Engineering Better Decisions: Exploring Influencing Factors - An Empirical Study

Good decision-making is crucial in product development, particularly during early phases where decisions significantly impact subsequent processes. Previously, the authors identified influencing factors for decisions in the context of product development, including nudges through an extensive literature review. This study focuses on analyzing the improvement in decision quality. Two empirical studies were conducted to investigate the targeted influence of decision-making behavior in product development using influencing factors from behavioral economics. 10 out of 12 identified influencing factors demonstrated potential positive effects in influencing decision-making behavior and fulfilling identified framework conditions, such as unconstrained, transparent, and ethically justifiable use.