Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

This study explores how project names may influence the tendency to escalate commitment through two experiments. Our findings from Experiment 1 show that a positive project name evokes positive affective reactions to the project. These, in turn, are associated with a greater willingness to continue a failing project. Results from Experiment 2 show that a technological project name can similarly evoke more positive affective reactions and a greater willingness to continue but only for decision makers with high technology readiness. For decision makers with low technology readiness the effect was reversed.

Keywords

project names project escalation affect heuristic escalation of commitment decision-making

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Alhakami

A S.

Slovic

. (1994). A psychological study of the inverse relationship between perceived risk and perceived benefit. Risk Analysis, 14(6), 1085–1096.

Anglada-Tort

Steffens

Müllensiefen

. (2018). Names and titles matter: The impact of linguistic fluency and the affect heuristic on aesthetic and value judgements of music. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 13(3), 277–292.

Aron

(August 18, 2011). Why the name of your IT project matters. IT News. https://www.itnews.com.au/news/why-the-name-of-your-it-project-matters-267303

Baker

W. E

. (2003). Does brand name imprinting in memory increase brand information retention? Psychology & Marketing, 20(12), 1119–1135.

Bearden

W. O.

Netemeyer

R. G.

Mobley

M. F

. (1993). Handbook of marketing scales. SAGE Publications Inc.

Biesheuvel . (November 22, 1993). Handelingen Tweede Kamer OCV / UCV 1993-1994 22 November 1993. http://www.statengeneraaldigitaal.nl/

Bondale

(January 19, 2018). So what’s in a (project) name? Projectmanagement.com. https://www.projectmanagement.com/blog-post/36855/so-what-s-in-a–project–name-

Chan

Park

H.D.

Patel

P.C

. (2015). Name fluency on venture investment decisions . In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2015, No. 1, p. 10164). Academy of Management.

Chan

C. S. R.

Park

H. D.

Patel

. (2018). The effect of company name fluency on venture investment decisions and IPO underpricing. Venture Capital, 20(1), 1–26.

10.

Chin

W.W

. (1998). The partial least squares approach to structured equation modelling In Marcoulides

G. A.

(Ed.), Modern methods for business research (pp. 295–336). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

11.

Compeau

Marcolin

Kelley

Higgins

. (2012). Research commentary: Generalizability of information systems research using student subjects—A reflection on our practices and recommendations for future research. Information Systems Research, 23(4), 1093–1109.

12.

Damasio

A. R

. (1994). Descartes’ error: Emotion, reason and the human brain . Avon.

13.

Edison

S. W.

Geissler

G. L

. (2003). Measuring attitudes towards general technology: Antecedents, hypotheses and scale development. Journal of Targeting, Measurement and Analysis for Marketing, 12(2), 137–156.

14.

Finucane

M. L.

Alhakami

Slovic

Johnson

S. M

. (2000). The affect heuristic in judgments of risks and benefits. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 13(1), 1–17.

15.

Fornell

Larcker

D. F

. (1981). Structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement errors. Journal of Marketing Research, 18(2), 39–50.

16.

Goslinga

(June 23rd, 2003). Had de Betuwelijn maar Havel-lijn geheten. Trouw. http://www.trouw.nl/tr/nl/4324/Nieuws/article/detail/1772066/2003/06/21/Hadde-Betuwelijn-maar-Havel-lijn-geheten.dhtml#

17.

Guest

Estes

Gibbert

Mazursky

. (2016). Brand suicide? Memory and liking of negative brand names. Plos one, 11(3), e0151628.

18.

Herz

R. S.

von Clef

(2001). The influence of verbal labelling on the perception of odors: Evidence for olfactory illusions? Perception, 30(3), 381–392.

19.

Hunter

Aron

(July 28, 2011). Project names matter: Choose wisely. Gartner. https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/1754614

20.

Irmak

Vallen

Robinson

S. R

. (2011). The impact of product name on dieters’ and nondieters’ food evaluations and consumption. Journal of Consumer Research, 38(2), 390–405.

21.

Jani

. (2008). An experimental investigation of factors influencing perceived control over a failing IT project. International Journal of Project Management, 26(7), 726–732.

22.

Keil

Mathiassen

Zheng

. (2008). The influence of checklists and roles on software practitioner risk perception and decision-making. Journal of Systems and Software, 81(6), 908–919.

23.

King

Slovic

. (2014). The affect heuristic in early judgments of product innovations. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 13(6), 411–428.

24.

Korzaan

Morris

S.A

. (2009). Individual characteristics and the intention to continue project escalation. Computers in Human Behavior, 25(6), 1320–1330.

25.

Krier

J. E.

Gillette

C. P

. (1985). The un-easy case for technological optimism. Michigan Law Review, 84(3), 405–429.

26.

Lash

(September 4, 2007). Pick the right name for your projects. How to be a good product manager. https://www.goodproductmanager.com/2007/09/04/pick-the-right-name-for-your-projects/

27.

Lee

Baack

D. W

. (2014). Meaning or sound? The effects of brand name fluency on brand recall and willingness to buy. Journal of Promotion Management, 20(5), 521–536.

28.

MacKinnon

D. P.

Fairchild

A. J.

, & Fritz. M. S. (2007). Mediation analysis. Annual Review of Psychology, 58(1), 593–614.

29.

Meuter

M. L.

Ostrom

A. L.

Bitner

M. J.

Roundtree

. (2003). The influence of technology anxiety on consumer use and experiences with self-service technologies. Journal of Business Research, 56(11), 899–906.

30.

Meyer

W. G

. (2014). The effect of optimism bias on the decision to terminate failing projects. Project Management Journal, 45(4), 7–20.

31.

Modahl

. (1999). Now or never: How companies must change today to win the battle for internet consumers. Harper Business.

32.

Nuijten

Keil

Commandeur

. (2016). Collaborative partner or opponent: How the messenger influences the deaf effect in IT-projects. European Journal of Information Systems, 25(6), 534–552.

33.

Parasuraman

. (2000). Technology readiness index (TRI): A multiple-item scale to measure readiness to embrace new technologies. Journal of Service Research, 2(4), 307–320.

34.

Parasuraman

Colby

C. L

. (2015). An updated and streamlined technology readiness index: TRI 2.0. Journal of Service Research, 18(1), 59–74.

35.

Ringle

C. M.

Wende

Becker

. (2015). SmartPLS 3. SmartPLS. http://www.smartpls.com

36.

Rubaltelli

Pasini

Rumiati

Olsen

R. A.

Slovic

. (2010). The influence of affective reactions on investment decisions. Journal of Behavioral Finance, 11(3), 168–176.

37.

Rutledge

R. W.

Harrell

. (1993). Escalating commitment to an ongoing project: The effects of responsibility and framing of accounting information. International Journal of Management, 10(3), 300–314.

38.

Sera

(March 15, 2022). Why should I name a project? 3 benefits for your team. Atomic Object. https://spin.atomicobject.com/2022/03/15/project-name/

39.

SignEasy. (April 5, 2018). Why we take internal project names seriously at SignEasy. SignEasy. https://signeasy.com/blog/company/internal-project-names/

40.

Skorinko

J. L.

Kemmer

Hebl

M. R.

Lane

D. M

. (2006). A rose by any other name …: Color-naming influences on decision making. Psychology & Marketing, 23(12), 975–993.

41.

Slovic

(2012). The value of smoking: An editorial. Health, Risk & Society, 14(5), 409–414.

42.

Slovic

Layman

Kraus

Flynn

Chalmers

Gesell

. (1991). Perceived risk, stigma, and potential economic impacts of a high-level nuclear waste repository in Nevada. Risk Analysis, 11(4), 683–696.

43.

Slovic

Finucane

M. L.

Peters

MacGregor

D. G

. (2002a). The affect heuristic. In Gilovich

Griffin

Kahneman

(Eds.), In Heuristics and biases: The psychology of intuitive judgment (pp. 1333–1352). Cambridge University Press.

44.

Slovic

Finucane

Peters

MacGregor

D. G

. (2002b). Rational actors or rational fools: Implications of the affect heuristic for behavioral economics. The Journal of Socio-Economics, 31(4), 329–342.

45.

Sleesman

D. J.

Conlan

D. E.

McNamara

Miles

J. E

. (2012). Cleaning up the big muddy: A meta-analytic review of the determinants of escalation of commitment. Academy of Management Journal, 55(3), 541–562.

46.

Stibbe

(May 26, 2021). The essential guide to choosing good project names. Articulate Marketing. https://www.articulatemarketing.com/blog/project-names

47.

Stingl

Geraldi

. (2017). Errors, lies and misunderstandings: Systematic review on behavioural decision making in projects. International Journal of Project Management, 35(2), 121–135.

48.

Chang

Chuang

. (2010). The effect of corporate image as an affect heuristic on investors’ decision making. Asia Pacific Management Review, 15(3), 453–476.

49.

Supply Chain Game Changer. (January 13, 2017). Naming your project will rally everyone to your cause! https://supplychaingamechanger.com/change-leadership-part-2-name-game-naming-project-will-rally-everyone-cause/

50.

Walczuch

Lemmink

Streukens

. (2007). The effect of service employees’ technology readiness on technology acceptance. Information & Management, 44(2), 206–215.

51.

Wänke

Herrmann

Schaffner

. (2007). Brand name influence on brand perception. Psychology & Marketing, 24(1), 1–24.

52.

Zajonc

R. B

. (1980). Feeling and thinking: Preferences need no inferences. American Psychologist, 35(2), 151–175.

The Effect of Project Names on Escalation of Commitment in Information Systems Projects

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References