Sometimes unexpected, novel, unconceivable events enter our lives. The cause-effect mappings that usually guide our behaviour are destroyed. Surprised and shocked by possibilities that we had never imagined, we are unable to make any decision beyond mere routine. Among them there are decisions,...

This model focuses on the decision to invest in novel fields of activity. Making such decisions implies that managers recognize he potentialities of emerging technological patterns, which is not a trivial ability. Ultimately, it depends on the mental categories that they developed through their...

Matrix structures are allegedly adopted in order to combine dispersed expertise, yet we find that sometimes they are introduced in order to obtain greater control. This sort of control matrix is generally based on audit, it is often limited to a portion of the organization, and its pros and cons...

This article presents an agent-based model of an Italian textile district where thousands of small firms specialize in particular phases of fabrics production. It reconstructs the web of communication between firms as they arrange production chains. In turn, production chains result in road...

We carried out an Internet search of publicly available organization charts for the 2,000 largest companies according to Forbes 2019 ranking. We collected 913 organization charts of 648 companies, but only a fraction allowed reproduction. Although we do not have permission to make this visual...

Coordination modes are the backbone of organization science but one of them, coordination by standardization, never received the attention it deserves. Standardization is most often associated with Taylorism, sometimes with the standardization of the competencies of professionals, but it is...

When production is carried out by many geographically clustered small firms specialised in particular production phases that subcontract one another, what are the prospects of B2B electronic commerce? Prato, Italy, is home to thousands of textile firms as well as the locus of an early and...

Investment decision-making is modeled by means of a Kohonen neural net, whose neurons represent firms as decision-makers. Thus, the network reconstructs collective decision-making by the productive system. This model focuses on the decision to invest in novel fields of activity, which requires...