GAME THEORY APPLIED IN
MANAGERS' DECISION-MAKING PROCESSES

Let’s start with a simple idea: people make decisions all the time — in business, in negotiations, in everyday life. But how do we understand why they choose what they choose, especially when others are involved?

That’s where game theory and behavioural economics come in. Game theory looks at strategic interactions — how rational individuals make decisions when their outcomes depend on what others do. It’s rooted in mathematics and economics, and it gave us powerful tools like Nash equilibrium, which helps predict how people might behave in competitive or cooperative situations. But here’s the catch: real people aren’t always perfectly rational. That’s where behavioural economics steps in. It asks: What happens when emotions, biases, and mental shortcuts influence our decisions? Think of concepts like loss aversion or decision-making under uncertainty — introduced by Kahneman and Tversky — which show that we often don’t behave the way classical models expect us to.

When we combine game theories with behavioural economics, we get a much richer understanding of how people actually make decisions — especially in strategic settings like negotiations, auctions, or leadership. In this workshop, we’ll explore how these two fields intersect, and how they can help us better understand and influence decision-making in real-world business environments.

Game theory provides a rigorous language to analyse strategic interactions where outcomes depend on the decisions of multiple actors – competitors, partners, customers, regulators, and internal stakeholders. It equips managers with tools to anticipate reactions, design credible commitments, and navigate competition and cooperation. In practice, many executive decisions (pricing, capacity, entry/exit, product launches, negotiations, procurement, platforms, and ecosystems) are interdependent. Understanding static, dynamic, and Bayesian games helps leaders move from intuition to structured, evidence‑based strategy.

For the Behavioural Economics side, the lecturer will raise awareness of the fact that Irrational decision-making is a widespread phenomenon among people: clients, business partners, and employees, helping the participants understand why people behave irrationally (Automatic vs. Reflexive system of thinking) while guiding them to understand the most frequent 5 cognitive biases that occur during the decision-making process.

Once the cognitive biases are known, the course introduces the fundamentals of static (simultaneous‑move), dynamic (sequential‑move), and Bayesian (incomplete‑ information) games, with continuous links to managerial applications. Simple classroom games and simulations will be used to internalize concepts and to connect theory with decision playbooks for executives.

We will analyse equilibria and comparative statics, and translate insights into actionable moves for pricing, market entry, capacity and investment, partnerships, procurement, and marketing signalling.

Mathematics is kept to essentials; emphasis is on interpretation and use. Topics will include individual decision-making foundations and, especially, strategic decision-making among multiple actors.

As for foundations and static games (normal form), we will focus on:

• Dominance, best responses, Nash equilibrium (pure and mixed); comparative statics.
• Competitive strategies: price vs. quantity competition (Bertrand and Cournot basics); horizontal differentiation (Hotelling intuition).
• Strategic complements/substitutes; network effects; simple applications to pricing, promotions, and capacity choices.

As for dynamic games (extensive form), we will focus on:

• Sequential moves and backward induction; subgame perfection.
• Commitment, credibility, and reputation; entry deterrence (capacity, limit pricing) and predation myths.
• Repeated interaction: cooperation and punishment; relational contracts with customers and suppliers.

As for Bayesian games (incomplete information), we will focus on:

• Types, beliefs, and Bayes‑Nash equilibrium; belief updates.
• Signalling and screening: quality signalling (warranties, pricing), targeted offers, and information design in marketing.
• Procurement and negotiations: auctions at a glance (first‑price/second‑price), reserve prices; supplier selection and scoring rules.

In each of the six slots of the course:

a) we will introduce a specific executive problem and run a simple classroom game/simulation targeting this problem (ad hoc software will be used for this purpose).
b) we will introduce and analyse the theoretical model that the classroom activity was aimed at testing.
c) we will analyse the results and check whether the evidence confirms or rejects the theoretical predictions; if needed, we will refine the model or assumptions.
d) we will discuss the implications of the results for managerial practice. Groups will prepare a short executive note and a brief oral presentation to the class.

The interaction between the lecturer and the participants attending the course will be fundamental in bridging theory and practice in terms of strategic decision‑making at management level.

Giuseppe Attanasi is Full Professor of Economics at Sapienza University of Rome and Director of the CIMEO (Sapienza Experimental Economics Lab). Professor Attanasi does research on decision making under risk and uncertainty, and strategic behaviour in presence of social preferences while publishing on topics such as Decision Theory, Game Theory and Experimental Economics, with applications to Economics of Innovation, Cultural Economics, Financial Economics, Public Economics, and Environmental Economics. He will be traveling to Cluj specially for this workshop.

Dr. Alin T. Băiescu, MBA is a top executive in the financial area, founder of the Behavioural Economics HUB, and also professor of Behavioural Economics. He is Module Leader of the Economics Module for the Executive MBA of University of Buckingham programme delivered in Romania, Associate Professor at Babeș-Bolyai University, and Programme Director of the Behavioural Economics in Practice Executive Training at TEE. Dr. Băiescu is licensed in two methodologies for changing behaviours in organisations: BCW™ (Behaviour Change Wheel, University College London, UK), and BASIC©™ (iNUDGEyou, DK).

• Dates: 21-22 November
• Schedule: Friday and Saturday from 9.00 am to 4.00 pm (coffee and lunch break included in the schedule)
• Location: Accesa HQ, Cluj-Napoca
• 15 places available

Standard fee: 375 euros + VAT

TEE Community fee: 275 euros + VAT (applied to TEE alumni)

REGISTRATION OPEN UNTIL 5TH OF NOVEMBER 2025!