105 research outputs found
An Agent-Based Representation of the Garbage Can Model of Organizational Choice
Cohen, March and Olsen\'s Garbage Can Model (GCM) of organizational choice represent perhaps the first â and remains by far the most influential âagent-based representation of organizational decision processes. According to the GCM organizations are conceptualized as crossroads of time-dependent flows of four distinct classes of objects: \'participants,\' \'opportunities,\' \'solutions\' and \'problems.\' Collisions among the different objects generate events called \'decisions.\' In this paper we use NetLogo to build an explicit agent-based representation of the original GCM. We conduct a series of simulation experiments to validate and extend some of the most interesting conclusions of the GCM. We show that our representation is able to reproduce a number of properties of the original model. Yet, unlike the original model, in our representation these properties are not encoded explicitly, but emerge from general principles of the Garbage Can decision processes.Organization Theory, Garbage Can Model, Agent-Based Modelling
Different trajectories of industrial evolution : demographical turnover in the European motorcycle industry, 1885-1993
Technological innovation is widely considered as one of the most influential determinants of industry evolution. Along this line of inquiry, the seminal work of Tushman and Anderson (1986) presents one of the most compelling theoretical argumentations. Yet, the empirical support for their theory has been relatively weak, and an academic agreement is still lacking about the long-term consequences of technological innovation for the demographic composition of industries. This paper uses the information collected on 1,906 manufacturers during the period 1895 and 1993, to investigate the influence of technological innovation on the evolution of four different organizational populations - i.e. Great Britain, Germany, France and Italy. The findings of this research only partially agree with the theory. Our results show that, while innovations promoted entries, incumbent firms survived to environmental changes. The implications of this work are related to the literatures of strategic management and population ecology.
Relational hyperevent models for polyadic interaction networks
Polyadic, or "multicast" social interaction networks arise when one sender
addresses multiple receivers simultaneously. Currently available relational
event models (REM) are not well suited to the analysis of polyadic interaction
networks because they specify event rates for sets of receivers as functions of
dyadic covariates associated with the sender and one receiver at a time.
Relational hyperevent models (RHEM) address this problem by specifying event
rates as functions of hyperedge covariates associated with the sender and the
entire set of receivers. For instance, hyperedge covariates can express the
tendency of senders to repeatedly address the same pairs (or larger sets) of
receivers - a simple and frequent pattern in polyadic interaction data which,
however, cannot be expressed with dyadic covariates. In this article we
demonstrate the potential benefits of RHEMs for the analysis of polyadic social
interaction. We define and discuss practically relevant effects that are not
available for REMs but may be incorporated in empirical specifications of RHEM.
We illustrate the empirical value of RHEM, and compare them with related REM,
in a reanalysis of the canonical Enron email data
Three essays on problem-solving in collaborative open productions
The term âopen productionâ is frequently used to describe production systems that rely on volunteer participants who are willing to participate, produce, and bear private costs in order to provide a public good. Examples of open production are becoming increasingly common in many industries. What make these productions possible? How may they be sustained in a world of organizations in which the evolutionary products of economic selection are elaborate hierarchical forms of organization? One way to address these questions is to look at how open productions solve problems that are common to all production organizations such as, for example, problems in the division of labor, allocation of tasks, collaboration, coordination, and maintaining balance between inducement and contributions. Under the conditions of extreme decentralization that are the defining feature of open productions, this approach implies a detailed observation of individual problem solving practices. This is the approach I develop in my dissertation. Unlike much of the prior literature on open productions, I deemphasize motivational elements, status-seeking motives, and allocation of property rights issues. I focus instead on actual work practices as revealed by the day-by-day problem solving activities that qualify open productions projects as production organizations despite the absence of formal contractual arrangements to regulate principal-agent relations. What my work adds to the extensive, informative, and well-developed discipline-based explanations that are currently available, is a focus on the emergence of micro-organizational mechanisms through which problem assignment (Chapter 2), problem resolution (Chapter 3), and sustained participation (Chapter 4) are obtained in open productions. In my essays, I draw from organizational sociology and the behavioral theory of the firm to specify models that relate individual problem-solving activities to structured patterns of action through emergent work practices. In the models that I specify and test, I emphasize processes of attention allocation (Chapter 2), repeated collaboration and group diversity (Chapter 3) and identity construction (Chapter 4) as central to our understanding of the dynamics of problem-solving in organizations. One element of novelty in my study is that my research design makes these work practices directly observable at a level of detail, completeness, and precision that was inaccessible in the past. To illustrate the empirical value of the view that I develop I examine problem-solving activities â i.e., bug fixing and code production â within two Free/Open Source Software (F/OSS) projects during their entire life span. Readers of my work will know more about how organizational micro-mechanisms emerge in open productions
The Network Structure of Successful Collaboration in Wikipedia
Wikipedia is one of the largest and most successful examples of decentralized peer-production systems currently in existence. Yet, the quality of Wikipedia articles varies widely with articles considered of encyclopedic quality (called featured articles) representing less than 0.1 percent of all articles. In this paper, we examine how article quality varies as a function of the network mechanisms that control the interaction among contributors. More specifically, we compare the network mechanisms underlying the production of the complete set of featured articles, with the network mechanisms of a contrasting sample of comparable non-featured articles in the English-language edition of Wikipedia. Estimates of relational event models suggest that contributors to featured articles display greater deference toward the reputation of their team members. Contributors to featured articles also display a weaker tendency to follow the behavioral norms predicted by the theory of structural balance, and hence a weaker tendency toward polarization
Clientsâ outcomes from providersâ networks: the role of relational exclusivity and complementary capabilities
Organizations have leeway in how much they employ their network relations to the benefit of their clients. When do they do so more rather than less? Relying on research on trust and knowledge absorption, the authors suggest that providersâ network relations generate better outcomes for their clients when these relations are concentrated in a limited, exclusive set of partners. The authors argue that providersâ relational exclusivity benefits clients because it facilitates the awareness and use of partnersâ complementary client service capabilities. An analysis of a regional network of patient referrals among 110 hospitals supported this argument. The study highlights the role of interorganizational partnership networks in activating client service capabilities and stimulates further inquiry into providersâ network features that benefit the users of their services
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