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The Escalation of Commitment to a Course of Action
Abstract
There are many instances in which individuals can become locked into a costly course of action. Because it is often possible for persons who have suffered a setback to recoup their losses through an even greater commitment of resources to the same course of action, a cycle of escalating commitment can be produced. In this paper, I review recent research on the escalation of commitment and try to integrate its complex and often conflicting determinants.
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“To legitimize their large augmentation investments, organizations experiencing failure may be tempted to reinforce their augmentation efforts further, which could escalate their commitment (Sabherwal & Jeyaraj, 2015;Staw, 1981), with failure leading to continued augmentation, in turn leading to continued failure.”
From Artificial Intelligence and Management: The Automation–Augmentation Paradox (2021) · cites this paper as Staw, 1981
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References 42 · Cited by 1,693
Metadata
- Authors
- Staw, B. M.
- Affiliations
- University of California, Berkeley (US)
- Corresponding author
- Staw, Barry M.
- Venue
- The Academy of Management Review
- Publisher
- Academy of Management
- Published
- 1981-10
- Volume
- 6
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 577
- ISSN
- 0363-7425 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2171507395
- Cited by
- 1,693
- References
- 42
- Citations by year
- 2026: 35 · 2025: 37 · 2024: 43 · 2023: 40 · 2022: 64 · 2021: 81 · 2020: 48 · 2019: 62 · 2018: 58 · 2017: 61 · 2016: 63 · 2015: 60 · 2014: 81 · 2013: 78 · 2012: 78
- FWCI
- 3.67
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Academy of Management Review (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › General Decision Sciences › Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Leadership, Behavior, and Decision-Making Studies
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies
- Keywords
- escalation of commitment, sunk costs, loss aversion, decision-making, sunk cost bias, behavioral factors
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- CoChat. (2026). Citation check: The Escalation of Commitment to a Course of Action. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.5465/amr.1981.4285694
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- Staw, B. M. (1981). The Escalation of Commitment to a Course of Action. The Academy of Management Review. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1981.4285694
