Abstract

This study investigates the impact of managers' cognitive bias on corporate venturing investment decisions with a particular focus on a firm's escalation of commitment to a losing course of action. Specifically, based upon three sources of cognitive bias, namely, sunk costs, illusion of control and self-justification, this study identifies antecedents of the escalation behavior. Our longitudinal empirical analyses, based on corporate venturing investments made by listed Taiwanese IT companies, shows that sunk costs, the number of initial public offerings by the firm in previous years, disclosure of investment performance and whether the firm joined the initial funding of the new venture are positively correlated to a firm's escalating commitment to an investment with a mild negative feedback. When severe negative feedback is encountered, however, the impact of these antecedents is alleviated or even disappears. Implications to managers and suggestions for future research are also discussed.