Decision-Making Biases in Operations: An Investigation of the Alignment between Decision Makers’ Preferences and Operational Goals

This research project aims to understand how decision makers’ preferences for particular operational goals (e.g., optimize profit, optimize service level, meet a profit target, etc.) and their degree of alignment with given operational metrics (i.e., goals) affects performance in a traditional supply chain management area: inventory management (e.g., Newsvendor problem, Beer Game). Notwithstanding the identification of decision-making biases in this fundamental area, we still lack a clear understanding of the underlying causes of these biases.