The authors summarize 35 years of empirical research on goal-setting theory. They describe the core findings of the theory, the mechanisms by which goals operate, moderators of goal effects, the relation of goals and satisfaction, and the role of goals as mediators of incentives. The external validity and practical significance of goal-setting theory are explained, and new directions in goal-setting research are discussed. The relationships of goal setting to other theories are described as are the theory’s limitations.

The authors address the verification of the functional properties of self-efficacy beliefs and document how self-efficacy beliefs operate in concert with goal systems within a sociocognitive theory of self-regulation in contrast to the focus of control theory on discrepancy reduction. Social cognitive theory posits proactive discrepancy production by adoption of goal challenges working in concert with reactive discrepancy reduction in realizing them. Converging evidence from diverse methodological and analytic strategies verifies that perceived self-efficacy and personal goals enhance motivation and performance attainments. The large body of evidence, as evaluated by 9 meta-analyses for the effect sizes of self-efficacy beliefs and by the vast body of research on goal setting, contradicts findings (J. B. Vancouver, C. M. Thompson, & A. A. Williams, 2001; J. B. Vancouver, C. M. Thompson, E. C. Tischner, & D. J. Putka, 2002) that belief in one’s capabilities and personal goals is self-debilitating. Social cognitive theory is rooted in an agentic perspective in which people function as anticipative, purposive, and selfevaluating proactive regulators of their motivation and actions (Bandura, 2001). A theory embodying feed-forward selfregulation differs from control theories rooted solely in a negative feedback control system aimed at error correction. Among the mechanisms of human agency, none is more central or pervasive than beliefs of personal efficacy. Whatever other factors serve as guides and motivators, they are rooted in the core belief that one has the power to produce desired effects; otherwise one has little incentive to act or to persevere in the face of difficulties. Selfefficacy beliefs regulate human functioning through cognitive, motivational, affective, and decisional processes (Bandura, 1997). They affect whether individuals think in self-enhancing or selfdebilitating ways, how well they motivate themselves and persevere in the face of difficulties, the quality of their emotional well-being and their vulnerability to stress and depression, and the choices they make at important decisional points.

Abstract. This article contributes to the literature on network strategies and institutional transitions in emerging economies in Asia by identifying a realistic, intermediate phase between the early and late phases of institutional transitions suggested by Peng (2003). Focusing on the intermediate phase, we advance two arguments based on network strength and network content. First, in terms of network strength, we leverage earlier insights that networks can be classified as strong ties and weak ties. Consequently, we suggest that as institutional transitions unfold, strong-tie-based networks, instead of being phased out, are being transformed into weak-ties-based networks. Second, from a network content standpoint, we argue that the various scale and scope of institutional transitions shape the content of different networks which focus on business-to-government (B2G) ties and business-to-business (B2B) relationships. Our propositions delineate how different transitions of political and legal institutions affect the evolution of B2G and B2B networks. Overall, we suggest that networks not only differ in strength but also in content, and that their evolution is driven by the impact of different dimensions of institutional transitions governing B2G and B2B relationships.

Organizational change is defined as a difference in form, quality, or state over time in an organizational entity. The entity may be an individual's job, a work group, an organizational subunit, the overall organization, or its relationships with other organizations. Change can be determined by measuring the same entity over two or more points in time on a set of dimensions and then calculating the differences over time in these dimensions. If the difference is greater than zero, we can say that the organizational entity has changed. Much of the voluminous literature on organizational change focuses on the nature of this difference, what produced it, and what are its consequences. Barnett and Carroll (1995) make a useful distinction between the content and process of change. Content refers to what actually changes in an organizational entity, while process examines how the change occurs. Content studies tend to focus on the antecedents and consequences of organizational change, while process studies examine the sequence of events over time as change unfolds in an organizational entity. Change content and process are interrelated and their effects on organizational outcomes have been difficult to estimate separately. As a result empirical evidence on the consequences of change is fragmentary and occasionally contradictory (Barnett & Carroll, 1995; Greve,

This paper is an updated version of a previous working paper, “Capital Budgeting in the Presence of Managerial Overconfidence and Optimism, ” by the same authors. Financial support by the Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research is gratefully acknowledged. The authors would like to thank Andrew Abel,

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Export performance as an antecedent of export commitment and

Upper division undergraduate business students competed in a semester-long strategic management simulation. Their success in the competition and the course were found to be related locus of control, conflict handling styles and readiness for self-directed learning. Satisfaction with the simulation was also correlated with readiness for self-directed learning. Implications for classroom instruction and industry practice are discussed. 2

While many learning models have been proposed in the game theoretic literature to track individuals ’ behavior, surprisingly little research has focused on how well these models describe human adaptation in changing dynamic environments. This paper evaluates several learning models in light of a laboratory experiment on responsiveness in a low-information dynamic game subject to changes in its underlying structure. While history-dependent reinforcement learning models track convergence of play well in repeated games, it is shown that they are ill suited to dynamic environments, in which sastisficing models accurately predict behavior. A further objective is to determine which heuristics, or “rules of thumb, ” when incorporated into learning models, are responsible for accurately capturing responsiveness. Reference points and a particular type of experimentation are found to be important in both describing and predicting play. Implications for the design of learning models for dynamic, low-information settings such as the Internet are discussed.

supported by the Warwick Business School (UK). The authors would like to thank Aviv Shoham, Dave Montgomery, Jose Mata and James Harris for comments on earlier versions of the manuscript. * * Luis Filipe Lages is Assistant Professor of Marketing and International Business at