2015/01 | LEM Working Paper Series | |
A model of cognitive and operational memory of organizations in changing worlds |
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Giovanni Dosi, Luigi Marengo, Evita Paraskevopoulou, Marco Valente |
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Keywords | ||
organizational memory, routines, cognitive categories, condition-action rules
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JEL Classifications | ||
C12, C13, C46, C52, R12
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Abstract | ||
This work analyzes and models the nature and dynamics of
organizational memory, as such an essential ingredient of
organizational capabilities. There are two sides to it, namely a
cognitive side, involving the beliefs and interpretative frameworks by
which the organization categorizes the states of the world and its own
internal states, and an operational one, including routines and
procedures that store the knowledge of how to do things. We formalize
both types of memory by means of evolving systems of condition-action
rules and investigate their performance in different environments
characterized by varying degrees of complexity and
non-stationarity. Broadly speaking, in simple and stable environments
memory does not matter, provided it satisfies some minimal
requirements. In more complex and gradually changing ones more memory
is better. However there is some critical level of environmental
instability above which forgetfulness is evolutionary superior from
the point of view of long term performance. Moreover, above some
(modest) complexity threshold stable and robust cognitive
categorizations and routinized behavior emerge.
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