Purpose: The question of how the firm responds to performance feedback forms the backbone of the behavioral theory of the firm. Although the literature works with goals aspirations and additional determinants of a firm’s search activity – proximity to bankruptcy and slack resources – the...

Purpose: A firm will respond to performance feedback, i.e. a comparison of its current performance with the goals to which it aspires, by means of changes in its search activity. There is an emerging body of literature that studies how such behavioral responses are...

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosure has greatly influenced firms’ performance. Given the influence, one can ask whether firms deliberately use ESG disclosure as a tool to mitigate performance shortfalls. Performance shortfalls are situations in which the firm does not attain...

Purpose The behavioral theory of the firm (BTOF) has been used to explain the research and development (R&D) investment behavior of firms in numerous multi industry studies. However, their partially contradictory results point to the possible need for a single industry perspective that would...