Organizational decision-making is inherently goal-oriented, driven by the pursuit of performance targets, and thus influenced by performance feedback. While existing research has extensively examined how organizations take risks in response to feedback relative to their aspirations, the impact of such responsiveness on goal accomplishment and final performance has been underexplored. This study addresses this important gap by analyzing sports data that offers precise measures of responsiveness to performance feedback, goal accomplishment, and final performance. Consistent with our theory, our findings reveal that decision-makers are generally risk-averse and tend to under-respond to negative performance feedback. This is, teams displaying stronger responses to negative feedback not only improve their chances of goal accomplishment but also achieve superior final performance. Our theory and findings contribute significantly to research on risk-taking and performance feedback.
