Introducing programmable automation technologies: intended managerial strategies, choices and decisions

The Programmable Automation Technologies (PATs) constitute a solution to the problems organizations face as regards (i) their search for more efficient modes of handling environment uncertainty, and (ii) improving the diminishing returns of the existing technical paradigm. PATs contribute to the further decrease of the product unit cost and allow for a substantial increase of flexibility in, and control over, the production process. In addition, it is argued here that the introduction of PATs constitutes a strategic decision which is part of a wider organizational innovation strategy, followed by management in their attempt to coalign effectively the organization with its environment.

This strategy includes three interconnected but differentially treated areas: enterpreneurial, engineering, and administrative. Evidence from a case study shows that market competition and internal organizational resource imbalances determine the managerial focus of attention, and the means of rectifying a problematic situation.     

Wealth Effects, Distribution, and the Theory of Organization

We construct a general equilibrium model of firm formation in which organization is endogenous. Firms are coalitions of agents providing effort and investment capital. Effort is unobservable unless a fixed monitoring cost is paid, and borrowing is subject to a costly state verification problem. Because incentives vary with an agent's wealth, different types of agents become attractive firm members under different circumstances. When borrowing is not costly, firms essentially consist of one type of agent and are organized efficiently. But when the costly state verification problem is sufficiently severe, firm organization will depend on the distribution of wealth: with enough inequality, it will tend to be dictated by incentives of rich agents to earn high returns to wealth, even if the chosen organizational form is not a technically efficient way to provide incentives.Journal of Economic LiteratureClassification Numbers: D2, D31, J41, L2.     

学习、环境与在孵企业创造力:网络边界视角

网络化边界为创业模式与情境要素变革背景下的组织学习效力分析提供了更具时效性的研究视角。在孵企业为上述视角的落地,进而还原复杂情境下多维组织学习方式对企业价值创造活动的协同作用过程提供了丰富的实证脚本。基于235家企业的实证结果显示：内外部学习不仅能单独提升在孵企业创造力,还具有协同促进效应,而该过程会受到内外部环境的共同调节作用。孵化网络异质性越低、环境动态性越强,在孵企业内部学习与创造力间的正向关系越强;孵化网络异质性越高、环境动态性越弱,在孵企业外部学习与创造力间的正向关系越强。进一步对内外部学习协同效应进行调节作用检验,发现只有当孵化网络异质性低或是环境动态性弱时,才有利于发挥在孵企业内部学习与外部学习对创造力的协同促进作用。研究结论为组织学习、环境要素与创业孵化理论融合提供了较为完整的研究框架,并为创业企业学习战略与孵育机制设计提供了更具靶向性的决策依据。     

Antecedents of creative decision making in organizational crisis: A team-based simulation

Although it has been claimed that the devastation and complexities that characterize an organizational crisis may be addressed most effectively with creative solutions, theoretical and empirical research examining this challenge is scarce. We developed a theoretical model concerning creative decision making during organizational crisis for crisis management teams. To test this theory, we collected data from 191 individuals in 37 teams who participated in multi-hour, multi-phased organizational crisis simulations in the United States and Canada. Using regression analysis, we found that crisis management teams generated a creative decision when they were familiar with solutions, trusted their team members, and had creative intentions. This study supports organizational efforts to leverage education, training and accountability to reinforce creativity in crisis decision making.     

Innovation and performance – evidence at micro level

This empirical study aims to shed light on the link between innovation and economic performance at micro level. Based on a comprehensive survey among dairy and crop farms in the Netherlands we estimate a structural multi-stage model to deliver evidence on the effect of engagement and investment in innovation on the production of product, process and organizational or marketing innovations as well as on the effect of such innovations on farm level productivity. The results suggest various market and farm behaviour related factors to stimulate an increase in innovation engagement and production. Furthermore, the study reveals that indeed a greater innovation investment per unit (innovation input) leads to a higher probability of producing at least one successful product, process and/or organizational or marketing innovation (innovation output). The production of process and organizational or marketing related innovation leads to significant productivity gains. Various recommendations towards a more effective and efficient innovation policy are finally given.     

组织协同学习机制与整合优化方法研究

为回答通过何种组织学习形式提升组织学习效果的问题,系统梳理并分析现有组织学习相关成果存在的问题,结合协同机制原理构建组织协同学习模型。在此基础上,考虑到组织协同学习系统内部要素间存在复杂影响关系,借鉴ANP方法决策思想,提出从组织学习整体协同度方面整合优化组织协同学习系统复杂作用关系决策方法。结果表明,上述理论方法有效、可行,组织学习协同度能够较好地反映组织学习整体效果,对提升组织学习能力和创造企业竞争优势具有一定借鉴意义。     

Interest Groups, Referenda, and the Political Process: On the Efficiency of Direct Democracy

We argue that the institutionalization of direct democratic elements in a constitution will tend to enhance the efficiency of an economy. In a model of direct democracy it is shown that—contrary to the political process in a representative democracy—efficient projects will always be politically accepted and the degree of inefficiency of inefficient projects will be reduced. These effects stem from a more intense competition among small interest groups and the pressure to improve the cost-benefit ratio of a project. Furthermore, contestable decision markets, that is the co-existence of direct and indirect forms of democracy, will always work in favor of higher efficiency.     

Technology organizations and incrementalism: the space shuttle

This paper is part of a wider research programme which aims at understanding the organizational factors that promote inflexible technology. The technology of the Space Shuttle's performance has been poor in many areas; that the technology was chosen throught a centralized process dominated by a few like-minded organizations with little debate and compromise, and with risk falling on public pockets; and that there are more flexible technical alternatives, some of which are open to more decentralized decision making. Lessons are drawn about the problems of developing inflexible technology, and the degree of organizational centralization appropriate to technical innovation. These are restated in terms of incrementalism. In general, a technology that performs better is likely to be one which can be developed in a series of small steps, with choices made in a decentralized way. Suggestions are made for technical developments that would enhance the flexibility of the US space programme following the Shuttle, together with organizational chgange that would ease their introduction.     

The Decentralization of Information Processing in the Presence of Interactions

We propose a model of organizational decision making, in which information processing is decentralized. Our model incorporates two features of many actual organizations: aggregation entails a loss of useful information, and the decision problems of different agents interact. We assume that an organization forms a portfolio of risky assets, following a hierarchical procedure. Agents' decision rules and the organization's hierarchical structure are derived endogenously. Typically, in the optimal hierarchical structure, all agents have one subordinate, and returns to ability are at least as high at the bottom as at the top. However, these results can be reversed in the presence of returns to specialization.     

On the social optimality of make-or-buy decisions

This article examines the impact of input prices on an entrant’s make-or-buy decision and on the subsequent social welfare level for three alternative models of downstream competition. For each particular model, it derives the range of input prices that induce the entrant to undertake: (a) the productively efficient make-or-buy decision; and (b) the socially optimal make-or-buy decision. The main conclusion of this article is that the entrant’s efficient make-or-buy decision is always socially optimal in the case of the Hotelling model, is socially optimal for the set of input prices that induce the entrant to undertake the efficient decision in the case of Cournot competition and is not necessarily socially optimal in the Bertrand vertical differentiation model. Last, this article examines the conditions under which the efficient and/or socially optimal make-or-buy decision undertaken by an entrant fulfills the regulatory two-fold goal of promoting service-based competition and encouraging facilities-based competition. Therefore, this article also provides the optimal access pricing policy that results in the best feasible outcome in terms of social welfare, productive efficiency, competition level and investment level for a given downstream competition model.     

项目管理中组织结构选择的指标评价体系研究

在过去的40年中,项目管理的思想和方法逐渐为人们所接受,并且在各行各业得以广泛应用,但是如何选择合理的结构形式一直是一个困扰着项目管理的问题。运用定性和定量相结合的方法对该问题进行探讨。初步建立了一套指标评价体系,用于对项目管理的决策支持。     

差异化组织变革情境下如何让员工更有创造力——基于创造力交互理论的组态分析

从创造力交互理论出发,以中国企业研发岗位员工为研究样本,运用fsQCA方法对企业中激发员工创造力的个体、领导、组织等多层面影响因素进行组态分析。探讨不同组织变革情境下组织多层面因素在员工高创造力产生过程中的差异机制,发现两种组织变革情境下3种激发员工创造力的路径模式,即激进性变革情境下的激情驱动模式和领导驱动模式,以及渐进性变革情境下的类亲情驱动模式。组织管理者可以根据不同的变革情境选择合适的管理方法,激发创新以推进变革进程。     

Coordination and organizational learning in the firm

This paper discusses the role of the organizational structure in shaping the organizational learning process. Learning is modelled by means of a computational model in which search takes place in the space of problem representations and cannot be reduced to mere probability updating within a given and constant representation.When the assumption of a unique and given representation of the problem is dropped, organizational learning emerges from the coordination of individual learning processes. Some simulations analyze the performance, in different environmental conditions, of centralized and decentralized coordination modes.I would like to thank Giovanni Dosi, Keith Pavitt, Nick von Tunzelmann and two anonymous referees for their insightful suggestions. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Third Meeting of the Joseph A. Schumpeter Society, Airlie House, Virginia, June 1990.     

Unemployment,Vacancies and Conditions of Excess Demand for Labor in Canada

The explanation of state and local government expenditures has received considerable attention since Fabricant's study Trends in Government Activity Since 1900. These studies have been subject to at least two important shortcomings. One of their limitations stems from the estimation procedures used, while the other is the result of an incomplete model of the process underlying the determination of such expenditures. For the most part, past studies have used either cross-sectional data for a particular year or time series data for a single state. Consequently, the explanations resulting from these analyses either fail to capture the dynamic aspects of the problem in the first case, or remain localized to a particular state in the second. Since expenditure decisions are influenced by both historical events acting through time and economic, political, and demographic factors working at a point in time, studies which fail to integrate both types of information into the estimation process are imcomplete.

The purpose of this paper is to suggest a methodology for using both types of information. Accordingly, the resulting technique is a more efficient approach for estimating state and local government expenditure determinants. The technique is a generalized Aitken estimator for a system of unrelated regressions and was first introduced by ZELLNER (1962). The second problem with past research is the result of the inadequacy of our models for public goods and collective consumption in general, the decision process underlying public provision of goods and services has not been subjected to comprehensive modeling. ^{1 1} Some work has begun in this area. See HAEFELE (1970, 1971, 1972) as well as the references he cites. Therefore empirical analyses of expenditure patterns have been based on incompletely developed models. Our approach will be to suggest a model which is representative of the existing literature, sketch its theoretical foundation, and discuss the areas for future research. The present paper will not, however, attempt to develop a more complete model of the public decision process.

Section I of the paper briefly summarizes the primary research efforts in this area. It is followed by an explanation of the model and of the technique used for this study. Section IV presents the results for nine expenditure categories for state and local governments in the U.S. in 1957, 1962, and 1967. The last section summarizes the conclusions of the paper and discusses the scope for further research.     

Organizational decision-making quality and the severity of the free-riding problem

This letter proposes to view organizational decision making as a pure public good. The problem of voluntary participation in the provision of the public good — the quality of the organization's decisions - is analyzed using a stylized game of participation. We are chiefly concerned with the clarification of the relationship between the severity of the free-riding problem and the quality of the decisional resources available to the organization.     

组织创新氛围对员工创新意愿的作用机制——以知识密集型服务企业为样本

从计划行为理论视角，探讨组织创新氛围与员工创新意愿间的作用机制，并采用来自国内知识密集型服务业426名员工的调查问卷进行实证分析。研究表明：①组织创新氛围对员工创新意愿具有显著正向影响；②态度、主观规范和感知行为控制在组织创新氛围与员工创新意愿关系中起中介作用；③进一步通过有调节的中介模型分析发现，工作—能力匹配度高的员工更倾向于在组织创新氛围的感召下形成积极态度、主观规范和感知行为控制，进而激发其创新意愿。该研究结论不仅丰富和拓展了计划行为理论在服务创新领域的应用，还为管理者有效激发员工创新意愿提供了重要决策依据。     

Inefficient lobbying,populism and oligarchy

This paper analyzes the efficiency consequences of lobbying in a production economy with imperfect commitment. We first show that the Pareto efficiency result found for truthful equilibria of common agency games in static exchange economies no longer holds under these more general conditions. We construct a model of pressure groups where the set of efficient truthful common agency equilibria has measure zero. Second, we show that, under fairly general assumptions, the equilibrium will be biased against the group with the highest productivity of private capital, reflecting the fact that, on the margin, less productive groups find lobbying relatively more rewarding. Finally, as an application, if lobbies representing the “poor” and the “rich” have identical organizational capacities, we show that the equilibrium is biased towards the poor, who have a comparative advantage in politics, rather than in production. If the pressure groups differ in their organizational capacity, both pro-rich (oligarchic) and pro-poor (populist) equilibria may arise, all of which are inefficient with respect to the constrained optimum.     

On preserving the reservation wage property in a continuous job search model

The purpose of this article is to examine a continuous model of job search. Job offers are received randomly over time according to a renewal process. The wage offers are assumed to be positive, independent, and identically distributed random variables. There is a search cost of c monetary units per unit time. The only decision the searcher must make is when to stop searching and accept an offer. It is shown that the optimal stopping strategy which maximizes the searcher's expected net return over the class of all stopping times possesses the reservation wage property, provided that the interarrival time between two successive job offers in NBUE (new better than used in expectation).     

Sequencing,timing and filling rates of recruitment channels

This paper analyses the recruitment process by which employers adjust their search strategies. The focus is, in particular, on the sequence and timing of recruitment channels. Two search strategies are identified. One strategy is to advertise a vacancy, and to form a pool of candidates by activating subsequent recruitment channels such that candidates are added to the pool. An alternative strategy used by employers is to start searching via informal channels, consider applicants at arrival and continue their search along a new recruitment channel if no suitable candidates show up. Results suggest that when informal personal contacts are available to the employer, this ‘switching of channel’ strategy is preferred. Moreover, the results of this paper are consistent with the view that informal search methods are potentially more efficient than using an advertisement and forming a pool of applicants, in particular when vital positions in firms have to be filled.     

Organizational structure, redistribution and the endogeneity of cost: Cooperatives, investor-owned firms and the cost of procurement

As an organizational type, cooperatives are in general not the dominant form of enterprise. Nevertheless, cooperatives and cooperative-like organizations do play important roles in a number of sectors, suggesting that in some circumstances they are more efficient than other business forms. This paper explores the importance of membership goals on the relative efficiency of the cooperative form of organization. The cooperative cost (and hence production efficiency) advantage is directly linked to the goal alignment between the cooperative and its members, and is influenced by the extent of income redistribution between members and the degree of rent seeking that takes place in the organization. When there is no aversion to income inequality, the members produce at their first best levels. However, as aversion to inequality rises, the production profile of the members converges to the production profile generated when the members face an IOF. Regarding rent seeking, if the more (less) efficient members are able to get their profits valued more, total output is increased (decreased). As a consequence, consumers may benefit from the lobbying that occurs inside a cooperative where the powerful members are the most efficient agents.