Can Organizations Mitigate Individual Biases? Evidence from Mutual Fund Investment Decisions

Abstract

Can organizations mitigate the impact of individual biases on organizational decisions? This study investigates whether and how organizational structure and decision making process affect the quality of organizational decisions. Theoretical arguments about the impact of organizational structure and decision process on organizations’ disposition effect - a decision bias that refers to actors’ tendency to sell assets whose prices have increased since purchase, yet hold on to assets that have dropped in value since purchase - are evaluated empirically on a large sample of mutual fund portfolio decisions. The findings suggest that decision making process significantly affects the disposition effect bias in organizational decisions.