Students as Surrogates for Managers in a Decision-making Environment: An Experimental Study.

Author List: Hughes, Cary T.; Gibson, Michael Lucas;
Journal of Management Information Systems, 1991, Volume 8, Issue 2, Page 153-166.
Administering and controlling a field experiment in the area of information systems is a continuing problem. A solution for many researchers is to use students in controlled laboratory settings as surrogates for real-world decision makers. This practice is often questioned in many business and social sciences disciplines. Research results from attitudinal studies suggest that students' attitudes are not the same as those for whom they are surrogates. Still, some research demonstrates that students and nonstudents respond similarly during decision making. This paper contains the results of an experiment to decide if students and industry decision makers made decisions similarly before and following a training program in the use of a DSS generator. Our analysis of the results suggests that students were not adequate surrogates for industry managers in the decision-making process. Consequently, we dispute the claim that students and nonstudents unequivocally perform similarly during decision making.
Keywords: decision process attributes; DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS; Managerial Decision Making; Student surrogates
Algorithm:

List of Topics

#8 0.346 decision making decisions decision-making makers use quality improve performance managers process better results time managerial task significantly help indicate maker
#12 0.173 students education student course teaching schools curriculum faculty future experience educational university undergraduate mba business technologies graduate courses programs subjects
#51 0.094 results study research experiment experiments influence implications conducted laboratory field different indicate impact effectiveness future participants evidence test controlled involving
#21 0.088 research information systems science field discipline researchers principles practice core methods area reference relevance conclude set focus propose perspective inquiry
#127 0.087 systems information research theory implications practice discussed findings field paper practitioners role general important key grounded researchers domain new identified
#147 0.054 process problem method technique experts using formation identification implicit analysis common proactive input improvements identify traditional stages identifying explicit setting