DOCTORAL DISSERTATION RESEARCH IN DRMS Collective Response to Scarcity: How the Resource Environment Shapes Social Networks

组织的成功或失败取决于其有效处理信息的能力。 有效的信息处理需要人们自己获取信息并相互交流。 人们选择何时、与谁进行沟通所产生的沟通模式，会对信息在组织中传播的速度以及信息的有效性产生直接影响。 这些过程和因素对于应对资源环境中的因果冲击或危机的组织尤其重要（例如，面临 2008 年房地产市场崩盘的金融参与者、面临 COVID-19 大流行的所有公民）。这项博士论文研究改进补助金 (DDRIG) 探索了人们对其资源环境变化做出反应时出现的通信网络。 我们应用实验方法加上基于代理的建模来对资源可用性和通信网络结构之间的因果关系进行归零。 我们的总体假设是，当资源变得越来越稀缺时，人们与更少的沟通伙伴建立联系，并增加与每个伙伴的沟通率。 因此，为了应对资源稀缺，社交网络的规模将缩小并变得更加紧密。 相反的沟通模式发生在富裕时期。 我们还评估了这些集体沟通策略应对资源冲击的适应性功效，以得出有助于设计和管理组织危机应对措施的结论。 这项调查的结果将帮助我们了解和预测环境冲击（如经济衰退或流行病）如何影响组织有效管理信息的能力。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The success or failure of an organization hinges on its ability to effectively process information. Effective information processing requires people to acquire information themselves and to communicate with one another. The communication patterns that emerge from people’s choices about when, and with whom, to communicate have direct consequences for the speed at which information moves around an organization, and the validity of that information. These processes and factors are especially important for organizations responding to causal shocks or crises in their resource environments (e.g., financial actors facing the 2008 Housing Market Crash, all citizens facing the COVID-19 Pandemic).This Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant (DDRIG) explores the communication networks that emerge among people reacting to changes in their resource environment. We apply an experimental method plus agent-based modeling to zero-in on the causal relationship between resource availability and communication network structure. Our overarching hypothesis is that when resources become increasingly scarce, people connect with fewer communication partners, and increase their rate of communication with each partner. Thus, social networks will shrink in size and become more densely connected in response to resource scarcity. The reverse pattern of communication occurs in times of abundance. We also assess the adaptive efficacy of these collective communication strategies in response to resource shocks to draw conclusions that will be helpful in designing and managing organizational responses to crises. The results of this investigation will help us understand, and anticipate, the way environmental shocks – like an economic recession or pandemic – affect an organization’s ability to effectively manage information.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.