Time Matters: Under/Overperformance Duration and Performance Improvements in the Public Sector

Drawing upon the blame avoidance perspective, this study develops a holistic and extensible theory on how different performance feedback affects public organizations’ data manipulation behaviours. The theory predicts that negative (positive) performance feedback increases (decreases) public organizations’ tendency to engage in data manipulation. Moreover, organizational resources negatively moderate the relationship between negative performance feedback and data manipulation. Taking China’s official city air quality ranking as the empirical case, our empirical analyses with the panel data approach and the regression discontinuity design find strong evidence supporting these predictions.

Entrepreneurship has gained a lot of theoretical and practical attentions. Adopting the research method of simulation experiments, this study explored the dynamic process and mechanisms of entrepreneurial decision-making, specifically the effect of regulatory focus and past performance feedback on the entrepreneurial intention. Using a sample of 64 MBA and business management majored students, we conducted a laboratory-based simulation experiment study. Based on the experiment data, we mainly took repeated measures variance analysis to test our hypothesis. The results indicate that, (1) The level of entrepreneurial intention under promotion focus situations is higher than that under prevention focus situations. (2) With a positive past performance feedback, the entrepreneurial intention is higher than that of negative past performance feedback. (3) Contextual regulatory focus and previous performance feedback have an interactive effect on the level of entrepreneurial intention; under the negative performance feedback, the gap of entrepreneurial intention between the promotion regulatory focus and prevention one is much wider, while under the positive performance feedback, the gap is relatively narrower. That is to say, under the positive performance feedback, the prevention regulatory focus group has experienced a greater increase in their entrepreneurial intention. Finally, the implication of these results are discussed as well.

This research investigates how performance feedback affects public organizations’ data manipulation behaviours and, more importantly, how patronage ties moderate the impacts. We theorize that negative performance feedback (NPF) increases data manipulation, while positive performance feedback (PPF) reduces it. More crucially, the moderating roles of patronage ties are contingent on the type of performance feedback: they attenuate the impact of NPF on intensifying public organizations’ inclination to resort to data manipulation, while diminishing the impact of PPF on dampening the inclination. Empirical analyses using the case of China’s official city air quality ranking provide robust evidence supporting these theoretical predictions.

Motivation -- To gather an understanding about the relation between system complexity, self-efficacy and stress in senior computer interaction. Research approach -- An empirical study was employed in which 30 seniors performed a number of tasks on a low and high complexity search system. Self-efficacy was manipulated by positive and negative performance feedback. Self-efficacy and perceived stress were both measured by self-reports. Findings/Design -- The results revealed that stress plays a role in senior computer interaction. Negative performance feedback increases stress and decreases self-efficacy. Furthermore, it was found that positive performance feedback significantly increases seniors' self-efficacy during computer interaction. Moreover, a significant effect was found of self-efficacy on stress. Perceived stress increased with decreasing self-efficacy. Although system complexity significantly influenced self-efficacy, no relation was found between system complexity and stress. Research limitations/Implications -- The findings can be used in the design of interaction devices for seniors. To increase self-efficacy and to decrease stress in senior computer interaction, it is advised to present seniors with positive performance feedback; negative performance feedback should rather be avoided for satisfying interaction. Originality/Value -- The research contributes to the need of designers to target senior users by creating satisfying interaction for these groups. Take away message -- To increase seniors' confidence with computers, i.e. to increase self-efficacy, it is vital to provide positive performance feedback and high accessibility. Furthermore, increasing self-efficacy reduces the stress experience of seniors during computer interaction.

Performance feedback signals to people where they stand in their goal progress. Positive feedback suggests that one is on a good track to achieve a goal. Negative feedback indicates that another strategy or greater effort is required. However, not everyone reacts equally to such feedback. Through four studies using a variety of methods, we examined how individuals’ experience of power affects motivation and performance depending on whether they receive negative or positive performance feedback. While results were not completely uniform, a general pattern could be observed. Specifically, a meta‐analysis across all studies showed that negative feedback had an overall detrimental effect on motivation and performance of low‐power individuals but not of high‐power individuals. Positive feedback neither impacted low‐ nor high‐power individuals' motivation but increased low‐power individuals’ performance relative to their high‐power counterparts. Our findings imply that performance feedback needs to be tailored to the recipient's experience of power.

We propose that while positive performance feedback is positively related to firm sentiment, negative performance feedback is negatively associated with the firm sentiment. Additionally, overconfident Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) will improve the positive relationship between positive performance feedback and firm sentiment and reduce the negative relationship between negative performance feedback and firm sentiment. Using 7,182 firm-year observations for the 2004−2017 period, we show that positive performance feedback positively affects firm sentiment, and negative performance feedback negatively influences firm sentiment. We also found that higher levels of CEO overconfidence will minimize the negative impact of negative performance feedback on firm sentiment. Our research extends the current discourse on organizational impression management (proxied by firm sentiment) and CEO overconfidence research as we provide a nuanced relationship between firm performance feedback and organizational impression management. Our findings have theoretical and practical implications for corporate governance leaders and shareholders.

Based on the behavioral theory of the firm, we research how performance feedback influences the formation of CEOs’ passion. We articulate that previous performance directly increases CEOs’ passion. Specifically, positive affective outcomes (performance above aspiration-level) advance CEOs’ positive feelings and motivation toward the domains of success (obsessive passion). For instance, when a firm accomplishes performance objectives, such as reaching sales goals, CEOs’ positive feelings toward developing current products would be boosted. Moreover, negative affective outcomes (performance below aspiration-level) would also positively impact CEOs’ passion since the CEOs would endeavor to reduce the difference between performance and their aspiration-level. As such, performance feedback is a critical antecedent of CEOs’ obsessive passion. In addition, we apply human capital as a moderator between performance feedback and CEOs’ obsessive passion. Results based on multiphase survey data from 189 CEOs of Korean small- and medium-sized enterprises indicate that both positive and negative performance feedback positively increase CEOs’ obsessive passion. Moreover, human capital negatively moderates the relationship between positive performance feedback and CEOs’ obsessive passion and positively moderates the relationship between negative performance feedback and CEOs’ obsessive passion.

Performance feedback on sales growth and M&A: Evidence from China

<i>Performance feedback</i> and firms search behaviors: Role of corporate governance in companies around the world

As organizations increasingly adopt artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance performance, ensuring that employees use AI in compliance with organizational policies becomes crucial for realizing its full value. However, employees’ AI compliance is not guaranteed and can vary based on how their AI use is managed. This study offers timely and actionable insights into how performance feedback—both positive and negative—influences employees’ AI compliance, and how these effects vary with AI identity. Drawing on feedback intervention theory, we conduct a longitudinal field study and a randomized experiment and find that positive performance feedback promotes AI compliance, whereas negative performance feedback reduces it. Importantly, employees with high AI identity respond more strongly to both types of performance feedback. Our findings further uncover distinct underlying mechanisms—task-motivation, task-learning, and meta-cognitive processes—that channel the effects of positive and negative performance feedback on AI compliance. Taken together, organizations should tailor performance feedback as part of AI governance by considering employees’ AI identity. Positive reinforcement of AI compliance is especially effective for employees with high AI identity, whereas cautions are needed when delivering negative performance feedback to avoid undermining AI compliance. Policy guidelines should support identity-sensitive performance feedback in practice.

Performance feedback and firms’ relative strategic emphasis: The moderating effects of board independence and media coverage

Neural activation during imitation with or without performance feedback: An fMRI study

While abnormal processing of performance feedback has been associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), neural responses to different kinds of feedback information, especially to ambiguous feedback are widely unknown. Using fMRI and a performance adaptive time-estimation task, we acquired blood oxygenation level-dependant responses and emotional ratings to positive, negative and ambiguous performance feedback in patients and healthy controls. Negative and ambiguous feedback led to increased levels of anxiety, guilt and shame in patients. Both negative and ambiguous feedback, as compared to positive feedback, induced increased activation of the insular cortex in patients. Furthermore, patients showed no differential activation to negative feedback in the putamen and to ambiguous feedback in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC). Finally, negative feedback induced increased activation in the midcingulate cortex in patients compared to controls. Findings indicate that both negative and ambiguous performance feedbacks are associated with abnormal negative emotions and altered brain activation, in particular increased insula activation, while activation in the putamen and VMPFC does not differentiate between feedback types in OCD patients. This suggests a parallel pattern of increased and decreased neural sensitivity to different kinds of feedback information and a general emotional hyperresponsivity to negative and ambiguous performance feedback in OCD.

Fear of negative evaluation, such as negative social performance feedback, is the core symptom of social anxiety. The present study investigated the neural correlates of anticipation and perception of social performance feedback in social anxiety. High (HSA) and low (LSA) socially anxious individuals were asked to give a speech on a personally relevant topic and received standardized but appropriate expert performance feedback in a succeeding experimental session in which neural activity was measured during anticipation and presentation of negative and positive performance feedback concerning the speech performance, or a neutral feedback-unrelated control condition. HSA compared to LSA subjects reported greater anxiety during anticipation of negative feedback. Functional magnetic resonance imaging results showed deactivation of medial prefrontal brain areas during anticipation of negative feedback relative to the control and the positive condition, and medial prefrontal and insular hyperactivation during presentation of negative as well as positive feedback in HSA compared to LSA subjects. The results indicate distinct processes underlying feedback processing during anticipation and presentation of feedback in HSA as compared to LSA individuals. In line with the role of the medial prefrontal cortex in self-referential information processing and the insula in interoception, social anxiety seems to be associated with lower self-monitoring during feedback anticipation, and an increased self-focus and interoception during feedback presentation, regardless of feedback valence.

A considerable literature on attribution theory has shown that healthy individuals exhibit a positivity bias when inferring the causes of evaluative feedback on their performance. They tend to attribute positive feedback internally (e.g., to their own abilities) but negative feedback externally (e.g., to environmental factors). However, all empirical demonstrations of this bias suffer from at least one of the three following drawbacks: First, participants directly judge explicit causes for their performance. Second, participants have to imagine events instead of experiencing them. Third, participants assess their performance only after receiving feedback and thus differences in baseline assessments cannot be excluded. It is therefore unclear whether the classically reported positivity bias generalizes to setups without these drawbacks. Here, we aimed at establishing the relevance of attributions for decision-making by showing an attribution-related positivity bias in a decision-making task. We developed a novel task, which allowed us to test how participants changed their evaluations in response to positive and negative feedback about performance. Specifically, we used videos of actors expressing different facial emotional expressions. Participants were first asked to evaluate the actors’ credibility in expressing a particular emotion. After this initial rating, participants performed an emotion recognition task and did—or did not—receive feedback on their veridical performance. Finally, participants re-rated the actors’ credibility, which provided a measure of how they changed their evaluations after feedback. Attribution theory predicts that participants change their evaluations of the actors’ credibility toward the positive after receiving positive performance feedback and toward the negative after negative performance feedback. Our results were in line with this prediction. A control condition without feedback showed that correct or incorrect performance alone could not explain the observed positivity bias. Furthermore, participants’ behavior in our task was linked to the most widely used measure of attribution style. In sum, our findings suggest that positive and negative performance feedback influences the evaluation of task-related stimuli, as predicted by attribution theory. Therefore, our study points to the relevance of attribution theory for feedback processing in decision-making and provides a novel outlook for decision-making biases.