The Functions and Dysfunctions of Reminders

Not many people use memory cues. For example, only 50% of consumers make shopping lists. If memory cues are important for memory (as previous research shows), why don’t people use them more often? In the first essay of my dissertation, I found that people don’t use memory cues because they are overconfident about their memory. That is, consumers often incorrectly predict that they will remember to do something, do not take appropriate actions to help them remember (e.g., write a shopping list or stick a Post-It on the fridge or the steering wheel) and end up forgetting to do what they should be doing (e.g., buy grocery items, pay bills, take the baby out of the car). But do reminders always help task completion? Almost all previous research on prospective memory and implementation intentions finds that reminders help people execute tasks. Very few papers found no effects of reminders on task completion (3 papers). Those three papers examined the effect of reminders in the context of multiple tasks. The second essay of my dissertation shows that, when multiple tasks are involved, reminders sometimes benefit, but sometimes harm task completion. Reminders help people high in propensity to plan to resume an interrupted task in the future and to maintain vigilance for opportunities to complete it. But they harm the execution of other tasks that demand immediate attention. On the contrary, reminders hurt those low on propensity to plan to resume an interrupted task and they decrease the urgency to start working on the task. But they also free up cognitive resources to be used for other tasks that require immediate attention. Companies often send special deals, early bird specials, and other promotions that may work as reminders to buy the product. These reminders may accelerate the purchase of the product among consumers high on propensity to plan. But, it may delay the purchase of the product among consumers low on propensity to plan. Companies also send reminders when they send its customers information about hotel and theater reservation or confirmations, bills to be paid, subscriptions to be renewed, prepaid cell phone credit to be topped up. Consumers use reminders for several tasks including going out for groceries, eating healthy, housekeeping and maintenance, taking medicines, calling for pizza. It is important to understand for whom the reminder helps and for whom it hurts task completion and performance such that companies and policy makers can tailor appropriate interventions for different groups of individuals. For example, propensity to plan is related to income, education and strongly related to the FICO credit scores. Perhaps for those at the bottom of the income distribution, for those with low education levels and for those with low FICO credit scores, reminders should not be used. Among those individuals, a more effective intervention to get something done might be to ask them to either perform the task immediately or as soon as possible. In that case, procrastination is discouraged and, hence, tasks are more likely to be completed

Orientação empreendedora: um estudo sobre as conseqüências do empreendedorismo nas organizações

O objetivo deste trabalho é investigar o papel do empreendedorismo na construção da performance de negócios. Foi desenvolvido e testado um modelo teórico, retratando os inter-relacionamentos entre orientação e cultura organizacional – orientação empreendedora, orientação para o mercado e aprendizagem organizacional – e seu impacto no sucesso das inovações e na performance empresarial. A partir de uma amostra com 157 organizações, os resultados indicam que a orientação empreendedora exerce elevado impacto na performance empresarial. Os efeitos da orientação empreendedora na performance são maiores do que aqueles da orientação para o mercado, os quais influenciam mais fortemente o sucesso das inovações. Essas duas orientações são complementares e seu efeito conjunto fornece resultados consistentes às ações empresariais. O papel moderador do tamanho da organização na relação entre orientação empreendedora e performance não foi confirmado.The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of entrepreneurship in business performance. A theoretical model has been developed and tested, focused on the inter-relationships that exist between orientation and organizational culture - entrepreneurial orientation, market orientation, and organizational learning - and their respective impact on innovation success and business performance. Based on a sample of 157 organizations, the results indicate that entrepreneurial orientation exerts a strong and direct impact on business performance. The effects of entrepreneurial orientation on performance are greater than those of market orientation, which have a stronger influence over innovation success. Both orientations seem to be complementary, and their joint effect generates results that are consistent with corporate activities. The moderating role of the size of the organization on the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and performance was not confirmed