How myopic are managers? Development and validation of a multidimensional strategic myopia scale

Abstract

The myopia metaphor has a long and fruitful history of application in management literature. Initially proposed to explain business failure associated with managerial cognition shortcomings, managerial myopia spawned across management and strategy literature, and significantly influenced behavioural streams of research. Despite, or possibly due to this fragmented multiple use, the myopia construct has not so far seen a formal definition, nor a useful measurement scale. Using data from two focus group interviews, followed by validation on three samples of managers (N = 21; 122; 658), we develop a measurement scale for strategic myopia. We establish the dimensionality of the construct, involving competitive, cooperative, temporal, and learning myopia, and validate a parsimonious scale of 16 items. Our scale may be useful both for further theory testing and for self-evaluation of managers, as well as evaluation of management teams’ myopia profiles, thus supporting related decisions on how to shape team diversity.