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High technology environments are characterized by information shocks, which require decision makers to confront the agility- routine tradeoff and be discerning about the applicability of new information. Furthermore, heterogeneity among decision makers may influence their reaction to the information shocks. We examine the response to information shocks in the empirical context of coronary stenting by physicians in light of new information about their efficacy released through medical guidelines. Using within-subject estimates before and after an exogenous information shock on a census of patient admissions into hospitals in the State of Florida from 2001 to 2010, preliminary findings show that, as might be expected, doctors incorporate new information in their decision making. However, findings also suggest that physicians update routines slowly, favoring moderate changes in behavior over agile responses to new information. Moreover, these preliminary estimations suggest that physicians whose routines hav...

Availability cascades are defined as disproportionately large increases in public discourse on certain events or topics which give rise to the ubiquitous use of the availability heuristic, thereby induce biases in decision-making. Empirical investigation into availability cascades in the social sciences is limited, especially in contexts where decisions are made in the face of considerable uncertainty. In this paper, we study the impact of availability cascades originating from two sources, the print and social media, in the context of technology-based entrepreneurship. First, we explore the conditions under which the rise of an availability cascade influences the nascent entrepreneur’s decision to incorporate a firm in the specific technology domain experiencing the cascade. Second, we test the effect of the availability cascade on the time taken for a nascent entrepreneur in the specific technology domain experiencing a cascade to receive first-round funding from a venture capitalist. Our results show t...

The internet has fostered widespread information transparency and a rapid rise in consumer-generated ratings. While these ratings, in the form of digital word-of-mouth, provide a potentially useful...