Zur Shapira
Elizabeth Boyle

We examine risk taking in dynamic competitive situations that require decision makers to evaluate their own and their competitors’ positions over time. We hypothesize that performance aspiration and survival targets guide risk-taking behavior in competitive situations but that under certain situations focusing continuously on one target may lead to the selection of inferior competitive strategies. We also hypothesize that the newness of resource accumulation and decision makers’ confidence in their own abilities affect the amount of risk they take. We analyze data from a realistic competitive risk taking setting, the Jeopardy! game show. The analyses provide support for the proposed framework and reveal some differences in between those who lead the competition and those who trail them.