IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/soceco/v37y2008i3p949-957.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The role of aspirations and aspirations adaptation in explaining satisficing and bounded rationality

Author

Listed:
  • Schwartz, Hugh

Abstract

The explanation of bounded rationality in terms of satisficing has been received with skepticism, but Simon's claim that satisficing reflects aspirations and their adaptation could help resolve the matter, particularly taking account of the amplifications introduced by Selten to include motivational factors. Experimental investigations by Guth and his colleagues provide some support. Open-ended, in-depth interviews by Bewley and Schwartz help explain the factors that influence aspirations (which may differ for different tasks), giving attention to affective influences and also to context. They suggest a positive but more complicated relationship between the relative success in realizing profits aspirations and the adaptation of those aspirations, and also in the consequences that aspiration levels have for bounded rationality.

Suggested Citation

  • Schwartz, Hugh, 2008. "The role of aspirations and aspirations adaptation in explaining satisficing and bounded rationality," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 949-957, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:soceco:v:37:y:2008:i:3:p:949-957
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6W5H-4NJ20F5-6/1/b861c5d342c40de20af3bcf4a42b27b4
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Herbert A. Simon, 1955. "A Behavioral Model of Rational Choice," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 69(1), pages 99-118.
    2. Schwartz, Hugh H., 1987. "Perception, judgment, and motivation in manufacturing enterprises : Findings and preliminary hypotheses from in-depth interviews," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 8(4), pages 543-565, December.
    3. Werner Güth & Gerlinde Fellner & Ev Martin, 2006. "Satisficing or Optimizing? - An Experimental Study," Papers on Strategic Interaction 2006-11, Max Planck Institute of Economics, Strategic Interaction Group.
    4. Werner Güth & M. Vittoria Levati & Matteo Ploner, 2006. "Is Satisficing Absorbable? - An Experimental Study," Papers on Strategic Interaction 2006-10, Max Planck Institute of Economics, Strategic Interaction Group.
    5. Werner Güth & Gerlinde Fellner & Ev Martin, 2006. "Task Transcending Satisficing - An Experimental Study," Papers on Strategic Interaction 2006-09, Max Planck Institute of Economics, Strategic Interaction Group.
    6. Selten, Reinhard, 1998. "Features of experimentally observed bounded rationality," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(3-5), pages 413-436, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Friederike Wall, 2021. "Modeling Managerial Search Behavior based on Simon's Concept of Satisficing," Papers 2104.14002, arXiv.org, revised May 2021.
    2. Friederike Wall, 2023. "Modeling managerial search behavior based on Simon’s concept of satisficing," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 29(2), pages 265-299, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Werner Güth, 2006. "Satisficing in Portfolio Selection - Theoretical Aspects and Experimental Tests," Papers on Strategic Interaction 2006-16, Max Planck Institute of Economics, Strategic Interaction Group.
    2. Siegfried Berninghaus & Werner Güth & M. Vittoria Levati & Jianying Qiu, 2006. "Satisficing in sales competition: experimental evidence," Papers on Strategic Interaction 2006-32, Max Planck Institute of Economics, Strategic Interaction Group.
    3. Berg, Nathan & Prakhya, Srinivas & Ranganathan, Kavitha, 2018. "A satisficing approach to eliciting risk preferences," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 127-140.
    4. Dalton,Patricio S. & Ruschenpohler,Julius & Zia,Bilal Husnain, 2018. "Determinants and dynamics of business aspirations : evidence from small-scale entrepreneurs in an emerging market," Policy Research Working Paper Series 8400, The World Bank.
    5. Yang, Luhe & Zhang, Lianzhong & Yang, Duoxing, 2022. "Asymmetric micro-dynamics in spatial anonymous public goods game," Applied Mathematics and Computation, Elsevier, vol. 415(C).
    6. Dalton, Patricio & Rüschenpöhler, Julius & Zia, Bilal, 2018. "Aspirations of Small-scale Entrepreneurs : Evidence from Urban Retailers in Indonesia," Other publications TiSEM bc573b53-32a8-497b-a67d-d, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    7. Crawford, VP, 2014. "Boundedly rational versus optimization-based models of strategic thinking and learning in games," University of California at San Diego, Economics Working Paper Series qt04h694rz, Department of Economics, UC San Diego.
    8. Werner Güth & Gerlinde Fellner & Ev Martin, 2006. "Satisficing or Optimizing? - An Experimental Study," Papers on Strategic Interaction 2006-11, Max Planck Institute of Economics, Strategic Interaction Group.
    9. Werner Güth & Ev Martin & Torsten Weiland, 2006. "Aspiration formation and satisficing in isolated and competitive search," Papers on Strategic Interaction 2006-26, Max Planck Institute of Economics, Strategic Interaction Group.
    10. Daniela Di Cagno & Werner Güth & Noemi Pace, 2021. "Experimental evidence of behavioral improvement by learning and intermediate advice," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 91(2), pages 173-187, September.
    11. Güth, Werner & Vittoria Levati, M. & Ploner, Matteo, 2010. "Satisficing in strategic environments: A theoretical approach and experimental evidence," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 554-561, October.
    12. Werner Güth & M. Vittoria Levati & Matteo Ploner, 2006. "Is Satisficing Absorbable? - An Experimental Study," Papers on Strategic Interaction 2006-10, Max Planck Institute of Economics, Strategic Interaction Group.
    13. Gerlinde Fellner & Werner Güth & Boris Maciejovsky, 2005. "Satisficing in Financial Decision Making A Theoretical and Experimental Attempt to Explore Bounded Rationality," Papers on Strategic Interaction 2005-23, Max Planck Institute of Economics, Strategic Interaction Group.
    14. Morone, Andrea & Sandri, Serena & Fiore, Annamaria, 2009. "On the absorbability of informational cascades in the laboratory," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 728-738, October.
    15. Güth, Werner, 2010. "Satisficing and (un)bounded rationality--A formal definition and its experimental validity," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 73(3), pages 308-316, March.
    16. Berg, Nathan, 2008. "Imitation in location choice," MPRA Paper 26592, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Torgler, Benno & Schneider, Friedrich & Schaltegger, Christoph A., 2007. "With or Against the People? The Impact of a Bottom-Up Approach on Tax Morale and the Shadow Economy," Berkeley Olin Program in Law & Economics, Working Paper Series qt6331x6vz, Berkeley Olin Program in Law & Economics.
    18. Daniel Fonseca Costa & Francisval Carvalho & Bruno César Moreira & José Willer Prado, 2017. "Bibliometric analysis on the association between behavioral finance and decision making with cognitive biases such as overconfidence, anchoring effect and confirmation bias," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 111(3), pages 1775-1799, June.
    19. Christina Leuker & Thorsten Pachur & Ralph Hertwig & Timothy J. Pleskac, 2019. "Do people exploit risk–reward structures to simplify information processing in risky choice?," Journal of the Economic Science Association, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 5(1), pages 76-94, August.
    20. Jae Wook Yoo & Richard Reed & Shung Jae Shin & David J. Lemak, 2009. "Strategic Choice and Performance in Late Movers: Influence of the Top Management Team's External Ties," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(2), pages 308-335, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:soceco:v:37:y:2008:i:3:p:949-957. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/620175 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.