Computational Modelling of Multi-Level/Multi-Unit Organizations

多单位/多层次组织的计算模型多单位组织是现代经济中最重要的组织形式之一。在制造业中，典型的工厂是多工厂制造商的一部分。在服务业，典型的商店是零售连锁店的一部分。多单位组织的一个决定性问题是如何在给予单位处理其环境的特殊特征的自由的同时，协调各单位利用它们之间的共性。多单元组织如何解决这个问题，最有效的方法是什么？决定最佳组织和战略的相关工具是什么？环境的相关特征是什么？本项目探讨了这些问题，并更广泛地推进了我们对多单元组织的理解。我们的重点是零售连锁店。我们方法的核心思想是，零售连锁店的许多行为和表现可以通过理解连锁店如何产生、沟通和使用信息来解释。新想法是如何产生的，又是如何被评估和采纳的。信息的使用权限如何在链内分配，以及如何制定激励措施以影响信息的创建和有效传播。以及竞争和技术如何与这些信息过程相互作用。这种方法的实现涉及到零售连锁店的计算模型的开发，在这个模型中，公司总部（HQ）和商店正在适应它们的环境。总部和门店经理开发新想法，评估他们的想法和其他人的想法，然后决定是否采用并与组织的其他成员沟通。与此同时，竞争的连锁店也在进行类似的活动，而消费者则在商店之间进行体验和试验，以找到最适合自己需求的商店。我们的分析探讨了各种因素如何影响店铺实践和连锁效率的改进速度。这些因素包括组织结构（特别是商店经理改变做法的权力）、商店经理的激励（受其薪酬方式的影响）、市场内部和跨地域市场的竞争程度（以及相关的合并效应）、消费者搜索的数量、消费者偏好的变化率、跨链信息溢出的程度以及信息技术的进步。

Computational Modelling of Multi-Unit/Multi-Level OrganizationsOne of the most important organizational forms in modern economies is the multi-unitorganization. In manufacturing, the typical plant is part of a multi-plant manufacturer. Inservices, the typical store is part of a retail chain. A defining problem of a multi-unitorganization is how to balance giving units the freedom to handle the idiosyncraticfeatures of their environments while, at the same time, coordinating the units to takeadvantage of the commonality among them. How do multi-unit organizations solve this problemand what is the most effective means of doing so? What is the relevant set of instrumentsand what are the relevant features of the environment determining the best organization andstrategy? This project explores these questions and more broadly advances our understandingof multi-unit organizations.Our focus is on retail chains. The central idea underlying our approach is that much of thebehavior and performance of a retail chain can be explained by understanding how chainsgenerate, communicate, and use information. How new ideas arise and how they are evaluatedand adopted. How the authority to use information is distributed within the chain and howincentives are structured to influence the creation and effective dissemination ofinformation. And how competition and technology interact with these information processes.Implementation of this approach involves the development of a computational model of aretail chain in which corporate headquarters (HQ) and stores are adapting to theirenvironments. HQ and store managers develop new ideas, evaluate their ideas and the ideasof others, and then decide whether to adopt and communicate them to other members of theorganization. Competing chains are simultaneously engaging in an analogous exercise whileconsumers experience and experiment among stores to find the one that best suits theirneeds. Our analysis explores how various factors influence the rate of improvement of storepractices and chain efficiency. These factors include organizational structure (inparticular, the authority of store managers to change practices), store manager incentives(as influenced by how they are compensated), the degree of competition within and acrossgeographic markets (and, relatedly, the effect of mergers), the amount of consumer search,the rate of change in consumers' preferences, the degree of informational spillovers acrosschains, and advances in information technology.