PhD Seminar Series: Helena Montoya and Mengzhe Zou

Measuring Scientific Decision-Making: Development and Validation of a Multi-Source Instrument

Speaker: Helena Montoya (Bocconi University)

Abstract: Despite compelling evidence that scientific decision-making (SDM) improves managerial performance, cumulative research remains limited by the absence of scalable measurement instruments. We develop and validate a 24-item survey instrument that captures the three dimensions of SDM: hypothesis-driven reasoning, systematic testing, and evidence-based updating. Using data from more than 9,000 managers across 61 firms, we establish construct validity through a triangulated approach combining psychometric, experimental, and behavioral evidence. Confirmatory factor analysis supports a three-factor structure. Experimental validation demonstrates that SDM priming produces large effects on the instrument. Behavioral validation shows significant correlations with expert-coded decision vignettes. Exploratory analyses reveal that SDM varies systematically with role and education. This instrument enables new directions for research on strategic cognition and decision-making under uncertainty.

Performance Feedback and Goal Hierarchy: Venture Capitalists’ Profitability and Social Enterprise Investment

Speaker: Mengzhe Zou (Bocconi University)

Abstract: Organizations simultaneously pursue multiple goals within shared work environments, where actions taken to improve one goal often reverberate across others. How do organizations allocate attention across goals in response to performance feedback? Prior research grounded in the behavioral theory of the firm has emphasized sequential attention to goals and self-enhancement processes, but these perspectives assume stable goal hierarchies and offer limited guidance when primary goals fall short and secondary goals do not clearly outperform. This study develops a theory of goal activation in multi-goal settings, arguing that when goals are interdependent and hierarchically ordered, performance above aspirations enables sequential expansion toward secondary goals, whereas performance below aspirations induces compensatory activation of secondary goals. I further argue that this correlation is contingent on the perceived importance gap between goals. Using qualitative evidence to establish goal hierarchies and longitudinal data on U.S. Venture Capital firms from 2015 to 2022, I find general support for the predicted V-shaped pattern. I further discuss how the hierarchical gap influences the interpretation of performance feedback, affecting the behavioral margin of activation versus intensity through which responses are manifested. The study augments existing research on multiple goals by emphasizing the nature of goal hierarchies and the implications for feedback interpretation.