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Revisiting the competency trap

Author

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  • Jerker Denrell
  • Gaël Le Mens

Abstract

We revisit the competency trap and reexamine when it occurs. We show that a bias against alternatives that improve with practice does not require that learning is myopic in the sense of lacking foresight or failing to explore. The same bias occurs even if learners engage in substantial exploration and have foresight. In fact, we demonstrate that even a rational and foresighted learner, who follow an optimal strategy for balancing exploration and exploitation, will learn to prefer alternatives with initially high payoffs that decrease with practice over alternatives, with identical expected values, that have initially low payoffs that increase with practice. Our results show that a bias against alternatives that improve with practice is due to an asymmetry in error correction rather than to myopic learning. The implication is that a wide range of selection systems, even optimally designed ones, will be biased against late-bloomers.

Suggested Citation

  • Jerker Denrell & Gaël Le Mens, 2020. "Revisiting the competency trap," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 29(1), pages 183-205.
  • Handle: RePEc:oup:indcch:v:29:y:2020:i:1:p:183-205.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/icc/dtz072
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    Cited by:

    1. Jee Yong Chung & Woojin Yoon, 2020. "Technological capabilities and internationalization of high‐tech ventures: The moderating role of strategic orientations," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(8), pages 1462-1472, December.
    2. Hazhir Rahmandad & Jerker Denrell & Drazen Prelec, 2021. "What makes dynamic strategic problems difficult? Evidence from an experimental study," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(5), pages 865-897, May.
    3. Mittone, Luigi & Morreale, Azzurra & Ritala, Paavo, 2024. "Initial conditions and path dependence in explorative and exploitative learning: An experimental study," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • M10 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - General

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