Decision-Making Temporality at the Time of Digitalization: A Conceptualizing Framework and Analytical Propositions

The digitalization of decision-making is changing the temporal dimension of decision-making—designated by the term ‘decision-making temporality (DMT)'—in strategy and management, while the COVID-19 pandemic crisis evidences the crucial role of time in decision-making processes. However, few conceptualizing studies have fully examined DMT, especially by taking account of the impact of decision-making digitalization driven by artificial intelligence. This research aims to extend the existing literature by proposing a conceptualizing framework for analyzing DMT, and yield possible avenues for future research with the regard to the emerging characteristics of DMT generated by decision-making datification and automation. It provides four contributions on the analysis of DMT. First, it analyzes existing studies on DMT from three approaches: the behavior-focused approach, the perception-focused approach and the process-focused approach. Second, it proposes a systemic-cognitive understanding that DMT is the result of interactions between temporal, decisional and cognitive constructs. Third, it suggests a conceptualizing framework, which is composed of three analytical dimensions and nine constructs, including decisional constructs (complexity, familiarity, and novelty), temporal constructs (velocity, duration, and frequency), and cognitive constructs (combination, repeatability, and simultaneity). Finally, it formulates six analytical propositions and explores their possible implications, in particular with regard to eventual new characteristics of DMT driven by analytics automation and artificialized cognitive patterns.