Behavior in behavioral strategy : capturing, measuring, analyzing

Measuring behavior requires research methods that can capture observed outcomes and expose underlying processes and mechanisms. In this chapter, we present a toolbox of instruments and techniques we designed experimental tasks to simulate decision environments and capture behavior. We deployed protocol analysis and text analysis to examine the underlying cognitive processes. In combination, these can simultaneously grasp antecedents, outcomes, processes, and mechanisms. We applied them to collect rich behavioral data on two key topics in strategic management: the exploration–exploitation trade-off and strategic risk-taking. This mix of methods is particularly useful in describing actual behavior as it is, not as it should be, replacing assumptions with data and offering a finer-grained perspective of strategic decision-making

Stadium Architecture and Regional Economic Development: International Experience and the Plans of Durban

For the FIFA World Cup 2010, South Africa plans to invest heavily. The positive economic effects that the country is hoping for stand in contrast to almost all statistical ex-post studies. This contribution emphasises that these results, usually from research under-taken in the USA, can only be generalised to a limited degree. The density of sports venues in developed countries is so high, that the marginal effects of new stadia are necessarily limited. We also emphasise that stadium design around the world was not hitherto adequately targeted towards positive economic effects. The example of Durban and its plans for a new iconic stadium is used to illustrate fundamental principles of stadium design and their embedding in a re-urbanisation process that have to be undertaken in order to consciously achieve positive regional economic effects

Large sport events and unemployment: the case of the 2006 soccer World Cup in Germany

This study analyses on the basis of a multivariate analysis ex post the effects on the jobs market of a soccer World Cup, in this case the 2006 World Cup held in Germany. In addition to three methods already used for other analyses in studies of sporting events, an extended 'Difference-in-Difference' estimate is used in order to compare the development of the numbers of unemployed in the 12 World Cup venues with the development of the numbers of unemployed in 63 other German cities. The results demonstrate that in none of the respective match venues did the effect of the sporting event on unemployment differ significantly from zero.

Becoming (Un)Employed and Life Satisfaction: Asymmetric Effects and Potential Omitted Variable Bias in Empirical Happiness Studies

Becoming unemployed has negative effects on life satisfaction; a transition from unemployment to employment, however, has only small positive effects. This asymmetry indicates a potential omitted variable bias in previous empirical happiness studies, with the consequence of underesti-mated effects of unemployment on life satisfaction. There are also gender-specific effects of asymmetry