2000 words Write-up about Managerial Decision Making

Part I: Descriptive

Evaluate the decision making described in this case. Focus on the following four questions (but some sections will be longer than others).

1. Analyze King’s customer experience using course concepts. What makes their free-to-play games so successful? NOTE: Talk about the psychology from the players’ perspective.
2. Analyze the strengths in King’s decision making process, and what decision errors or biases these strengths reduced or eliminated. NOTE: Parts B & C are about organizational decisions, not about customer psychology.
3. Analyze the weaknesses in King’s decision making process (errors, biases, etc.). Be specific about identifying the psychological drivers underlying these shortcomings.
4. What are the psychological factors influencing Zacconi’s decision to accept Activision’s acquisition offer? NOTE: The actual decision is irrelevant. I’m only interested in what influenced his decision. (HINT: This is mostly found on p.1 & 9).

Part II: Prescriptive

Based on your Part I analyses, how can King Digital improve their decision making?

1. Suggest one or two prescriptions that would help a company like King make better decisions in such situations (these should flow from Part I—this is not the place to introduce new weaknesses). Be as specific as possible about what you would do and what biases or errors you are trying to combat. Be concrete about how these prescription(s) would be implemented. Consider the costs (money, time, and psychological) associated with your suggested changes and be realistic. Please be creative here, but justify your prescriptions using concepts only from this class.
2. Be aware that executives may not be particularly receptive to these prescriptions. What are the psychological sources of resistance? How might being acquired by Activision help overcome the resistance or make it worse?