"The Firm as a Communication Network"
©
Quarterly Journal of Economics,
November
1994
Volume: 109
|
Issue: 4
|
Pages: 809-39
Publication type: Journal article
Research Archive Topic: Capital Markets and Investments, Corporate Finance
Abstract
This paper analyzes how organizations can minimize costs of processing and communicating information. Communication is costly because it takes time for an agent to absorb new information sent by others. Agents can reduce this time by specializingin the processing ofparticular types ofinformation. When these returns to specialization outweigh costsofcommunication, it is efficient for several agents to collaborate within a firm. It is shown that efficient networks involve centralization, that individuals delegate tasks to subordinates only if they are overloaded, and that the number of transits to the top tends to be equalized across individual information items.
Each author name for a Columbia Business School faculty member is linked to a faculty research page, which lists additional publications by that faculty member.
Each topic is linked to an index of publications on that topic.