Relationships Among Goal Difficulty, Business Strategies, and Performance On A Complex Management Simulation Task

A complex, strategic management, computer simulation was used over a ten-week period to examine the effect of goal difficulty and use of business strategies on firm performance. Participants developed a limited number of competitive business strategies, similar to well-known strategies identified in strategic management research, to deal with task complexity. Both goals and strategies had significant effects on performance, but the effect of strategy was stronger than that of goals. In addition, goals affected strategies, and strategies moderated the goal-performance relationship.

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