| This study addresses the question: "How does context affect the behavior of information system evaluators in a competitive environment?" using an experimental setting. Four different explanations of why context might or might not affect this behavior are proposed and examined. They include the expected utility hypothesis and three explanations based on recent research on cognitive processes in judgment and choice: (1) individuals act according to prospect theory, (2) individuals act with information because they wish to avoid uncertainty, and (3) individuals view information as a valuable good.; This research extends previous work on subjective evaluation of information systems in two ways. First, earlier studies either were strictly descriptive or sought to build simplified combinatorial models of subject behavior. The present study goes beyond this to examine the decision strategies individuals employ for subjective information evaluation. Second, previous work examined settings with no conflict of interest between individuals, using a decision-theoretic framework. The present study examines a competitive two person setting, using a game-theoretic framework. This scenario is more representative of environments in which accounting information is actually used than the settings of earlier experimental work.; In the experiment, subjects played the part of one of two managers in a firm operating in a simplified production environment. They interacted with a microcomputer, which played the part of a second manager. The subjects had the option to obtain private information on a random variable affecting the production process. Contextual variables manipulated were task setting and stated cost of information.; The principal findings of the study are that individuals: (1) apparently use simplified decision strategies in the information evaluation problem and (2) tend to ignore the effects their private information will have on the actions of the other manager. A significant proportion of subjects consistently obtained information in cases where it had negative expected value. This proportion was unaffected by task setting, indicating individuals choose to act with information because they wish to avoid uncertainty. Some subjects' choices were also affected by stated information cost. This effect differed across task settings. |
