Learning from Samples of One or Fewer

James G. March, Lee S. Sproull and Michal Tamuz
Additional contact information
James G. March: Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305
Lee S. Sproull: Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215
Michal Tamuz: Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903

Organization Science, 1991, vol. 2, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Organizations learn from experience. Sometimes, however, history is not generous with experience. We explore how organizations convert infrequent events into interpretations of history, and how they balance the need to achieve agreement on interpretations with the need to interpret history correctly. We ask what methods are used, what problems are involved, and what improvements might be made. Although the methods we observe are not guaranteed to lead to consistent agreement on interpretations, valid knowledge, improved organizational performance, or organizational survival, they provide possible insights into the possibilities for and problems of learning from fragments of history.

Keywords: organizational learning; learning from experience; small samples (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1991
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