Our basic research question is: What are the implications of applying a narrow focus – as opposed to a broad focus – in experiential learning? Conventionally, organizational learning theories lean towards persistent search for superior policies within a given, well-specified context. We argue that learning can also facilitate identification of robust strategies essential for navigating new, unchartered environments. To address this challenge, we develop a model where the agent’s attentional focus endogenously narrows down during the learning process. This model of narrow-focused learning is compared to a broad-focused approach where all relevant dimensions of the learning problem are included. Our results show that agents with a narrow focus have a notable short-term advantage over those with a broader focus. This short-term advantage is achieved even though the narrow-focused approach excludes relevant cognitive dimensions, and therefore is less accurate. We apply our model to a classical multitasking problem and confirm our basic results. We also examine the implications of the model in a competitive setting and show that the narrow-focused agent’s short-term advantage can even be sustained in the long run. Our approach addresses a neglected aspect of bounded rationality as it highlights that adapting the dimensions of a search problem is a critical aspect of organizational learning. Broader implications of this insight and our results are drawn for the study of organizational search and learning.
