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Jelena Cer­ar

Postdoc

Subjects
Decision-making Management Strategy Artificial intelligence Quantitative methods Methodology

Primary research areas

Ma­na­geri­al AI Re­li­ance
I study when and why man­agers rely on or re­ject AI-gen­er­ated ad­vice. My work ex­am­ines cog­nit­ive, emo­tion­al, and con­tex­tu­al factors that shape hu­man–AI col­lab­or­a­tion, es­pe­cially in com­plex or multi-stage de­cision set­tings.
Cog­ni­tion in Stra­tegic De­cision-Mak­ing
My re­search fo­cuses on how cog­nit­ive pro­cesses—such as men­tal work­load, cog­nit­ive dis­son­ance, and ex­haus­tion—in­flu­ence ma­na­geri­al judg­ments. I in­vest­ig­ate how these pro­cesses in­ter­act with di­git­al tools and shape stra­tegic choices.
AI-Aug­men­ted De­cision Pro­cesses
I ex­plore how AI sys­tems re­shape de­cision pro­cesses, from prob­lem for­mu­la­tion to eval­u­ation and ex­e­cu­tion.
Quant­it­at­ive and Ex­per­i­ment­al Meth­ods in IB
I ex­am­ine meth­od­o­lo­gic­al chal­lenges in in­ter­na­tion­al busi­ness re­search, with a fo­cus on ex­per­i­ment­al designs.
VR and Be­ha­vi­our­al Change
I ex­plore how im­mers­ive vir­tu­al real­ity en­vir­on­ments can shape ma­na­geri­al be­ha­viour.

I ex­plore how AI is chan­ging stra­tegic de­cision-mak­ing, one ex­per­i­ment at a time

My research examines how AI reshapes managerial decision-making and problem-solving. I use mainly lab and field experiments to explore when managers rely on AI, why they sometimes resist it, and how cognitive mechanisms—such as workload or dissonance—shape these choices. 

I also work on advancing quantitative and experimental research methods in international business. As Vice-President Communications and Board Member of the AIB Research Methods SIG and a member of the AOM IM Research Methods Committee, I contribute to building a stronger methodological foundation for IB scholarship. 

Beyond research, I collaborate with organizations and policymakers on projects involving AI adoption, problem-solving capabilities, and behavioral change related to diversity and inclusion. My goal is to help companies and societies benefit from technological change by understanding how people think, decide, and adapt in increasingly digital environments.

PUB­LIC­A­TIONS

  • Cerar, J. 2024. From Insight to Impact: The Power of Experimentation in Multinational Corporations. AIB Insights, 25(1)
     
  • Cerar, J., Decreton, B., & Nell, P. C. 2022. What’s in a name? How Senior Managers Use Name-Based Heuristics to Allocate Financial Resources in Multinational Corporations. Journal of Management Studies. 60 (5), 1147-1177.
     
  • Cerar, J., Nell, P. C., & Reiche, S. 2021. The Declining Share of Primary Data and the Neglect of the Individual Level in International Business Research. Journal of International Business Studies. 52, 1365-1374. 

Recent research projects

Ma­na­geri­al AI Re­li­ance in Multi-De­cision Con­texts: The In­ter­play of Cog­nit­ive Dis­son­ance and An­ti­cip­ated Work­load

I de­vel­op and test a mod­el that com­bines cog­nit­ive dis­son­ance, an­ti­cip­ated work­load, and para­dox the­ory to ex­plain how ma­na­geri­al AI re­li­ance de­cisions evolve over the course of a multi-de­cision ses­sion. This frame­work ad­dresses a core lim­it­a­tion in pri­or re­search, which has typ­ic­ally treated AI re­li­ance as a series of isol­ated choices, over­look­ing the cu­mu­lat­ive and dy­nam­ic psy­cho­lo­gic­al pres­sures that un­fold across re­peated de­cisions.

Na­tion­al Cul­ture and AI re­li­ance in AI-aug­men­ted de­cision-mak­ing

This pro­ject in­vest­ig­ates the im­pact of na­tion­al cul­ture and na­tion­al gov­ern­ment on AI re­li­ance in aug­men­ted stra­tegic de­cision-mak­ing

Im­pact of GenAI Use and Hier­arch­ic­al In­teg­ra­tion Train­ing on Prob­lem-Solv­ing in Or­gan­iz­a­tion­al Hier­arch­ies

This pro­ject ex­plores two dis­tinct path­ways for im­prov­ing prob­lem-solv­ing in or­gan­iz­a­tion­al hier­arch­ies: hier­arch­ic­al in­teg­ra­tion train­ing and gen­er­at­ive AI use.

Ex­per­i­ment­al Design in In­ter­na­tion­al Busi­ness Re­search

Ex­per­i­ments are in­creas­ingly re­cog­nized as a power­ful meth­od for es­tab­lish­ing caus­al in­fer­ence in in­ter­na­tion­al busi­ness (IB), yet their ad­op­tion has long lagged be­hind oth­er man­age­ment fields. Re­spond­ing to calls for more ex­per­i­ment­al work, we con­duct the first com­pre­hens­ive meth­od­o­lo­gic­al re­view of IB ex­per­i­ments, provide an IB-spe­cif­ic design guide to ad­dress these chal­lenges, il­lus­trate how ex­per­i­ments can strengthen the­ory build­ing in cross-bor­der con­texts, and out­line op­por­tun­it­ies for im­pact­ful fu­ture re­search at the in­ter­sec­tion of IB and ex­per­i­ment­al meth­ods.

Outside activities

As­sist­ant Pro­fess­or , 2020 - on­go­ing

As­sist­ant Pro­fess­or (ten­ure track) at WU Vi­enna
My profile at WU