ORGANIZATIONAL ESCALATION AND EXIT - LESSONS FROM THE SHOREHAM NUCLEAR-POWER-PLANT

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: ROSS, J; STAW, BM
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California Berkeley
• 刊物名称: ACADEMY OF MANAGEMENT JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0001-4273
• DOI: 10.5465/256756
• 发表日期: 1993
• 页码: 701-732
• 关键词: RESOURCE-ALLOCATION DECISIONS; sunk costs; CHOSEN COURSE; KNEE-DEEP; BIG MUDDY; COMMITMENT

摘要

Although there is a relatively large literature on escalating commitment, almost all the research it describes has concerned individuals rather than organizations. Therefore, to provide additional grounding for an organizational theory of escalation, we examined the Long Island Lighting Company's decision to build and operate the Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant. Shoreham's cost, estimated to be $75 million when the project was announced in 1966, rose over the next 23 years to over $5 billion. A negotiated agreement with New York State finally resulted in Long Island Lighting's abandoning Shoreham without its ever having begun operation. Examination of the Shoreham decision provided support for a temporal model of escalation and helped us develop new theory on how escalation episodes may ultimately be resolved.