The Role of Affect in Management Decisions: A Systematic Review

Since the birth of the bounded rationality concept, scholars have been increasingly involved in identi- fying how management decisions are made; identifying the role played by affect has been a crucial part of the mission. However, despite the recent hype in the number of researches published on this theme e that has been carried into the new definition of bounded emotionality e a systematisation of those contributions able to identify the different functions played by different affective states is still lacking. This review article aims to fill this gap. The implemented methodology is the Systematic Literature Review. A total of 123 articles have been analysed through a descriptive as well as a thematic approach; the latter has followed a mixed inductive-deductive method. Results of the thematic analysis show six distinct functions played by affect in management decisions, offering an updated framework. The pro- posed model explains how affect influences management decisions on the basis of co-evolutionary mechanisms. The value of this work lies in offering a model of the functions played by affect in man- agement decisions, which is pivotal for designing a firm's informed decision architecture. Furthermore, it is the first review on this theme to adopt a scientific approach and an established psychological framework for, respectively, the systematisation and analysis of the contributions.