Using Perspective Taking to De-Escalate Commitment to Software Product Launch Decisions

In software product development settings when things go awry and the original plan loses credibility, managers often choose to honor the originally announced product launch schedule anyway, in effect launching a product that may be seriously compromised in terms of both functionality and reliability. In this study, we draw on the perspective of escalation of commitment to investigate adherence to original product launch schedules despite negative feedback. Specifically, we use the notion of perspective taking to propose a de-escalation tactic. Through a laboratory experiment, we found strong support that taking the perspective of individuals that can be negatively influenced by a product launch can indeed effectively promote de-escalation of commitment. Furthermore, we found that the experiences of anticipated guilt mediate the relationship between perspective taking and de-escalation, and this indirect effect is significantly greater when a decision maker’s personal cost associated with deescalation is high rather than low.