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The structure of problem-solving knowledge and the structure of organisations

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Author Info
Luigi Marengo
Giovanni Dosi
Paolo Legrenzi
Corrado Pasquali

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Abstract

This work presents a model of organisational problem solving able to account for the relationships between problem complexity, tasks decentralilzation and problem solving efficiency. Whenever problem solving requires the coordination of a multiplicity of interdependent elements, the varying degrees of decentralization of cognitive and operational tasks shape the solution which can be generated, tested and selected. Suboptimality and path-dependence are shown to be ubiquitous features of organisational problem solving. At the same time, the model allows a precise exploration of the possible trade-offs between decompostion patterns and search efficiency involved in different organisational architectures.

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Paper provided by Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy in its series LEM Papers Series with number 1999/09.

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Date of creation: 19 Nov 1999
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Handle: RePEc:ssa:lemwps:1999/09

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  5. Grossman, Sanford J & Hart, Oliver D, 1986. "The Costs and Benefits of Ownership: A Theory of Vertical and Lateral Integration," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(4), pages 691-719, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. Page, Scott E, 1996. "Two Measures of Difficulty," Economic Theory, Springer, vol. 8(2), pages 321-46, August.
  7. Riordan, Michael H. & Williamson, Oliver E., 1985. "Asset specificity and economic organization," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 365-378, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  9. Klepper, Steven, 1997. "Industry Life Cycles," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press, vol. 6(1), pages 145-81.
  10. Dow, Gregory K., 1987. "The function of authority in transaction cost economics," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 13-38, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Levinthal, Daniel A, 1998. "The Slow Pace of Rapid Technological Change: Gradualism and Punctuation in Technological Change," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press, vol. 7(2), pages 217-47, June.
  12. Teece, David J. & Rumelt, Richard & Dosi, Giovanni & Winter, Sidney, 1994. "Understanding corporate coherence : Theory and evidence," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 1-30, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Michael D. Cohen & Roger Burkhart & Giovanni Dosi & Massimo Egidi & Luigi Marengo & Massimo Warglien & Sidney Winter & with comments by Benjamin Coriat, 1995. "Routines and Other Recurring Action Patterns of Organizations: Contemporary Research Issues," Working Papers 95-11-101, Santa Fe Institute.
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  1. Tommaso Ciarli & Riccardo Leoncini & Sandro Montresor & Marco Valente, 2008. "Technological change and the vertical organization of industries," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 367-387, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Giovanni Dosi & Daniel Levinthal & Luigi Marengo, 2001. "Bridging Contested Terrain: Linking Incentive-Based and Learning Perspectives on Organizational Evolution," LEM Papers Series 2001/20, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy. [Downloadable!]
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  3. Claudio Piga & Donald S. Siegel, 2003. "New Evidence on the Link between Technological Change and Employment: Extending the Neo-Classical Paradigm," Rensselaer Working Papers in Economics 0303, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  4. Nadia Jacoby, 2005. "Exploration and exploitation strategies. What kind of analytical models ?," Cahiers de la Maison des Sciences Economiques r05040, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1). [Downloadable!]
  5. Giovanni Dosi & Luigi Marengo, 1999. "On the tangled discourse between transaction costs economics and competence-based views of the firms: Some comments," LEM Papers Series 1999/08, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy. [Downloadable!]
  6. Giovanni Dosi & Daniel Levinthal & Luigi Marengo, 2002. "The Uneasy Organizational Matching Between Distribution of Knowledge, Divisionof Labor and Incentive Governance," LEM Papers Series 2002/26, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy. [Downloadable!]
  7. Alessandro Narduzzo & Alessandro Rossi, 2003. "Modularity in Action: GNU/Linux and Free/Open Source Software Development Model Unleashed," ROCK Working Papers 020, Department of Computer and Management Sciences, University of Trento, Italy. [Downloadable!]
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  8. Teppo Felin & Nicolai J. Foss, 2004. "Organizational Routines: A Sceptical Look," DRUID Working Papers 04-13, DRUID, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Industrial Economics and Strategy/Aalborg University, Department of Business Studies. [Downloadable!]
  9. Frenken, K. & Nuvolari, A., 2003. "The Early Development of the Steam Engine: An Evolutionary Interpretation using Complexity Theory," ECIS Working Papers 03.15, Eindhoven Centre for Innovation Studies, Eindhoven University of Technology. [Downloadable!]
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  10. Stefano Brusoni & Luigi Marengo & Andrea Prencipe & Marco Valente, 2004. "The Value and Costs of Modularity: A Cognitive Perspective," SPRU Electronic Working Paper Series 123, University of Sussex, SPRU - Science and Technology Policy Research. [Downloadable!]
  11. Giovanni Dosi & Marco Faillo & Luigi Marengo, 2006. "Toward Formal Representations of Search Processes and Routines in Organizational Problem Solving. An Assessment of the State of the Art," LEM Papers Series 2006/10, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy. [Downloadable!]
  12. Nicolai J. Foss, . "The Rhetorical Dimensions of Bounded Rationality: Herbert A. Simon and Organizational Economics," IVS/CBS Working Papers 2002-07, Department of Industrial Economics and Strategy, Copenhagen Business School. [Downloadable!]
  13. Giovanni Dosi & Marco Grazzi, 2005. "Technology as Problem-Solving Procedures and Technology as Input-Output Relations: Some Perspectives on the Theory of Production," LEM Papers Series 2005/26, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy. [Downloadable!]
  14. Roberta Patalano, 2007. "Mind-dependence. The past in the grip of the present," Discussion Papers 1_2007, D.E.S. (Department of Economic Studies), University of Naples "Parthenope", Italy. [Downloadable!]
  15. Sendil K. Ethiraj & Daniel Levinthal, 2003. "Modularity and Innovation in Complex Systems," LEM Papers Series 2003/15, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy. [Downloadable!]
  16. Leonardo Bargigli, 2005. "An evolutionary model for the dynamics of vertical integration and network-based production," Industrial Organization 0509002, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
  17. Koen Frenken, 2006. "Technological innovation and complexity theory," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 15(2), pages 137-155, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  18. T. Ciarli & R. Leoncini & S. Montresor & M. Valente, 2007. "Organisation of industry and innovation dynamics," Working Papers 609, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Università di Bologna. [Downloadable!]
  19. Leonardo Bargigli, 2005. "The limits of modularity in innovation and production," CESPRI Working Papers 176, CESPRI, Centre for Research on Innovation and Internationalisation, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy, revised Sep 2005. [Downloadable!]
  20. Mauro Caminati, 2006. "Knowledge growth, complexity and the returns to R&D," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 207-229, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  21. Frenken, K. & Nuvolari, A., 2002. "Entropy Statistics as a Framework to Analyse Technological Evolution," ECIS Working Papers 02.15, Eindhoven Centre for Innovation Studies, Eindhoven University of Technology. [Downloadable!]
  22. Yannis M. Ioannides, 2003. "Complexity and Organizational Architecture," Discussion Papers Series, Department of Economics, Tufts University 0313, Department of Economics, Tufts University. [Downloadable!]
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