Abstract:Whether decision makers are inclined to be risk-taking or risk averse when firm performance is be-low the level of aspiration is still an unsolved issue． This article incorporates decision makers’perceived com-petence and motivations into the model of decision making，which indicates that the risk-taking behavior is a result of interaction of perceived competence with motivations． Simultaneously，such interaction is constrained by organizational slack and competitive threats． Based on data of Chinese private listed companies，several main conclusions are drawn． Firstly，the relationship between negative attainment discrepancy and Ｒ＆D in-vestments is rise-fall reverse U-shaped，which is caused by both the motivation and competence in the poor performance situation． Secondly，organizational slack has significant positive moderating effects，that is，a-bundant organizational slack increases firm’s Ｒ＆D expenditures． Thirdly，competitive threats have negative moderating effects on the relationship between negative attainment discrepancy and Ｒ＆D investments，which means that a decision maker is more likely to reduce Ｒ＆D investments when a firm suffers from more external competitive threats． Finally，organizational slack and competitive threat change both the curvature and slope of the curvilinear relationship between negative attainment discrepancies and Ｒ＆D investments．