Academic Abstract Without recognizing how past failures bias subsequent choices, managers risk decisions that waste resources or prematurely abandon promising opportunities. This study draws on risk-type preference-shift theory and extends it with individual and organizational boundary conditions to examine how distinct failure experiences shape managers' willingness to persist with underperforming innovation projects. We conceptualize failure as a dichotomy, distinguishing commission errors (flops) from omission errors (missed opportunities). Our findings from two studies indicate that a recent commission error reduces the likelihood of persisting, while an omission error increases it. At the individual level, action-oriented decision-makers show a larger reduction in persistence after experiencing a commission error. Furthermore, rational thinkers do not differ in susceptibility to past failures; instead, they weigh specific attributes of the ongoing project more heavily when deciding whether to persist. At the organizational level, we observe that this effect depends on an organization's strategic orientation, that is, an exploratory orientation weakens (strengthens) the negative (positive) impact of commission (omission) errors. In contrast, an exploitative orientation amplifies the negative effects of commission errors. Together, these findings advance risk-type preference-shift theory and provide managers with clear guidance on when prior failures will lead them to persist with or abandon innovation projects.Managerial Abstract Decisions about whether to continue funding an underperforming innovation project are influenced by the most recent failure. After a flop, persistence decreases; after a missed opportunity, persistence increases. Action-oriented decision-makers emphasize the decline following a flop. State-oriented decision-makers are largely unaffected by a prior flop. Rational thinkers do not differ in their reactions to past failures but place greater emphasis on current project attributes, particularly proximity to completion and innovativeness. An exploration orientation reduces reactions to flops and boosts persistence after missed opportunities. An exploitation orientation increases the tendency to exit after flops. We recommend that companies and their managers keep a failure log that distinguishes between flops and missed opportunities; conduct structured postlaunch and postmortem reviews to classify failure types; seek neutral second opinions when previous failures might bias judgments; use reframing prompts to avoid anchoring on past outcomes; assemble review panels that include action- and state-oriented managers and involve rational thinkers for projects that are near completion or highly innovative; in exploratory settings, verify whether continued investment aligns with strategy rather than serving as a fallback for earlier inaction; in exploitative settings, implement delayed second-look procedures to prevent premature termination of projects with hidden potential.
According to 4E cognitive science, our cognitive capacities depend on, and have been transformed by, the environments we have made. Most early works of 4E cognitive science tend to focus on the upside of agent-environment interactions: They have made us smarter and allowed us to do more, despite the same, limited brain (and body) power. However, the recent critical turn focuses on the downsides of agent-environment interactions. Critical 4E cognitive science, as we call this emerging research program, adopts the 4E frameworks and concepts but with a critical lens: questioning its hidden assumptions and leveraging its theoretical resources for social criticism. In particular, we distinguish two kinds of normative critique that bring out the downsides of agent-environment interactions. Prudential critiques focus on how agent-environment interactions can shape an agent's cognition to undermine their own interests. Political critiques focus on how agent-environment interactions can shape an agent's cognition to contribute to the reinforcement and exacerbation of unjust social forces.
The large van der Waals gap in transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) offers an avenue to tune the ground state of 2D materials through the intercalation of magnetic atoms. Here, we investigate the charge correlations in Fe1/3TaS2, Co1/3TaS2, and Fe0.35NbS2 by combining angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), x-ray scattering, magnetometry, and density functional theory (DFT). We find that, while short-range charge fluctuations develop in Ta-based compounds, Fe0.35NbS2 exhibits long-range charge order which is strongly coupled with magnetic order and tunable by external magnetic field. Our electronic structure analysis reveals that intercalation reconstructs the Fermi surface via charge transfer and band renormalization, yet does not generate the nesting conditions compatible with the observed ordering vectors. Complementary phonon calculations further exclude a conventional electron-phonon origin of charge order. Together, these results establish magnetoelastic coupling as the dominant mechanism behind charge ordering in Fe0.35NbS2 and highlight the contrasting role of Nb and Ta hosts in stabilizing correlated ground states in intercalated TMDs.
Administrative burden describes the learning costs, psychological costs, and compliance costs people face when attempting to interface with the government, particularly in seeking a benefit. Algorithmic and automated processes offer the potential of reducing administrative burdens, but scant empirical research has determined to what, if any effect. This study uses the case of criminal record expungement in two policy contexts: traditional, court petition-based systems and newly enacted automated systems, to understand if and how administrative burden persists, and whether and how these burdens operate differently in the context of the criminal legal system. Drawing on interviews with 105 expungement-eligible people, we find that while automated expungement schemes shift the burden from petitioner to state to initiate the process, automation inadvertently creates new administrative burdens via failure to notify, partial clearances, and opaque data processes. Furthermore, respondents described how automation failed to provide a sense of confirmation from the state that their sentence was truly completed, rehabilitation had been acknowledged, or that collateral consequences should no longer wield the same power. Overall, we argue that leveraging automation to reduce burdens must include information availability by design; otherwise policy reforms may fail to fully achieve their goals.
This study examines whether and how mandating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosure affects firms' competitiveness for foreign government procurement contracts. Exploiting staggered enactment of ESG disclosure mandates across countries, we find that firms attain more and larger contracts from foreign governments after their home countries mandate ESG disclosure. We show that the ESG disclosure mandate affects the global allocation of government procurements through two channels: increased transparency of ESG information and enhanced ESG performance. The mandate's effect is more pronounced when government customers are more conscious of ESG, when the procurement process has ESG-related requirements, when government customers have a larger pool of potential suppliers, when the mandate is more strictly enforced, and when bidders significantly improve their ESG transparency following the mandate. Overall, our findings provide novel insight into the cross-border impact of mandatory ESG disclosure.
