Three essays on modeling dynamic organizational processes

Essay 1- Effects of Feedback Delay on Learning. Learning figures prominently in many theories of organizations. Understanding barriers to learning is therefore central to understanding firms' performance. This essay investigates the role of time delays between taking an action and observing the results in impeding learning. These delays ubiquitous in real world settings can introduce important tradeoffs between the long-term and the short-term performance. In this essay, four learning algorithms, with different levels of complexity and rationality, are built and their performances in a simple resource allocation task are analyzed. The study focuses on understanding the effect of time delays on learning. Simulation analysis shows that regardless of the level of rationality of the organization, misperceived delays can impede learning significantly. Essay 2- Heterogeneity and Network Structure in the Dynamics of Diffusion: Comparing Agent-Based and Differential Equation Models When is it better to use agent-based (AB) models, and when should differential equation (DE) models be used?

Department dc:contributor.department

Sloan School of Management.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2005

Author dc:creator

• Rahmandad, Hazhir

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• John D. Sterman and Nelson P. Repenning.

• Sloan School of Management.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/33658

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/33658