Memory objects in project environments: Storing, retrieving and adapting learning in project-based firms

This paper investigates the role of objects holding representations of knowledge in the transfer of learning across projects. On the basis of an in-depth case study, this paper shows that the way in which relatively simple artifacts, such as Excel workbooks, represent knowledge enables them to act as boundary objects across occupations and as memory devices across projects. It is the temporal capacity of these boundary objects that makes them points of juncture in a widely distributed memory system, enabling project-based firms to balance preservation and adaptation of knowledge. The mechanisms for the preservation of learning are not missing from project environments, rather they are less visible and less direct than in other settings, and therefore less docile in the face of managerial action

The long and winding road: Routine creation and replication in multi-site organizations

Prior research on organizational routines in the ‘capabilities’ literature has either studied how new routines are created during an exploratory process of variation and selection or how existing routines are replicated during a phase of exploitation. Few studies have analyzed the life cycle of new routine creation and replication as an integrated process. In an in-depth case study of England’s Highways Agency, this paper shows that the creation and replication of a new routine across multiple sites involves four sequential steps: envisioning, experimenting, entrenching and enacting. We contribute to the capabilities research in two ways: first, by showing how different organizational levels, capabilities and logics (cognitive and behavioural) shape the development of new routines; and second, by identifying how distinct evolutionary cycles of variation and selective retention occur during each step in the process. In contrast with prior research on replication as an exact copy of a template or existing routine, our study focuses on the replication of an entirely new routine (based on novel principles) that is adapted to fit local operational conditions during its large-scale replication across multiple sites. We draw upon insights from adjacent ‘practice research’ and suggest how capabilities and practice studies may complement each other in future research on the evolution of routines

Classical theta constants vs. lattice theta series, and super string partition functions

Recently, various possible expressions for the vacuum-to-vacuum superstring amplitudes has been proposed at genus $g=3,4,5$. To compare the different proposals, here we will present a careful analysis of the comparison between the two main technical tools adopted to realize the proposals: the classical theta constants and the lattice theta series. We compute the relevant Fourier coefficients in order to relate the two spaces. We will prove the equivalence up to genus 4. In genus five we will show that the solutions are equivalent modulo the Schottky form and coincide if we impose the vanishing of the cosmological constant.Comment: 21 page

Genus four superstring measures

A main issue in superstring theory are the superstring measures. D'Hoker and Phong showed that for genus two these reduce to measures on the moduli space of curves which are determined by modular forms of weight eight and the bosonic measure. They also suggested a generalisation to higher genus. We showed that their approach works, with a minor modification, in genus three and we announced a positive result also in genus four. Here we give the modular form in genus four explicitly. Recently S. Grushevsky published this result as part of a more general approach.Comment: 7 pages. To appear in Letters in Mathematical Physic

Eluding SUSY at every genus on stable closed string vacua

In closed string vacua, ergodicity of unipotent flows provide a key for relating vacuum stability to the UV behavior of spectra and interactions. Infrared finiteness at all genera in perturbation theory can be rephrased in terms of cancelations involving only tree-level closed strings scattering amplitudes. This provides quantitative results on the allowed deviations from supersymmetry on perturbative stable vacua. From a mathematical perspective, diagrammatic relations involving closed string amplitudes suggest a relevance of unipotent flows dynamics for the Schottky problem and for the construction of the superstring measure.Comment: v2, 17 pages, 8 figures, typos corrected, new figure added with 3 modular images of long horocycles,(obtained with Mathematica

Equidistribution Rates, Closed String Amplitudes, and the Riemann Hypothesis

We study asymptotic relations connecting unipotent averages of $Sp(2g,\mathbb{Z})$ automorphic forms to their integrals over the moduli space of principally polarized abelian varieties. We obtain reformulations of the Riemann hypothesis as a class of problems concerning the computation of the equidistribution convergence rate in those asymptotic relations. We discuss applications of our results to closed string amplitudes. Remarkably, the Riemann hypothesis can be rephrased in terms of ultraviolet relations occurring in perturbative closed string theory.Comment: 15 page

The multiplicity of habit: Implications for routines research

This chapter explores habit as a foundational concept for routines research. The authors examine how habit and habitus have been conceptualized in psychology and sociology, giving particular attention to the role of deliberation and mindfulness. Drawing on this work, they develop a typology of habit that is based on the extent of deliberation by the individual performing an activity, and the variability in the conditions in which he or she performs it. The chapter considers the implications of these insights on habit for two central perspectives of organizational routines, the capabilities perspective and the practice perspective, arguing that both can be advanced by closer attention to the idea of routines as interlinked habits

Extending the Belavin-Knizhnik "wonderful formula" by the characterization of the Jacobian

A long-standing question in string theory is to find the explicit expression of the bosonic measure, a crucial issue also in determining the superstring measure. Such a measure was known up to genus three. Belavin and Knizhnik conjectured an expression for genus four which has been proved in the framework of the recently introduced vector-valued Teichmueller modular forms. It turns out that for g>3 the bosonic measure is expressed in terms of such forms. In particular, the genus four Belavin-Knizhnik "wonderful formula" has a remarkable extension to arbitrary genus whose structure is deeply related to the characterization of the Jacobian locus. Furthermore, it turns out that the bosonic string measure has an elegant geometrical interpretation as generating the quadrics in P^{g-1} characterizing the Riemann surface. All this leads to identify forms on the Siegel upper half-space that, if certain conditions related to the characterization of the Jacobian are satisfied, express the bosonic measure as a multiresidue in the Siegel upper half-space. We also suggest that it may exist a super analog on the super Siegel half-space.Comment: 15 pages. Typos corrected, refs. and comments adde

Knowledge transfer across projects: Codification in creative, high-tech and engineering industries

The use of codification to support knowledge transfer across projects has been explored in several recent, and mostly qualitative, studies. Building on that research, this article puts forward hypotheses about the antecedents of knowledge codification, and tests them on a sample of 540 inter-organizational projects carried out in the creative, high-tech and engineering industries. We find that the presence of strong industry norms governing the division of labour discourages knowledge transfer through codification, as suggested by the existing qualitative studies. The presence of a system integrator plays an important role in driving the use of codification for knowledge transfer, to some extent embodying an organizational memory in volatile project environments. Finally, the level of use of administrative control in the project is a robust predictor of attempts to transfer knowledge via codification. When these antecedents are taken into account, the novelty of products and services plays a smaller role than previously found in determining the use of codification

The vanishing of two-point functions for three-loop superstring scattering amplitudes

In this paper we show that the two-point function for the three-loop chiral superstring measure ansatz proposed by Cacciatori, Dalla Piazza, and van Geemen vanishes. Our proof uses the reformulation of ansatz in terms of even cosets, theta functions, and specifically the theory of the $\Gamma_{00}$ linear system on Jacobians introduced by van Geemen and van der Geer. At the two-loop level, where the amplitudes were computed by D'Hoker and Phong, we give a new proof of the vanishing of the two-point function (which was proven by them). We also discuss the possible approaches to proving the vanishing of the two-point function for the proposed ansatz in higher genera