We consider a team of agents with limited problem-solving ability facing a disjunctive task over a large solution space. We provide sufficient conditions for the following four statements. First, two heads are better than one: a team of two agents will solve the problem even if neither agent...

The objective of this paper is to suggest some directions in the 1980s for the development of the theory and practice of planned change. The author makes two basic assumptions in approaching this objective. First, the two fields most widely associated with planned change, organization...

A fundamental problem in managing product development is the optimal timing, frequency, and fidelity of sequential testing activities that are carried out to evaluate novel product concepts and designs. In this paper, we develop a mathematical model that treats testing as an activity that...

Contests are a historically important and increasingly popular mechanism for encouraging innovation. A central concern in designing innovation contests is how many competitors to admit. Using a unique data set of 9,661 software contests, we provide evidence of two coexisting and opposing forces...

This paper examines how the knowledge-based view (KBV) can be applied to firm boundary decisions and the performance implications of those decisions. At the center of the paper is a theoretical and empirical examination of how firms most efficiently organize to solve different types of problems...

Reflective problem solving activity presumes the existence of a problem definition or representation, often the precursor of a formal model. Although problem definition has been addressed by theorists from several disciplines, it has not been adequately conceptualized, limiting the potential...

To solve a problem, needed information and problem-solving capabilities must be brought together. Often the information used in technical problem solving is costly to acquire, transfer, and use in a new location---is, in our terms, "sticky." In this paper we explore the impact of information...

Modeling is a powerful tool for managing complexity in problem solving. Problem solvers usually build a simplified model of the real world and then use it to generate a solution to their problem. To date, however, little is known about how people actually behave when building a model. This study...

Management science is concerned with understanding and improving action-oriented managerial thought. While it has addressed this concern through decision making research, there is an alternative conceptualization---the problem solving paradigm---that appears to offer a valuable complementary...