IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/somere/v25y1996i1p138-168.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Modeling Organizational Adaptation as a Simulated Annealing Process

Author

Listed:
  • KATHLEEN M. CARLEY

    (Carnegie Mellon University)

  • DAVID M. SVOBODA

    (Carnegie Mellon University)

Abstract

Organizations can be characterized as complex systems composed of adaptive and intelligent agents. Organizational adaptation occurs through restructuring and learning. Organizations can be modeled using a dual-level model in which restructuring is modeled as a simulated annealing process and individual learning is modeled using a stochastic learning model and boundedly rational agents. Such a model is presented, and its behavior is illustrated using a virtual experiment where the type of organizational adaptation is varied. Results suggest that the organizational design and performance relationship may be chaotic, despite the simple rules of change. Simple restructuring rules lead to a wide range of emergent organizational structures that increases with individual adaptation. Organizations locate good designs (through chance and slow change) regardless of the agents' intelligence; however, emergent designs depend on adaptability. Design features are not systematically related to performance; rather, small initial differences in design and environment can affect the emergent behavior.

Suggested Citation

  • Kathleen M. Carley & David M. Svoboda, 1996. "Modeling Organizational Adaptation as a Simulated Annealing Process," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 25(1), pages 138-168, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:somere:v:25:y:1996:i:1:p:138-168
    DOI: 10.1177/0049124196025001005
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0049124196025001005
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0049124196025001005?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Herbert A. Simon, 1955. "A Behavioral Model of Rational Choice," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 69(1), pages 99-118.
    2. Holland, John H & Miller, John H, 1991. "Artificial Adaptive Agents in Economic Theory," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(2), pages 365-371, May.
    3. George P. Huber, 1991. "Organizational Learning: The Contributing Processes and the Literatures," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 2(1), pages 88-115, February.
    4. Kathleen Carley, 1992. "Organizational Learning and Personnel Turnover," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 3(1), pages 20-46, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Davide Secchi & Nicole L. Gullekson, 2016. "Individual and organizational conditions for the emergence and evolution of bandwagons," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 88-133, March.
    2. Karén Hovhannisian & Marco Valente, 2005. "Modeling Directed Local Search Strategies on Technology," Computational Economics 0507001, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Piórkowska Katarzyna, 2016. "Behavioural strategy: Adaptability context," Management, Sciendo, vol. 20(1), pages 256-276, May.
    4. Bill McKelvey & Benyamin B. Lichtenstein & Pierpaolo Andriani, 2012. "When organisations and ecosystems interact: toward a law of requisite fractality in firms," International Journal of Complexity in Leadership and Management, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 2(1/2), pages 104-136.
    5. Michael Lenox, 1998. "Organizational Design and the Acquisition of Rent-Producing Resources," Research in Economics 98-06-051e, Santa Fe Institute.
    6. Nicolaj Siggelkow & Daniel A. Levinthal, 2003. "Temporarily Divide to Conquer: Centralized, Decentralized, and Reintegrated Organizational Approaches to Exploration and Adaptation," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 14(6), pages 650-669, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kathleen M. Carley, 1996. "Artificial Intelligence within Sociology," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 25(1), pages 3-30, August.
    2. Schilling, Melissa A. & Green, Elad, 2011. "Recombinant search and breakthrough idea generation: An analysis of high impact papers in the social sciences," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(10), pages 1321-1331.
    3. Bart Leten & Rene Belderbos & Bart Van Looy, 2016. "Entry and Technological Performance in New Technology Domains: Technological Opportunities, Technology Competition and Technological Relatedness," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(8), pages 1257-1291, December.
    4. Budhaditya Gupta & Tarun Khanna, 2019. "A Recombination-Based Internationalization Model: Evidence from Narayana Health’s Journey from India to the Cayman Islands," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(2), pages 405-425, March.
    5. Peter Gordon Roetzel, 2019. "Information overload in the information age: a review of the literature from business administration, business psychology, and related disciplines with a bibliometric approach and framework developmen," Business Research, Springer;German Academic Association for Business Research, vol. 12(2), pages 479-522, December.
    6. Miller, John H., 1996. "The coevolution of automata in the repeated Prisoner's Dilemma," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 87-112, January.
    7. Gerald C. Kane & Maryam Alavi, 2007. "Information Technology and Organizational Learning: An Investigation of Exploration and Exploitation Processes," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 18(5), pages 796-812, October.
    8. Georges, Christophre, 2006. "Learning with misspecification in an artificial currency market," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 70-84, May.
    9. Kent Ngan-Cheung Hui & Yuanyuan Gong & Qi Cui & Naipeng Jiang, 2022. "Foreign investment or divestment as a near-term solution to performance shortfalls? The moderating role of vicarious learning," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 39(4), pages 1481-1509, December.
    10. Abhoy K. Ojha & John L. Brown & Nelson Phillips, 1997. "Change and Revolutionary Change: Formalizing and Extending the Punctuated Equilibrium Paradigm," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 3(2), pages 91-111, June.
    11. Murnieks, Charles Y. & Allen, Scot T. & Ferrante, Claudia J., 2011. "Combating the effects of turnover: Military lessons learned from project teams rebuilding Iraq," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 54(5), pages 481-491, September.
    12. Bernd-O. Heine & Matthias Meyer & Oliver Strangfeld, 2005. "Stylised Facts and the Contribution of Simulation to the Economic Analysis of Budgeting," Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, vol. 8(4), pages 1-4.
    13. Linda Argote & Henrich R. Greve, 2007. "A Behavioral Theory of the Firm ---40 Years and Counting: Introduction and Impact," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 18(3), pages 337-349, June.
    14. Sharma, Amalesh & Borah, Sourav Bikash & Moses, Aditya C., 2021. "Responses to COVID-19: The role of governance, healthcare infrastructure, and learning from past pandemics," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 597-607.
    15. Cattaneo, Andrea & Robinson, Sherman, 2000. "Empirical models, rules, and optimization," TMD discussion papers 53, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    16. Murat YILDIZOGLU, 2009. "Evolutionary approaches of economic dynamics (In French)," Cahiers du GREThA (2007-2019) 2009-16, Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée (GREThA).
    17. Nikolaeva, Ralitza, 2014. "Interorganizational imitation heuristics arising from cognitive frames," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(8), pages 1758-1765.
    18. Douglas E. Thomas & Lorraine Eden & Michael A. Hitt & Stewart R. Miller, 2007. "Experience of emerging market firms: The role of cognitive bias in developed market entry and survival," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 47(6), pages 845-867, December.
    19. Jerker Denrell & James G. March, 2001. "Adaptation as Information Restriction: The Hot Stove Effect," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 12(5), pages 523-538, October.
    20. Pennings, J.M. & Barkema, H.G. & Douma, S.W., 1994. "Organizational learning and diversification," Other publications TiSEM 2cabb122-340f-4729-afb3-9, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:somere:v:25:y:1996:i:1:p:138-168. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.