The Effect of Recognizing Managers' Behavioral Biases on Company Life Cycle Patterns; Using the Gray Analytic Hierarchy Process

The sustainable growth and development of the capital market has always been considered as one of the strategies of countries to create economic stability. However, the existence of behavioral biases in decision-making in the capital market has made this market less productive, especially in developing countries, and has posed problems, such as inefficiency of macro-level investment and the existence of micro-level financial constraints in a competitive market. Accordingly, the present study aims to investigate the effect of recognizing managers' behavioral biases on Company life cycle models through the gray analytic hierarchy process. The research methodology is hybrid. In the first step, meta-synthesis analysis with the participation of 18 academic experts is used to identify the components of managers' behavioral biases. Then, the identified indicators are examined through Delphi analysis and out of a total of 51 identified indicators, 26 indicators are finally approved. In Delphi analysis, the identified components are examined and it is found that recognizing the CEO's utilitarian behavioral biases can lead to an increase in the Company life cycle. Then, in the quantitative part, hypotheses are formulated according to the results of the qualitative part. In this regard, 101 companies have been investigated from 2012 to 2019 and the results show that the management of real and accrued profits has a negative and significant impact on Company life cycle.