and time, and generalizations can vary with the change in spatiotemporal features in the study.

The findings of the study imply that Gen Y is an important travel market segment, and to cater this segment, SNS can be used as an effective marketing tool. The study of various segments in different groups will help in understanding the market more clearly and using SNS more effectively. In addition, finding association of travel decision-making style with SNS helps in forming effective and innovative marketing strategies.

India is a developing country where many market segments are still unexplored and Gen Y is being one of them. The study was conducted, keeping in mind the need of tourism industry. The study explores the tourism market segment of Gen Y by identifying the decision-making style and also identifies the association of different decision-making style with Gen Y information-sharing behavior on social networking site.

The decision-making styles and strategies of organisations play significant roles in their competitive advantage and the achievement of superior performance. The purpose of this study is to explore the effect of decision-making styles on the strength of the relationship between competitive strategy and organisational performance among large construction organisations based in South Africa.

The study focuses on large construction organisations in South Africa using a questionnaire survey to elicit information. The sample consists of 72 large construction organisations, and the measures of decision-making styles, competitive strategies and organisational performance used for the instrument utilised to elicit information were derived from the literature. Descriptive, parametric and multiple regression analyses were used to determine the effect of decision-making styles and competitive strategies on the organisations’ performance.

The results of the study show that organisations utilize all types of decision-making styles, but the most significantly adopted styles are analytical and directive. The study found that decision-making styles influence organisational performance through competitive strategies.

The research considered large construction organisations based in South Africa and operating in three provinces, where almost 75 per cent of all public projects are being implemented. The findings can be generalised to other large construction organisations functioning within the South African industry, because most of the organisations surveyed operate nationally. However, the findings may not be generalizable to the entire industry. Small and medium-sized organisations vary in terms of structure in relation to large organisations; hence, their decision-making styles may be different.

The study makes explicit the need to consider the role of different decision-making styles being practiced within organisations and how their moderating effect influences organisational performance beyond rational processes. A better understanding of this will enable organisations to achieve the total commitment of their staff to achieve superior performance.

The study contributes to the existing literature and body of knowledge on the strategic management of organisations. It underpins the assertion that decision-making styles and competitive strategies can influence organisational performance, and this is validated within the construction industry. Knowledge of the relationships between the variables measured in this paper will be beneficial to both owners and managers of construction organisations, because they provide the necessary information on how strategic decision-making styles influence the strategy adopted and, in turn, the organisational performance.

This study aims to investigate the impact of entrepreneurs’ decision-making styles on enterprise performance and suggests several entrepreneurial ecosystems – factors are impacting this relationship. The authors extend this line of work by examining how regional entrepreneurial culture, educational institutional support and business and social networks mediating the relationship between entrepreneurs’ decision-making style and small medium enterprises (SME)s’ financial performance.

The data were collected through an e-survey of SME owners in New South Wales, Australia. This study developed a model combining a set of entrepreneurial ecosystem factors, entrepreneurs’ decision-making styles and SMEs’ financial performance. Data were analysed using partial least square structural equation modelling.

The results suggest regional entrepreneurial culture, educational institutional support and business and social networks mediate the relationship between entrepreneurs’ decision-making style and SMEs’ financial performance. Hence, this study developed a more complete methodical understanding of entrepreneurs’ decision-making styles and their impact on SMEs’ financial performance. This study provides deeper insights into the conditions and processes by which an entrepreneurs’ decision-making style impacts SMEs’ financial performance.

The focus of this study was to understand the relationship of entrepreneurs’ decision-making styles on SMEs’ financial performance. The authors identified that the entrepreneurs’ decision-making style positively impacts SMEs’ financial performance. This study augments the body of knowledge by proposing ways in how the entrepreneurs’ decision-making style can be more strengthened.