Fictional expectations in economic organizations. A case study in the banking industry

Abstract

This paper analyzes the decision-making process in financial institutions through a case study of a cooperative bank in the Canary Islands facing a merger. Following the fictional expectations approach (Beckert, 2013), we studied the published information and a participant observation of one of the decision-making assemblies. The results suggest that in conditions of uncertainty, when it is not possible to foreknow all the options, or to precisely estimate their probability, decisions are made on the basis of their contribution to building a fiction which is consistent with the reference frameworks. In order to gain further knowledge of these processes it is suggested that the sources of credibility of the reference frameworks should be further analyzed.