Strategic Information Overload

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Peter Rötzel
• Subject Area: Accounting and Finance
• Term: from 2014 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 260498182

The decision maker needs information to make a decision. Following cognitive load theory, as the amount of input information provided to the decision maker is increased, the amount of information the individual integrates into the decision outputs initially rises. The relation between decision making performance and information load is positive only up to a certain point. Beyond this point, the decisions of the decision maker reflect a lesser utilization of the available information, as revealed by examining inputs to the decision or decision outputs. Next to costs of information providing, excessive levels of information provided might lead to wrong decisions. Previous research focus on the role of the decision make and neglect the interaction between the decision maker and the information provider (reporter). For example, the reporter is a project manager who reports project data to his or her superior. The subordinate project manager has a information advantage. The reporter can deliberately overload the decision maker in order to reduce decision quality, thereby impairing the performance of the decision maker and gaining a personal benefit. The proposed interaction between strategic information overload and overconfidence is a new addition to the existing literature. The goal of the academic visit is to analyze the strategic behavior of both the decision maker and the reporter as endogenous variables in cooperation with Prof. Mike Shields, who focuses the area of information overload since 1980 to date. This approach extents previous research. Furthermore, I would like to analyze the impact of information overload in escalating situations with an experimental design. Moreover, it is a goal of the academic visit, to interview scientistits of other US-universities in order to check the robustness and validity of the approach mentioned.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Participating Institution: Universität Stuttgart; Betriebswirtschaftliches Institut; Abteilung V: Lehrstuhl für ABWL und Controlling; Michigan State University ; Broad College of Business
• Participating Person: Professor Dr. Burkhard Pedell