Decisions, complexities, agents and sunk costs: a comparative study involving managers with different profiles

Abstract

The present study aims verify the occurrence of cognitive biases associated with the sunk cost. (sunk cost bias manifests itself when an individual has a higher willingness to continue an investment, even knowing that the results or returns can be committed only by the mere fact of having begun and applied some resource in the project), investigating possible characteristics of the respondent as: time and experience in management positions; period linking professional public or private entities, as well as age and gender. It was constituted a quasi-experiment involving situations with the occurrence of sunk cost, with the participation of 128 students graduate courses in Higher Education Institutions in Salvador, Bahia. The analyzes were performed using chi-square and parametric test for equality of means to verify the differences in the responses and the association of bias and other variables. The results indicate the manifestation of bias on the sunk cost. However it was not possible to explain their occurrence based on the variables. The fact that a person be more experienced in management positions do not influence the occurrence of bias, as well as working in institutions that aim to profit as private sector entities that at first it was expected to impact on the occurrence of bias due to pressure by the owners to have positive results to ensure returns on invested capital and business continuity. Other variables such as age and gender did not influence significantly the occurrence of the phenomenon