BOUNDARY ORGANIZATIONS: AN EFFICIENT STRUCTURE FOR MANAGING KNOWLEDGE IN DECISION-MAKING UNDER UNCERTAINTY

Denis Boissin

No 57494, 113th Seminar, December 9-11, 2009, Belgrade, Serbia from European Association of Agricultural Economists

Abstract: Modern environmental issues imply that decision-makers take into account opinions from experts of different spheres. Boundary organizations are institutions able to cross the gap between different areas of expertise and to act beyond the boundaries while remaining accountable to each side: by encouraging a flow of useful information, they permit an exchange to take place while maintaining the authority of each side, in order to provide a better knowledge and understanding of a situation characterized by uncertainty. Though never formally proved, this hypothesis is widely accepted based on the observation of existing boundary organizations. Through a multi-agent simulation, it is possible to assess their impact on the diffusion of opinions among experts. This virtual interaction of heterogeneous agents based on a model of continuous opinion dynamics over two dimensions, shows that boundary organizations have a significant quantitative impact on the diversity of opinions expressed and the number of experts agreeing to each emerging position.

Keywords: Agribusiness; Labor and Human Capital; Public Economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 6
Date: 2009-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cmp and nep-knm
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:ea113a:57494

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.57494

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