This research aims to investigate organizational commitment in the investment decision-makingprocess around the themes of escalation, de-escalation and strategicc ontrol. This research involves a synergic chain of various methods such as narrative review, meta-analytical synthesis, archivalanalysis, case study, field experiment, and survey. The research per se follows the COAI design (i.e.conceptualization, operationalization, actualization and idealization) and goes through eight stages (i.e.8Cs): conceiving, contriving, controlling, co-or'dinating, calibrating, conducting, collecting, andconcentering the research. The results of the review of previous research on escalation of commitmentin the investment decision-making context reveal that the literature on the escalation and de-escalationof organizational commitment is discrete and quantitatively focused. The results of the meta-analyticalsynthesis of the escalating commitment literatures confirm that the escalating commitment literature isinconsistent. The results of the longitudinal case study via participant observation reveal that escalatingcommitment can originate from, inter alia, psychological, strategic, operational, social, political,institutional, ideological. and environmental dilemmas and that the processes can be cyclicallyinterweaved by varying conflicting perceived utilities including, those of experimenting, persisting,time-biding, and withdrawing. The results of two field experiments reveal that, contrary to earlierresearch, the higher the sunk costs the less likely investment decision-makers are to authorize funds tocontinue with the string of investments and the lower their estimates are of the likelihood that the nextinvestment will be productive. The results of the survey by means of semi-structured interview providea statistical confirmation of the relevance of a conceptualized process model of strategic control andreveal that the Chinese general managers interviewed ascribed a higher level of importance to theidealization phase of strategic control and exposed some discernible weaknesses in the process ofstrategic control. The research concludes with an explanation of the role of strategic control overinvestments and with a tentative framework for the practical strategic control of investments. Thisresearch recommends that future practice should focus on the effective management of investments ina way which integrates differing rationalities in the full organizational context; it should address thedynamics of organizational commitment in a broader way which covers, inter alia, economic,psychological, political, operational, environmental, social, cultural and institutional perspectives; andit should emphasize both external and internal strategic control factors inherent in the decision-makingprocess in a manner which echoes the principle of unity. It is also recommended that future researchshould include new research inquiry systems, new research frameworks, new research techniques, andnew research dimensions in both the laboratory (e. g. virtual reality) and the real world settings (e. g.longitudinal observation and cross-cultural comparative studies).
