IT Project Management & Managerial Risk: Effects of Overconfidence

Due to high IT project failure rates, risk management in IT projects has attracted significant research interest and continues to be an important research and managerial concern. Recently, a stream of IS research has focused on the risks posed by managerial decision making on IT projects, by showing how managers themselves are a major source of risk by falling prey to various heuristics and biases while making decisions at various stages of IT project management. In this study, we explore one of the concepts i.e. overconfidence, and have proposed some potential areas of research. We hope that empirical examination of the propositions will give an insight into the details of how managers become victims of own biases through overconfidence thus causing severe yet systematic risks to the IT projects.

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