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TopBehavioural Aspects Of Decision-Making
For many years, corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been one of the major topics of economics, generally omnipresent and repeatedly discussed by scholars and practitioners. However, as proven on many occasions, it is much easier to make theoretical declarations than to actually implement them in real life, and in the times of recession, they are even harder to apply to strategic decision-making (Fehre & Weber, 2016, p. 1424).
Nevertheless, social aspects (in a broad sense) certainly do have an effect on managerial decisions. Managers take into account not only social determinants, consequences, the internal and external impact of their choices, but also their beliefs, feelings and values which often bias the logic and rationality behind the decision-making process. Social issues are recognised as one of the behavioural aspects which determine managers’ conduct, thus affecting their decisions.
According to traditional economics, people take decisions with the maximisation of the so-called utility function in mind. Behavioural economics studies how people take decisions in uncertain situations without having the full picture of their results, suggesting that such decisions may not always be optimal. Taking into account psychological and economic aspects, behavioural economics claims that cognitive biases often prevent people from taking rational decisions (Ariely, 2009, p. 80).