I Like It, They Must Like It, Too : How Managers' Individual Interests Influence Strategic Marketing Decisions

Marketing managers are supposed to be highly sophisticated in predicting consumers' preferences. However, following relevant literature, the authors argue that even marketing managers' anticipations of customers' preferences are affected by projection biases. Extending prior research in this field, this paper attempts to investigate whether relevant market information can overcome projection bias in the context of strategic marketing decisions. Two empirical studies demonstrate that managers' decisions are influenced by projection biases not only in the case of market information absence but also when nonambiguous market information is available. Hence, marketing managers devalue relevant market information if it does not coincide with their individual interest and still project their individual interests on their predicted customers' preferences.