Advances in Software Archeology: Seeking (ABTOF) Theory in the Code

Advances in Software Archeology: Seeking (ABTOF) Theory in the Code
Author(s): Prietula, Michael and Augier, Mie
Year: 2005
Paper Number: GBS-DIA-2005-001
Goizueta Department: Decision and Information Analysis

Abstract

A Behavioral Theory of the Firm by James March and Richard Cyert is one of the most influential works in organizational science. An interesting and important element of that work was a computational model of a duopoly, which was eliminated in the second edition of the book. We examine the structure of the model and illustrate how the theoretical constructs were implemented: organizational attention, organizational learning, organizational memory, routines and meta-routines, and computational experiments. We also explore the academic environment within which this theory and model grew. We suggest that an interesting question is why the theory had a distinctly greater impact than the method on organizational research and education.