A stream of research in sustainable operations and supply chain management highlights that while sustainability initiatives aim to deliver clear social and environmental benefits, they often result in unexpected outcomes, trade-offs, and tensions that deviate from their original goals. This paper examines how these problems can arise by focusing on individual cognitive factors in managerial decision-making. Managers frequently operate in complex environments marked by limited information and high uncertainty, where cognitive limitations play a pivotal role in shaping their choices. Specifically, we investigate whether and how cognitive biases – anchoring, status quo, and herd effect – impact decision-making in the critical context of sustainable sourcing. Through scenario-based role-playing experiments conducted with graduate and MBA students, we demonstrate that these biases significantly influence sustainable sourcing decisions, shaping how individuals evaluate options and make strategic choices. This study contributes to theory by applying cognitive bias frameworks to sustainable sourcing, bridging gaps between behavioral and sustainable operations research. On a practical level, it underscores the importance of increasing managers’ awareness of biases and adopting structured decision-making protocols to better align their choices with long-term sustainability goals.
