Managerial Decision Making: A Sustainable Behavioral Approach

Dear Colleagues, 

Managers often need to make investment decisions in order to ensure economic sustainability of businesses, that is, economic practices that support long-term economic growth (economic sustainability). At the same time, companies need to cope with a long-term environmental and social sustainability. 

Although companies have recognized the importance of taking into account these dimensions of sustainability in their strategic planning, the implementation of sustainable decisions appears limited. The move to sustainability requires managers to adopt new ways of deciding and operating. However, the presence of cognitive limitations and behavioral biases tends to hamper this move. In fact, the behavioral economics literature has long identified behaviors that are not aligned with fully rational decision-making, highlighting the role of psychological factors and biases affecting the decision-making process. In particular, the behavioral economics literature not only shows that decision-makers exhibit systematic deviations from the predictions derived from normative models—that is, models assuming ful rationality—but also offers possible solutions to overcome such cognitive limitations. Therefore, the adoption of a behavioral economics approach would represent an important tool to help managers and decision-makers to move companies toward sustainability. 

In this Special Issue, we invite authors to submit theoretical and empirical research articles addressing advances on the behavioral economic approach from a sustainability perspective. 

Specifically, we encourage the submission of literature reviews, conceptual models, as well as qualitative and quantitative studies (including experimental studies, surveys, and case studies).

Prof. Dr. Luigi Mittone
Dr. Azzurra Morreale
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• sustainability
• decision-making under uncertainty
• behavioral economics
• laboratory experiments