The quality of the data used in decision-making tasks has important implications for the outcome of these tasks. Data quality researchers have defined various dimensions for measuring data quality, such as accuracy, currency, and completeness. Such measurements are intrinsic to the data itself and do not take into account contextual factors related to the decision-maker or the decision-task. However, recent research suggests that data quality, when assessed by the decisionmakers who use it, is not necessarily perceived as intrinsic, but as subjective and context-dependent. This research investigates the provision of process metadata- an abstracted description of how datasets are acquired, processed, stored, and delivered – as a mechanism that affects the end-user’s assessment of data quality. In this study we develop a model for understanding the associations of both perceptions of intrinsic data quality and process metadata with the outcome of a datadriven decision task. An exploratory test of the model suggests that both data quality perceptions and the associated process metadata have beneficial effects on outcomes, when mediated by decision-making process efficiency. The model developed in this study and the preliminary empirical results highlight the value of embedding quality and process metadata in computer-supported decision environments to facilitate assessment of data quality.

In strenuous efforts to shore up the beleaguered neoclassic~l paradigm, its followers argue that individuals may render rational decisions without processing information or deliberations, by using 'rules of thumb'. 'Cognitive capacity is a scarce resource like any other... To gather the information and do the calculations implicit in naive descriptions of the rational choice model would consume more time and energy than anyone has... Anyone who tried to make fully-informed, rational choices would make only a handful of decisions each week, leaving hundreds of important matters unattended. With this difficulty in mind, most of us rely on habits and rules of thumb for routine decisions ' [FRANK, 1987, pp. 3-4]. These rules are provided to individuals by their culture, organizations, or are products of their previous experience. The 'discovery ' of the rules of thumb is tied to admission of information costs into the neoclassical paradigm. Early neoclassical economic models assumed that all individuals have perfect information, instantaneously and freely. Once information costs were included, it became evident that many optimal calculations are too costly to complete. As BAUMOL and QUANDT [1964, p. 23] put it: 'the more refined the decision making process, the more expensive it is likely to be, and therefore, especially where a decision is not of crucial importance, no more than an approximate solution may be justified. Since all real decisions are made under conditions of imperfect information, calculation down to the last decimal place is pointless in any event. One can easily formulate the appropriate (though not very helpful) marginal condition for what one may call an optimally imperfect decision. which requires that the marginal cost of additional information gathering or more refined calculation be equal to its marginal (expected) gross yield.'

A new model of managerial problem formulation is introduced and developed to answer the question: ‘What kinds of problems do strategic managers engage in solving and why? ’ The article proposes that a key decision metric for choosing among alternative problem statements is the computational complexity of the solution algorithm of alternative statements. Managerial problem statements are grouped into two classes on the basis of their computational complexity: P-type problems (canonically easy ones) and NP-type problems (hard ones). The new model of managerial cognitive choice posits that managers prefer to engage with and solve P-type problems over solving NP-type problems. The model explains common patterns of managerial reasoning and decision making, including many documented ‘biases ’ and simplifying heuristics, and points the way to new effects and novel empirical investigations of problem solving-oriented thinking in strategic management and types of generic strategies, driven by predictions about the kinds of market- and industry-level changes that managers will or will not respond to. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Response to environmental change is at the heart of firm sustainability. In the case of disruptive technology, previous research describes this challenge as a problem of commitment. Because disruptive proposals do not fit the criteria considered in the existing resource allocation process, they are denied organizational commitment. The following research seeks to address the phenomenon where incumbents do commit substantial resources, but then force those commitments around their existing business rather than find new markets. The analysis draws on extensive multi-level, longitudinal field data collected from a single revelatory case of a newspaper company as its management responded to the Internet. The conceptual framework for the study links the resource allocation and threat rigidity literatures. The data show that threat framing helps build impetus and commitment for disruptive projects that would otherwise stall. However, this same threat-induced action invokes a set of rigidities that prove maladaptive in the face of disruptive change. The research suggests that the role of structure goes beyond resource allocation. Structural independence creates strategic de-coupling of threat and opportunity framing, allowing the simultaneous management of otherwise inconsistent frames. Keywords: Strategic change, threat, opportunity, resource allocation, framing,

We extend the Western strategic management literature on environmental scanning to the entrepreneurial context by surveying business owners in two countries. Specifically, using the framework of Daft, Sormunen and Parks (1988), we test how perceived environmental uncertainty in seven environmental sectors and information accessibility influence scanning frequency of venture owners in the U.S. and India, two dissimilar entrepreneurial settings. Overall, entrepreneurs in India scan more frequently than do U.S. entrepreneurs, and the perceived rate of environmental change and accessibility of information are associated with their scanning. In the U.S., only perceived information accessibility prompts scanning. These results, which depart from inferences drawn from samples of managers in the Western literature, offer potential for extending scanning theory by cross-culturally broadening the theoretical nexus between organization theory, strategy and entrepreneurship in more fully understanding scanning behavior. Key Words: entrepreneurship, scanning, strategy 2 The literatures of organization theory and strategic management are replete with discussion of the influences of environmental complexity and volatility on organization decision-making, structure and

This paper develops a conceptualization of decision problem structuring which synthesises a number of models and approaches cited in the decision making literature in general and the multi-criteria literature in particular. The approach advocates a dynamic interaction between criteria and alternatives as a decision maker understands his preferences and expands the set of alternatives. This approach endeavours to bridge the gap between prescriptive and descriptive decision problem structuring. It is prescriptive in its orientation, recommending an approach based on earlier prescriptive work. However, the approach is also validated empirically, based on the descriptive decision making literature and reported case studies of actual decision making. 1

Accepted by........................................................................................................................

in St. Louis for their constructive comments on earlier drafts of this manuscript. 1 A THEORY OF STRATEGIC PROBLEM FORMULATION We develop a theory of strategic problem formulation for complex, ill-structured problems. Based on a limited number of assumptions, we theoretically identify a core set of impediments that limit the comprehensiveness of the formulation activity. We then use these impediments to derive design goals, which, if satisfied by an appropriately designed mechanism, can expand problem formulation comprehensiveness. We design a structured process that indeed satisfies the goals and discuss its use in several real-world applications. 2 Designing new business strategies, producing innovations to grow profit, and developing novel supply chain configurations to achieve a cost advantage are some of the complex, illstructured strategic challenges organizations must grapple with in creating sources of competitive advantage (e.g., Camillus, 2008, Nickerson, Silverman, & Zenger, 2007). 1