Based on data from Chilean construction projects, we evaluate how the boundary choice of a focal activity is affected by the number of activities integrated elsewhere in a project and by the level of “between complexity” and “within complexity” of those activities. Our results show that...

Extant research on the theory of the firm has stressed the need to consider interdependencies when analyzing firm boundary choices. We study the existence of interdependencies between boundary decisions using a unique database that includes detailed organizational information on 59% of the...

This article empirically evaluates the main determinants of business performance, focusing on the emergence and sustainability of profits for an emerging economy such as Chile. Furthermore, the paper compares the results obtained with Chilean data to those for the U.S.A. This comparison is...

This paper compares centralized and decentralized coordination when managers are privately informed and communicate strategically. We consider a multidivisional organization in which decisions must be adapted to local conditions but also coordinated with each other. Information about local...

Large companies are usually organized into business units, yet some activities are almost always centralized in a company-wide functional unit. We first show that organizations endogenously create an incentive conflict between functional managers (who desire excessive standardization) and...

An agent advises a principal on selecting one of multiple projects or an outside option. The agent is privately informed about the projects' benefits and shares the principal's preferences except for not internalizing her value from the outside option. We show that for moderate outside option...

We examine how cheap talk communication between managers within the same firm depends on the type of decisions that the firm makes. A firm consists of a headquarters and two operating divisions. Headquarters is unbiased but does not know the demand conditions in the divisions' markets. Each...

We examine the relationship between the organization of a multi-divisional firm and its ability to adapt production decisions to changes in the environment. We show that even if lower-level managers have superior information about local conditions, and incentive conflicts are negligible, a...