Summary

Managerial decisions in firms are influenced by the availability and precision of information. This thesis explores the internal information environment of firms through three separate investigations. Chapter 2 investigates the impact of symbolic rewards and performance transparency on managers' task assignment decisions. The study reveals that while managers' task assignment decisions are influenced by the possibility of offering symbolic rewards, they are not affected by the level of performance transparency in the firm. Chapter 3 examines the combined effect of information availability and feedback frequency on performance in a multitasking environment. The study finds that informing employees about future tasks reduces their attention and lowers their performance on current tasks. However, frequent performance feedback helps mitigate this negative effect. Chapter 4 investigates how the source of knowledge and status incentives impact managers' knowledge transfer decisions in multi-unit firms. It explores whether sourcing knowledge internally or externally influences these decisions due to psychological ownership. Contrary to the prediction, the findings show that managers do not have a stronger sense of psychological ownership for internal knowledge nor are they less willing to transfer it compared to external knowledge. However, offering status incentives, such as awards, increases managers' willingness to transfer both internal and external knowledge to other business units.