Self-Regulated Cognition and Decision-Making about Innovation and Execution

This paper contributes to theory building about self-regulated cognition in decision-making and argues that managers adaptively self-regulate different cognitive skills when making decisions about innovation or execution tasks. In particular, the paper argues that managers with strong self-regulated cognition are more likely to employ more appropriate combinations of goal focus and decision-making style when making such decisions. The paper commences with a general discussion about the nature of self-regulated cognition and its role in decision-making. It then discusses the role of self-regulated cognition in decision-making about innovation and execution, and formulates propositions about those two types of decision-making and achieving balance between them. Finally the paper discusses the practical and theoretical implications of the proposed theory.