Informational Complexity and the Flow of Knowledge across social boundaries

Scholars from a variety of backgrounds – economists, sociologists, strategists, and students of technology management – have sought a better understanding of why some knowledge disperses widely while other knowledge does not. In this quest, some researchers have focused on the characteristics of the knowledge itself (e.g., Polanyi, 1966; Reed and DeFillippi, 1990; Zander and Kogut, 1995) while others have emphasized the social networks that constrain and enable the flow of knowledge (e.g., Coleman et al., 1957; Davis and Greve, 1997). This chapter examines the interplay between these two factors. Specifically, we consider how the complexity of knowledge and the density of social relations jointly influence the movement of knowledge. Imagine a social network composed of patches of dense connections with sparse interstices between them. The dense patches might reflect firms, for instance, or geographic regions or technical communities. When does knowledge diffuse within these dense patches circumscribed by social boundaries but not beyond them? Synthesizing social network theory with a view of knowledge transfer as a search process, we argue that knowledge inequality across social boundaries should reach its peak when the underlying knowledge is of moderate complexity. To test this hypothesis, we analyze patent data and compare citation rates across three types of social boundaries: within versus outside the firm, geographically near to versus far from the inventor, and internal versus external to the technological class. In all three cases, the disparity in knowledge diffusion across these borders is greatest for knowledge of an intermediate level of complexity.evolutionary economics, informational complexity, knowledge flow, social boundaries

Organizing to Strategize in the Face of Interactions: Preventing Premature Lock-In

Motivated by real examples that run contrary to conventional wisdom, we examine how firms organize themselves to strategize well. Interactions among decisions make strategizing difficult. They raise the spectre that a firm\u27s strategizing efforts will get stuck in a web of conflicting constraints prematurely, before managers explore a wide enough range of possibilities. A key role of organizing is to free strategizing efforts and encourage broad search. At the same time, organizing must ensure that strategizing efforts are stabilized once the firm discovers an effective set of choices. The need to balance search and stability, we argue, is a central challenge of organizing. We explore this challenge with an agent-based simulation of firms that organize to strategize in the face of interactions. The results shed light on our counterintuitive examples. They show why and when firms may benefit from unnecessary overlap between departments; how and when firms can increase firm-wide search by reining in the search efforts of individual managers; and how and when a change in organizational structure — e.g., a shift from decentralization to integration — may reflect an effective sequence of organizing, rather than a reversal of early mistakes. The disparate examples share an underlying logic. The unnecessary overlap, the reining-in of managers, the period of decentralization — all can be seen as organizational mechanisms that help ensure the broad, early search that a firm needs when interactions among strategic decisions raise the danger of locking-in on a strategy prematurely

Resonant switching using spin valves

Using micromagnetics we demonstrate that the r.f. field produced by a spin valve can be used to reverse the magnetization in a magnetic nanoparticle. The r.f. field is generated using a current that specifically excites a uniform spin wave in the spin valve. This current is swept such that the chirped-frequency generated by the valve matches the angular dependent resonant frequency of the anisotropy-dominated magnetic nanoparticle, as a result of which the magnetization reversal occurs. The switching is fast, requires currents similar to those used in recent experiments with spin valves, and is stable with respect to small perturbations. This phenomenon can potentially be employed in magnetic information storage devices or recently discussed magnetic computing schemes

Dynamic magnetic response of infinite arrays of ferromagnetic particles

Recently developed techniques to find the eigenmodes of a ferromagnetic particle of arbitrary shape, as well as the absorption in the presence of an inhomogeneous radio-frequency field, are extended to treat infinite lattices of such particles. The method is applied to analyze the results of recent FMR experiments, and yields substantially good agreement between theory and experiment

Pressure Relief Devices for High-Pressure Gaseous Storage Systems: Applicability to Hydrogen Technology

Pressure relief devices (PRDs) are viewed as essential safety measures for high-pressure gas storage and distribution systems. These devices are used to prevent the over-pressurization of gas storage vessels and distribution equipment, except in the application of certain toxic gases. PRDs play a critical role in the implementation of most high-pressure gas storage systems and anyone working with these devices should understand their function so they can be designed, installed, and maintained properly to prevent any potentially dangerous or fatal incidents. As such, the intention of this report is to introduce the reader to the function of the common types of PRDs currently used in industry. Since high-pressure hydrogen gas storage systems are being developed to support the growing hydrogen energy infrastructure, several recent failure incidents, specifically involving hydrogen, will be examined to demonstrate the results and possible mechanisms of a device failure. The applicable codes and standards, developed to minimize the risk of failure for PRDs, will also be reviewed. Finally, because PRDs are a critical component for the development of a successful hydrogen energy infrastructure, important considerations for pressure relief devices applied in a hydrogen gas environment will be explored

Strategy Making in Novel and Complex Worlds: The Power of Analogy

We examine how firms discover effective competitive positions in worlds that are both novel and complex. In such settings, neither rational deduction nor local search is likely to lead a firm to a successful array of choices. Analogical reasoning, however, may be helpful, allowing managers to transfer useful wisdom from similar settings they have experienced in the past. From a long list of observable industry characteristics, analogizing managers choose a subset they believe distinguishes similar industries from different ones. Faced with a novel industry, they seek a familiar industry which matches the novel one along that subset of characteristics. They transfer from the matching industry high-level policies that guide search in the novel industry. We embody this conceptualization of analogy in an agent-based simulation model. The model allows us to examine the impact of managerial and structural characteristics on the effectiveness of analogical reasoning. With respect to managerial characteristics, we find, not surprisingly, that analogical reasoning is especially powerful when managers pay attention to characteristics that truly distinguish similar industries from different ones. More surprisingly, we find that the marginal returns to depth of experience diminish rapidly while greater breadth of experience steadily improves performance. Both depth and breadth of experience are useful only when one accurately understands what distinguishes similar industries from different ones. We also discover that following an analogy in too orthodox a manner—strictly constraining search efforts to what the analogy suggests—can be dysfunctional. With regard to structural characteristics, we find that a well-informed analogy is particularly powerful when interactions among decisions cross policy boundaries so that the underlying decision problem is not easily decomposed. Overall, the results shed light on a form of managerial reasoning that we believe is prevalent among practicing strategists yet is largely absent from scholarly analysis of strategy

Continuous Neel to Bloch Transition as Thickness Increases: Statics and Dynamics

We analyze the properties of Neel and Bloch domain walls as a function of film thickness h, for systems where, in addition to exchange, the dipole-dipole interaction must be included. The Neel to Bloch phase transition is found to be a second order transition at hc, mediated by a single unstable mode that corresponds to oscillatory motion of the domain wall center. A uniform out-of-plane rf-field couples strongly to this critical mode only in the Neel phase. An analytical Landau theory shows that the critical mode frequency varies as the square root of (hc - h) just below the transition, as found numerically.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Analytical and micromagnetic study of a Neel domain wall

Journals published by the American Physical Society can be found at http://journals.aps.org/For ferromagnets with exchange, dipolar interaction, and uniaxial anisotropy, by both analytic methods and micromagnetic simulations we study Neel domain walls in thin ferromagnetic strips of finite width. Comparison of the numerical results with the analytics yields parameter values that had been unspecified by the analytics, and determines the modifications needed to describe the magnetization both near the strip center and near the boundaries. With no uniaxial anisotropy, the domain wall center can be described by the same hyperbolic secant form as with uniaxial anisotropy, but the effective anisotropy constant must now be thought of as increasing with increasing film thickness and decreasing with increasing film width

Ultraviolet and visible photometry of asteroid (21) Lutetia using the Hubble Space Telescope

The asteroid (21) Lutetia is the target of a planned close encounter by the Rosetta spacecraft in July 2010. To prepare for that flyby, Lutetia has been extensively observed by a variety of astronomical facilities. We used the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) to determine the albedo of Lutetia over a wide wavelength range, extending from ~150 nm to ~700 nm. Using data from a variety of HST filters and a ground-based visible light spectrum, we employed synthetic photometry techniques to derive absolute fluxes for Lutetia. New results from ground-based measurements of Lutetia's size and shape were used to convert the absolute fluxes into albedos. We present our best model for the spectral energy distribution of Lutetia over the wavelength range 120-800 nm. There appears to be a steep drop in the albedo (by a factor of ~2) for wavelengths shorter than ~300 nm. Nevertheless, the far ultraviolet albedo of Lutetia (~10%) is considerably larger than that of typical C-chondrite material (~4%). The geometric albedo at 550 nm is 16.5 +/- 1%. Lutetia's reflectivity is not consistent with a metal-dominated surface at infrared or radar wavelengths, and its albedo at all wavelengths (UV-visibile-IR-radar) is larger than observed for typical primitive, chondritic material. We derive a relatively high FUV albedo of ~10%, a result that will be tested by observations with the Alice spectrograph during the Rosetta flyby of Lutetia in July 2010.Comment: 14 pages, 2 tables, 8 figure

The triaxial ellipsoid dimensions, rotational pole, and bulk density of ESA Rosetta target asteroid (21) Lutetia

We seek the best size estimates of the asteroid (21) Lutetia, the direction of its spin axis, and its bulk density, assuming its shape is well described by a smooth featureless triaxial ellipsoid, and to evaluate the deviations from this assumption. Methods. We derive these quantities from the outlines of the asteroid in 307 images of its resolved apparent disk obtained with adaptive optics (AO) at Keck II and VLT, and combine these with recent mass determinations to estimate a bulk density. Our best triaxial ellipsoid diameters for Lutetia, based on our AO images alone, are a x b x c = 132 x 101 x 93 km, with uncertainties of 4 x 3 x 13 km including estimated systematics, with a rotational pole within 5 deg. of ECJ2000 [long,lat] = [45, -7], or EQJ2000 [RA, DEC] = [44, +9]. The AO model fit itself has internal precisions of 1 x 1 x 8 km, but it is evident, both from this model derived from limited viewing aspects and the radius vector model given in a companion paper, that Lutetia has significant departures from an idealized ellipsoid. In particular, the long axis may be overestimated from the AO images alone by about 10 km. Therefore, we combine the best aspects of the radius vector and ellipsoid model into a hybrid ellipsoid model, as our final result, of 124 +/- 5 x 101 +/- 4 x 93 +/- 13 km that can be used to estimate volumes, sizes, and projected areas. The adopted pole position is within 5 deg. of [long, lat] = [52, -6] or[RA DEC] = [52, +12]. Using two separately determined masses and the volume of our hybrid model, we estimate a density of 3.5 +/- 1.1 or 4.3 +/- 0.8 g cm-3 . From the density evidence alone, we argue that this favors an enstatite-chondrite composition, although other compositions are formally allowed at the extremes (low-porosity CV/CO carbonaceous chondrite or high-porosity metallic). We discuss this in the context of other evidence.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures, 5 tables, submitted to Astronomy and Astrophysic