Doctoral Dissertation Research: Short-term Network Organizations: The Emergence and Institutionalization of Flexible Production Practices in the U.S. Movie Industry, 1930-1950

博士论文研究短期网络组织：美国电影业中柔性制作实践的出现和制度化，1930-1950摘要学者和实践者报告说，大规模制作和大型综合公司正在让位于更灵活和分散的组织形式。然而，研究侧重于长期关系(例如，战略联盟)，而忽视了同样重要的短期关系(例如，单个项目合作)。因此，今天实施短期灵活关系的人缺乏对它们如何工作以及何时应该应用的理解。作为调查灵活制作关系的起点，这项工作将考察几十年来利用短期单一项目合作的美国电影业。这项研究聚焦于这种灵活的制作制度在好莱坞出现的那段时间，将考察在20年的时间里提高数百个电影项目参与者表现的因素。例如，理论表明，让中层参与者的名字让更广泛的社区看到应该会提高整体项目的表现；披露姓名会使社区其他人更有可能根据焦点项目的成功来评判项目参与者，从而影响所有参与者的声誉。这反过来又激励参与者尽其最大努力。初步结果支持这一预测，早期数据表明，项目越独立，参与者之间之前很少或根本没有接触的项目，这种影响就越强。论文还认为，当整个行业存在关于事情应该如何运作的习以为常的做法(例如标准化的协调做法或对机会主义行为的制裁)时，短期合作绩效将会更高。通过使用这些标准化实践，项目可以节省开发特定于组织的协调工具所需的成本和时间。尽管这听起来可能有些矛盾，但这意味着需要行业层面的稳定性和连续性，以便在组织层面实现灵活性。本文通过对短期合作项目/网络及其成功的障碍进行概念化，为理论做出贡献。它测试了机会主义理论和心理契约关于如何在短期合作中提高绩效的预测。它考虑了电影业为使短期合作有效而采取的策略。本文将就如何提高短期网络项目的绩效为实践者提供有益的指导，短期网络项目是一种日益重要的组织形式。

Doctoral Dissertation ResearchShort-Term Network Organizations: The Emergence and Institutionalization of Flexible Production Practicesin the U.S. Movie Industry, 1930-1950AbstractScholars and practitioners report that mass production and large, integrated firms are giving way to more flexible and fragmented organizational forms. However, research has focused on long-term relationships (e.g., strategic alliances) and neglected the equally important short-term relationships (e.g., single project collaborations). Consequently, today's implementations of short-term flexible relationships suffer from a lack of understanding of how they work and when they should be applied.As a starting point for the investigation of flexible production relationships, this work will examine the U.S. movie industry which has utilized short-term single project collaborations over many decades. Focussing on the period when this flexible production regime emerged in Hollywood, this study will examine factors which enhanced participants' performance on several hundred movie projects over a twenty year period.For example, theory implies that making the names of mid-level participants visible to the broader community should enhance overall project performance; disclosure of names makes it more likely others in the community will judge project participants on the basis of the focal project's success, affecting the reputations of all participants. This in turn motivates participants to provide their best efforts. Preliminary results support this prediction, with early data suggesting this effect becomes stronger the more the project is a 'stand-alone' project with little or no prior contact between participants. The dissertation also argues that short term collaboration performance will be higher when there are taken-for-granted practices in a whole industry about how things should work (e.g. standardized coordination practices or sanctions for opportunistic behavior). Projects can save the cost and time needed to develop organization-specific coordination devices by using these standardized practices. As paradoxical as it may sound, this implies stability and continuity on the industry level is needed in order to enable flexibility on the organizational level.This dissertation contributes to theory by conceptualizing short-term collaboration projects/networks and impediments to their success. It tests predictions from theories of opportunism and psychological contracts about how to enhance performance in short term collaboration. It considers strategies used by the movie industry to make short term collaboration effective. This dissertation will provide practitioners with useful guidance on how to enhance performance in short-term network projects, an increasingly important organizational form.