What determines managers' use of subjective performance information?

The Internet allows consumers to find different kinds of information about products or services before a purchase. For instance, there is objective information provided by the platform or marketer, as well as different subjective opinions and several forms of ratings generated by users who already bought the product. This cumulative doctoral dissertation aims at depicting the cognitive process that consumers go through when choosing a product while using Internet information. More precisely, this thesis will focus on Internet platforms that contain objective and subjective information to facilitate consumer’s decision-making (i.e. review websites). In order to do this, the decision-making model of Schiebener and Brand (2015) is taken as a theoretical reference. This model is characterized for understanding decision making as a process carried out by two systems that interact constantly. Thus, the reflective system, which is rational and calculative interacts with the impulsive system, which is based on emotional reactions and somatic activity in order to evaluate the options that lead to a decision. Based on this assumption, this thesis integrates the results of three empirical articles. Article 1 uses a Choice-Based Conjoint analysis to identify which type of information provided on review websites is more relevant for consumers and how executive functions are related to the preference for objective or subjective information. The results showed that participants preferred subjective information, such as reviews and ratings, and also that cognitive flexibility and categorization are cognitive abilities related to the preference for objective information. Article 2 used a Judge-Advisor System to measure the influence of both types of information on the final decision. In this study, participants correctly assessed which products were more advantageous based only on objective information. Furthermore, it was found that user recommendations are highly influential for consumers, especially when these come from a high number of users. Article 3 used an experimental design to investigate how Internet cues and the writing style influence consumers’ purchase intention and their perceived trustworthiness of online reviews. The results showed that factual online reviews were perceived as more trustworthy, less fake and entail a higher purchase intention when compared to an emotional writing style. The results of the three articles are supported by literature using other dual-system approaches, such as the Elaboration Likelihood Model. Hence, these results and the subsequent discussions on a meta-level about the role of online descriptions, social influence, and decision confidence; contribute to the development of a theoretical model, based on Schiebener and Brand (2015), which explains how consumers process different types of online information in order to make purchase decisions.

An important issue for international businesses and academia is selecting countries in which to expand in order to achieve entrepreneurial sustainability. This study develops a country selection model for sustainable construction businesses using both objective and subjective information. The objective information consists of 14 variables related to country risk and project performance in 32 countries over 25 years. This hybrid model applies subjective weighting from industrial experts to objective information using a fuzzy LinPreRa-based Analytic Hierarchy Process. The hybrid model yields a more accurate country selection compared to a purely objective information-based model in experienced countries. Interestingly, the hybrid model provides some different predictions with only subjective opinions in unexperienced countries, which implies that expert opinion is not always reliable. In addition, feedback from five experts in top international companies is used to validate the model’s completeness, effectiveness, generality, and applicability. The model is expected to aid decision makers in selecting better candidate countries that lead to sustainable business success.

Public organizations increasingly produce performance information. However, quite often this information is not put to use. In this paper we study how different organizational echelons use performance information. We use a representative survey among Danish public managers to compare the extent to which different organizational echelons use performance information. We find that top managers generally use performance information – information on outcomes and user satisfaction in particular – more than other echelons. These findings are important, because performance management systems are often designed at the top of public organizations, even though they are intended to be used for different purposes at different organizational echelons. Our findings raise important questions regarding the use and design of performance information that are relevant for frontline managers and executives alike.

Matching objective and subjective information in geotechnical inverse analysis based on entrophy minimization

This paper uses a multidimensional big data matrix model to optimize the analysis and conduct a systematic construction of the enterprise performance evaluation system. The adoption of new research methods and perspectives to promote the study of the use of performance information is of great significance to achieve the effectiveness, science, and sustainability of corporate performance management. To solve the problem of objectivity and scientificity of performance information use, this part attempts to analyze performance information use from the perspective of the multidimensional big data matrix, focusing on the techniques and methods in the process of promoting performance information use from the multidimensional big data matrix and tries to construct a system model of enterprise performance information use from two dimensions: the use of performance information sources and the use of performance information results. Based on multiple theoretical hypotheses, a theoretical and empirical basis is provided for the division of demand dimensions of enterprise performance evaluation system. Through social capital theory, three dimensions of network social capital, cognitive social capital, and structural social capital are hypothesized, and the logistic regression method is applied for empirical study. The results show that these three dimensions have significant effects on the knowledge demand of enterprise performance evaluation systems. It is verified that the multidimensional big data matrix can enhance the quality of performance information sources and improve the objectivity of performance information. In the performance information source use dimension, the analysis verified that the collection and preprocessing technology of big data can realize the automation, real‐time, and diversification of information collection and preprocessing, and enhance the objectivity of performance information. Big data helps to improve the quality and effectiveness of performance information results use. In the dimension of using performance information results, the distributed computing and analysis processing technology of big data can assist the decision support system, and the use of information can be shifted from micromanagement to decision support, to realize the scientific use of performance information and improve the quality of enterprise management decisions.

Exploring the Role of Online Health Community Information in Patients’ Decisions to Switch from Online to Offline Medical Services

This paper presents a qualitative study that aims to investigate whether and how local politicians use perform ance info rmation to evaluate top managers’ performance. The main goal is to contribute to knowledge on perform ance manag ement in the political sphere. Based on semi-structured interviews, findings show that the organizational climate determines the willingness to use information. There is an internal culture embedded in public agencies, like municipalities, that lead politicians to be more or less concerned about the use of performance information. In this paper we find that politicians have a greater orientation towards the ‘implicit’ and the ‘operations-conscious’ styles rather than to the ‘output-constrained’ and the ‘outcome-conscious’ styles. In general, politicians failed to implement a culture focused on the use of performance information. The institutional approach helps us to identify political responses to institutional pressures and understand the reasons for a reduced use in the Portuguese context.

Constructing the Membership Function of a Fuzzy Set with Objective and Subjective Information

Performance management systems have been widely implemented in local governments and deliver performance information (PI) to enhance organizational learning and control. However, such information is not often used. This study examines the relations between the organizational factors that affect performance information use. The study employs the theories of information systems to distinguish the quality and usefulness of performance information from other organizational drivers of the use of performance information. Based on survey data from Polish local governments, the study searches for potential mediators of PI use by testing the relations between the most influential organizational capabilities that drive PI use. The findings suggest that there is a link between the quality and usefulness of performance information, and that other organizational capabilities that drive PI use are independent from quality and usefulness of PI. The study contributes to knowledge of how performance information is used in public organizations in a CEE country.

In the wake of the recent accounting and financial scandals that have resulted in significant losses, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is viewed by many investors as an important criterion in their investment selection strategy. In addition, social responsibility is viewed by current employees as an important source of job satisfaction and by potential employees as an attractive feature in their decision process. Corporate governance, in the form of the board of directors, serves as the ultimate internal control mechanism by aligning firm insiders and outsiders. The strength and independence of the board of directors becomes a fundamental concern, as firms with strong boards may be more likely to survive and prosper in the long run. The selection of candidates to the board of directors involves both subjective and objective information. The analytical hierarchy process (AHP) is a multicriteria decision model that can integrate both objective and subjective information. This study applies the AHP methodology to the identification of characteristics of candidates to the board of directors of socially responsible firms. The result is a dynamic model that can be used by socially responsible firms to efficiently select candidates to serve on their board of directors.

Collaborative Filtering (CF) has been applied to many commercial systems successfully, such as IMDB, Netflix and son on. The basic idea of a CF system is to generate recommendations based on the experiences of past similar users. The users' option can be categorized into objective and subject information. The former was furnished by the common users and the later represents solicit opinions provided by experts (such as film critics). Both information types are valuable and important for the CF system. This study attempts to propose a novel collaborative filtering framework based on fuzzy set theory which integrates the subjective and objective information. The new methodology not only provides a comprehensive result but also solve the problems of traditional CF system, new user and new item. Finally, an experiment is performed, and the result indicates that the proposed methodology produces high-quality recommendations.

Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) as an efficient mode to provide public services through the government and social capital’s cooperation has been in China for more than 30 years. In this paper, we propose an approach to evaluate PPP’s advancement in different areas based on the subjective and objective information fusion. At first, we establish an index system from the perspective of the stakeholder. Then, considering that double hierarchy hesitant fuzzy linguistic term set (DHHFLTS) that has two hierarchies of linguistic term sets can describe the subjective linguistic information more accurately, it is applied in the paper to depict the subjective information. By applying the entropy of the DHHFLTS, a programming model is proposed to derive the attribute weight through combining subjective evaluation with objective data. In addition, we develop the double hierarchy hesitant fuzzy linguistic PROMETHEE combining the subjective and objective information (DHHFL-PROMETHEE-S&O) method. At last, we illustrate the index system and the method with the PPP’s advancement evaluation problem, and we can find the best choice based on the ranking result. Meanwhile, we also find that the objective information and the subjective information are complementary in the evaluation process.

PurposeAlthough politicians' use of performance information affects political decisions and, through them, the well-being of society, there is a lack of studies exploring what contextual factors are associated with annual active performance information use among politicians. Furthermore, past studies on this subject have been cross-sectional rather than longitudinal.Design/methodology/approachIn this qualitative case study, triangulation of observations and 10 semi-structured interviews were used to ensure the robustness of findings. The study was conducted in a Finnish municipality known as Kangasala.FindingsA dialogue culture, constructive political climate, trusted information sources and high-quality information attained via accessible information channels explained the high information use in primarily unfavorable conditions to such use. The authors’ findings contradict many prior interview and survey studies that did not recognize the simultaneous contributions of the information provider, channel and quality, along with organizational and environmental factors to high performance information use. The results contradict to some extent the findings from other countries as these studies have explained high levels of use with unique combinations of drivers, whereas we identify common attributes of these combinations and talk about their meaning in the success of Kangasala's public financial management. However, the findings of this case study cannot be generalized.Originality/valueThis study describes a case organization that created a supportive environment for politicians' frequent performance information use that contributed to improvements. Past studies provide little knowledge about establishing sustained high levels of information use among politicians, so the case offers ideas and inspiration for improving this use.

The simplified Conjoint Expected Risk (CER) model by Holtgrave and Weber posits that perceived risk is a linear combination of the subjective judgments of the probabilities of harm, benefit, and status quo, and the expected harm and benefit of an activity. It modifies Luce and Weber's original CER model--that uses objective information to evaluate financial gambles--to accommodate activities such as health/technology activities where values of the model variables are subjective. If the simplified model is a valid modification of the original model, its performance should not be sensitive to the use of subjective information. However, because people may evaluate information differently when objective information is provided to them than when they generate information on their own, the performance of the simplified CER model may not be robust to the source of model-variable information. We compared the use of objective and subjective information, and results indicate that the estimates of the simplified CER model parameters and the proportion of variance in risk judgments accounted for by the model are similar under these two conditions. Thus, the simplified CER model is viable with activities for which harm and benefit information is subjective.

Previous research suggests that civil servants can perceive their role differently and that these differing perceptions also influence their responses to managerial reform programs. Yet there is little research examining how different role perceptions influence the application of performance measurement. Using survey data from 742 human service organizations in Switzerland, the present study addresses this gap by investigating how professional and managerial role identities affect managers’ use of performance information. The results support the hypotheses that role identities indirectly influence the application of performance information through the effects on role conflict that may occur when managerial professionals measure the performance of their organizations. A lack of resources, stringent political control, and poor information quality are also found to be associated with role conflict and a limited use of performance information.