The origin of failure: a multidisciplinary appraisal of the hubris hypothesis and proposed research agenda. (2014)

“Provides an organized appraisal of managerial hubris using an original conceptual map and distills suggestions for managing hubris that may prove helpful to practitioners”.

Picone, P. M., Dagnino, G. B., & Minà, A., University of Catania, Italy
The Academy of Management Perspectives, 28(4), 447-468

“…to our knowledge, an organized appraisal of managerial hubris is as yet missing.” The authors attempt to rectify this.

They start by approaching the subject “from a truly multidisciplinary background.” So far, “little exchange has developed between and among disciplinary inquiries on hubris, and we believe the time has come to start some…”

The authors also attempt to re-organise the main studies on managerial hubris in an original conceptual map, to supply “a nested appreciation of the hubris antecedents-symptoms-strategic choices-feedback performance main cause-effect relationships”.

By locating in a systematic way the bulk of hubris literature extant, this study “provides a more nuanced understanding of the current landscape of the hubris hypothesis”.

Finally, the paper manages to distill “a small but nontrivial suite of suggestions for managing hubris symptoms and traps that may prove helpful to practitioners”.

Access the full paper here: The origin of failure