Modularity in action.GNU/Linux and free/Open source sotfware development model unleashed.

Organizational and managerial theories of modularity applied to the design and production of complex artifacts are used to interpret the rise and success of Free/Open Source Software methodologies and practices in software engineeringmodularity; software project management; free/open source software; division of labor; coordination; information hiding

The Effective Design of Managerial Incentive Systems:Combining Theoretical Principles and Practical Trade'-offs.

On the use of theoretical developments in agency economics for the practical design of incentive- and performance-based compensation systems.managerial compensation; principal-agent theory; incentive and performance based compensation systems

An experimental investigation of fairness and reciprocal behavior in a triangular principal-multiagent relationship

Issues of fairness in hierarchies have been mostly investigated - both theoretically and experimentally - within dyadic principle-agent relationships. In this paper we consider triangular principal-multiagents structures, integrating vertical hierarchical relationships with horizontal agent-to-agent ones. We explore in the laboratory a game that allows to investigate how principal's fairness affects cooperation between two interdependent agents performing a simple production task. Our experimental findings show that perceived fairness of principal's actions may trigger reciprocation in agent's behavior, affecting how agents play the production game

Designing, Producing and Using Artifacts in the Structuration of Firm Knowledge: Evidence from Proprietary and Open Processes of Software Development.

In the paper we study the recursive nature of artifacts in the production and the socialization of organizational knowledge. In this respect, artifacts are interpreted both as the product (output) of organizational knowledge processes and, at the same time, as tools easing the development of other artifacts. We compare different practices of knowledge creation and diffusion in complex software production processes with the aim of understanding the effects of interplay between (1) coordination and control practices, (2) mediating artifacts and development tools, and (3) interactions between different actors in the development process. We aim at identifying the peculiar traits emerging in contrasting development paradigms, namely the closed, fully proprietary one widespread in the gaming console industry, and the open model of free/open source software developmentvideo/computer game industry; artifacts; free/open source software; video game consoles

Designing, Producing and Using Artifacts in the Structuration of Firm Knowledge: Evidence from Proprietary and Open Processes of Software Development.

In the paper we study the recursive nature of artifacts in the production and the socialization of organizational knowledge. In this respect, artifacts are interpreted both as the product (output) of organizational knowledge processes and, at the same time, as tools easing the development of other artifacts. We compare different practices of knowledge creation and diffusion in complex software production processes with the aim of understanding the effects of interplay between (1) coordination and control practices, (2) mediating artifacts and development tools, and (3) interactions between different actors in the development process. We aim at identifying the peculiar traits emerging in contrasting development paradigms, namely the closed, fully proprietary one widespread in the gaming console industry, and the open model of free/open source software development.video/computer game industry; artifacts; free/open source software; video game console

An Experimental Investigation of Fairness and Reciprocal Behavior in a Triangular Principal'-Multiagent Relationship.

A laboratory investigation of a simple agency model that allow to study how the principal's fairness affects the attitude towards cooperation between two interdependent agents performing a simple production task.principal-agent theory; prisoner's dilemma; reciprocity; fairness; experimental economics

Diversity and Communication in Teams: Improving Problem Solving or Creating Confusion?

Despite the rich and interdisciplinary debate on the role of diversity and communication in group problem solving, as well as the recognition of the interactions between the two issues, they have been rarely treated as a joint research topic. In this paper we offer a computational model of agents in teams and we assess the impact of various levels of diversity and communication on individual and collective performance at solving problems. By communication we intend a conversation on the persuasiveness of the features characterizing the problem setting. By diversity we mean differences in how agents build problem representations that allow them to access various solutions. We deploy the concept of diversity along two dimensions: knowledge amplitude, that is the relative amount of available knowledge with respect to the complete representation of a problem, and knowledge variety, that, for a given level of knowledge amplitude, regards differences in knowledge constituents Our results highlight the peculiar role and the interactions between the different sources of variety. Regarding knowledge amplitude, when agents have an incomplete representation of the problem, communication provides just confusion as it is difficult to find a common language for sharing thoughts, and agents perform better alone. Adding knowledge variety to this scenario, effects of communication are even more devastating. Conversely, as the representation of the problem gets more and more complete, communication becomes effective and displays a clear non-monotonic effect: after an optimal point, performance declines very rapidly and gets worse than the individual behavior. In this case, the introduction of knowledge variety further increases performance in teams, since benefits from integrating partial representations of the problem occur more frequently than communication clashes. Finally, highly diverse teams seem to be less sensitive to changes in communication strength, while as diversity declines, even small discrepancies from the optimal communication strength level might account for a strong variability of performance. In particular, overestimation of the required communication effort might cause severe performance breakdowns. Our results suggest that organizations and firms should jointly consider communication intensity and different sources of diversity in teams, since interactions among these variables might result in problem solving groups resembling more a Tower of Babel than an effective and helpful workplace.problem solving; diversity; heterogeneous agents; communication; constraint satisfaction; neural networks; causality

Measuring Disinflation Credibility in Emerging Markets: A Bayesian Approach with an Application to Turkey's IMF-Supported Program

This paper proposes a new empirical measure of disinflation credibility and applies it to the IMF-supported disinflation program in Turkey since the 2001 crisis. This measure relies only on the consumer price index and can thus be easily applied in countries in which asset prices and survey inflation expectations are not available or reliable. The application to Turkey's shows that it is less volatile and hence more reliable than a survey-expectation based measure.

Diversity Communication in Teams: Improving Problem Solving or Creating Confusion?

Despite the rich and interdisciplinary debate on the role of diversity and communication in group problem solving, as well as the recognition of the interactions between the two topics, they have been rarely treated as a joint research issue. In this paper we develop a computational approach aimed at modeling problem solving agents and we assess the impact of various levels of diversity and communication in teams on agents' performance at solving problems. By communication we intend a conversation on the persuasiveness of the features characterizing the problem setting. By diversity we mean differences in how agents build problem representations that allow them to access various solutions. We deploy the concept of diversity along two dimensions: knowledge amplitude, that is, the amount of available knowledge (compared to the complete representation of a problem), and knowledge variety, which pertains to the differences in agents' knowledge endowments.x10Our results show the different impact of these two sources of variety on problem solving performance in teams, as well as their interplay. Regarding knowledge amplitude, when agents' representation of the problem is considerably incomplete, communication provides confusion as it is difficult to find a common language for sharing thoughts, and agents perform better alone. Adding knowledge variety to this scenario, the effects of communication are even more negative. Conversely, as the representation of the problem gets more and more complete, communication becomes more and more effective. Albeit displaying a clear non-monotonic effect: increasing the communication strength, performance increases until an optimal point, after which it declines and gets very rapidly worse than individual behavior. In this case, the introduction of knowledge variety further increases performance in teams, since benefits from integrating partial representations of the problem occur more frequently than communication clashes. Finally, highly diverse teams seem to be less sensitive to changes in communication strength, while as diversity declines, even small discrepancies from the optimal communication strength level might account for a strong variability of performance. In particular, overestimation of the required communication effort might cause severe performance breakdowns.x10Our results suggest that organizations and firms should jointly consider communication intensity and different sources of diversity in teams, since interactions among these variables might result in problem solving groups resembling more a Tower of Babel than an effective and helpful workplaceproblem solving; diversity; heterogeneous agents; communication; constraint; satisfaction; neural networks; causality

Stochastic learning in co-ordination games : a simulation approach

In the presence of externalities, consumption behaviour depends on the solution of a co-ordination problem. In our paper we suggest a learning approach to the study of co-ordination in consumption contexts where agents adjust their choices on the basis of the reinforcement (payoff) they receive during the game. The results of simulations allowed us to distinguish the roles of different aspects of learning in enabling co-ordination within a population of agents. Our main results highlight: 1. the role played by the speed of learning in determining failures of the co-ordination process; 2. the effect of forgetting past experiences on the speed of the co-ordination process; 3. the role of experimentation in bringing the process of co-ordination into an efficient equilibrium