Causal attribution of company success by the external observer
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14659/PJOEP.2012.01.02Abstract
The aim of the experimental study was to investigate the speci"city of the proc-esses of causal attributions for corporate performance which is perceived by the external observer as a success. e sample consisted of 427 students aged from 19 to 27, 51.0% of whom were women and 49.0% were men. e experiment was conducted using eight cases of positive corporate outcomes, described on the basis of content analysis of press articles and television news. 4-ANOVA revealed that the three sources of information about an event that were distinguished by Kelley (Consensus, Distinctiveness, and Consistency) in0uence the direction of attributions of positive outcomes, but their signi"cance varies. e study con"rmed the truth of the ideal data pattern indicating attribution to company but did not con"rm the e1ectiveness of predicting based on the remaining ideal patterns (an attribution to object or context). However, the study allowed to identify a di1er-ent pattern resulting in situational attribution. Additionally, directions for further research on causal inference for corporate performance were delineated.References
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