| Aspiration Determination Under Varying Environmental Conditions: An Attention-Based View |
Received:October 15, 2017 Revised:October 15, 2017 |
Key Words: Aspiration, environmental conditions, attention-based view |
| Author Name | Affiliation | | Lingli Luo* | University of New South Wales | | George Shinkle | University of New South Wales |
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Abstract: |
| Behavioral aspiration models have been widely used, but the determination of aspirations has rarely been questioned in the literature. Importantly, we know little about the contingencies that can further increase the precision of aspiration determination models. Drawing from Attention-Based View, we argue that environmental munificence, dynamism, and complexity are important situational contingencies that can shape organizations’ relative attention to three well-recognized aspiration antecedents – prior aspiration, prior performance, and prior performance of comparable organizations. Using data on US public firms from 1998 to 2016, we found that organizations, when determining aspirations, allocate relatively more attention to prior aspiration and prior performance of comparable organizations in highly-munificent environments; allocate relatively more attention to prior performance and prior performance of comparable organizations in highly-dynamic environments; and allocate relatively more attention to prior aspiration in highly-complex environments. Overall, we contribute to the behavioral view of aspiration determination by explicitly theorizing a previously omitted contingency variable - the external environment. |
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