An information perspective on path dependence

2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
ERIC J. HEIKKILA
Keyword(s):  
Path Dependence ◽  
Returns To Scale ◽  
Organizational Structures ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Path Dependency ◽  
State Variables ◽  
Privacy Rights ◽  
Patient Privacy ◽  
Criminal Records ◽  
Institutional Contexts

Abstract:This paper proposes an information perspective on path dependence. From this perspective, historical paths are important insofar as knowledge about them shapes current decisions, for better or worse. A key consideration is the extent to which relevant information is fully inscribed in the existing configuration of state variables, including organizational structures and institutional norms. Using a chess analogy, path dependency arises whenever a decision maker's ‘move’ depends not only upon existing state variables, but also knowledge of the path by which this configuration came about. This chess analogy is then extended to various institutional contexts such as legal expungement of criminal records, patient privacy rights, and corporate executive succession strategies. A formal notation is introduced to specify this definition more precisely, and to compare it with other perspectives on path dependency, such as lock-in effects, increasing returns to scale, ergodic equilibria, and generalized notions that ‘history matters’.

Performance and Accountability in E-Budgeting Projects

2008 ◽  
pp. 722-734
Author(s):  
Gabriel Puron-Cid ◽  
J. Ramon Gil-Garcia
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Information Technologies ◽  
Organizational Structures ◽  
Technological Determinism ◽  
Systems Research ◽  
Information Systems Research ◽  
The Status ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Institutional Contexts ◽  
Complex Relationships

An influential theoretical tradition in information systems research suggests that information and communication technology has the power to transform organizational structures and individual behaviors. This approach has been called “technological determinism.” In contrast, recent studies have found evidence of more complex relationships between information technologies and the organizational and institutional contexts in which those technologies are embedded (Fountain, 2001; Kling & Lamb, 2000; Orlikowski & Baroudi, 1991). The theories that Orlikowski and Iacono (2001) have categorized as the “ensemble view” explain that information technologies should not be conceptualized as physical artifacts only, but that the social relations around those artifacts should also be considered. In addition, the relationship between information technologies and social structures is at least bidirectional, and therefore organizational characteristics and institutional arrangements also have an impact on government ICT projects (Fountain; García, 2005; Kraemer, King, Dunkle, & Lane, 1989). As a result of this embedment of ICT in government settings, certain characteristics of the information technologies are expected to reflect important aspects of the institutional and organizational environment and, therefore, help preserve the status quo instead of promoting change (Fountain; Kraemer et al.).

Mugged

2020 ◽  
pp. 137-162
Author(s):  
Sarah Esther Lageson
Keyword(s):  
Search Engines ◽  
Surveillance Systems ◽  
Privacy Rights ◽  
Web Traffic ◽  
Criminal Records ◽  
Take Back

Utilizing a case study of the online mugshot extortion industry, this chapter discusses efforts by activists determined to take back their identities and protect those who are afraid to try. The decentralized production of criminal records and the intrusion of private websites that spread these records have created such complicated systems of data that some people are more concerned with creating even more “noise” within surveillance systems rather than conceptualizing or asserting their own privacy rights. These activists argue that the burden of reforming digital punishment must also be placed on technology companies and search engines, which currently avoid responsibility for disseminating mugshots and driving web traffic to shoddy criminal records.

The Digital Turn

2020 ◽  
pp. 19-36
Author(s):  
Sarah Esther Lageson
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Free Speech ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Due Process ◽  
Past Century ◽  
Competing Values ◽  
Privacy Rights ◽  
Criminal Records ◽  
The Public ◽  
Criminal Justice Processing

Recent decades have witnessed a digital turn in criminal justice processing that has contributed to the creation and dissemination of millions of criminal records per year, impacting both criminal justice workers and those processed by the system. Current US law has allowed for the public dissemination of these records, emphasizing free speech and transparency over other competing values, such as due process, privacy, or liberty. The turn toward digital disclosure of criminal justice information has outpaced thoughtful discussions about balancing privacy rights and the notion of public interest that the courts have developed during the past century. It is certainly in the public interest to have access to the workings of the police, courts, and prisons—it is a fundamental way that citizens can keep an eye on these powerful institutions. However, these core transparency values are being used for a different, entrepreneurial purpose since criminal records have become a commodified good.

scholarly journals Path-dependence without increasing returns to scale and network externalities

1996 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 159-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfons Balmann ◽  
Martin Odening ◽  
Hans-Peter Weikard ◽  
Wilhelm Brandes
Keyword(s):  
Path Dependence ◽  
Network Externalities ◽  
Returns To Scale ◽  
Increasing Returns ◽  
Increasing Returns To Scale

No zero match browsing of hierarchically categorized information entities

2002 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 243-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHRIS McMAHON ◽  
ROSE CROSSLAND ◽  
ALISTAIR LOWE ◽  
TULAN SHAH ◽  
JON SIMS WILLIAMS ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Structure ◽  
Organizational Structures ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Free Text ◽  
User Selection ◽  
Document Collections ◽  
Search Results ◽  
Search For Information ◽  
Trial Implementation ◽  
Computational Basis

The two main ways to search for information in electronic document collections are by using free-text retrieval search engines or browsing information that has been organized into predefined organizational structures. However, each of these approaches has limitations. Using word or phrase search, users are faced with a compromise between overly broad searches returning an excessive amount of information or overly narrow searches that may fail to return relevant information. Browsing organizational structures is dependent on the user's knowledge of the structures, and a user may find it difficult to refine searches. This paper introduces a user interface based approach to the browsing of hierarchically organized information entities that avoids these problems by allowing the incremental narrowing down of a set of search results and by pruning the organizational structure after each user selection to show the consequences of the selection. The effect is to present to the user at all times only that part of the organizational structure that will lead to a nonnull selection. The approach is called no zero match (NZM) browsing. The paper presents the computational basis of NZM browsing before describing a trial implementation of the approach and presenting three case studies, which represent common search situations in an engineering context.

Movement Legacies

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donatella della Porta ◽  
Massimiliano Andretta ◽  
Tiago Fernandes ◽  
Eduardo Romanos ◽  
Markos Vogiatzoglou
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Organizational Structures ◽  
Path Dependency ◽  
Long Term Evolution ◽  
Cultural Assumptions ◽  
Term Evolution ◽  
Transitions To Democracy ◽  
Over Time

Chapter 4 analyzes movements’ legacies. Transitions to democracy create new cultural assumptions that shape the development of social movements: the ways in which activists identify social problems, organize, and protest over time. After conceptualizing the main models of social movement families, it examines their long-term evolution in each of the four countries, with a focus on the path dependency of the transition time but also on turning points in the movements’ post-transition histories. Building upon main concepts in social movement studies, it covers movements’ traditions as organizational structures (unions, parties, new social movements, anarchists, and so on), repertoires of action (strikes, demonstrations, innovations), and framing (left, libertarian).

Wilful Managerial Ignorance, Symbolic Work and Decoupling: A Socio-Phenomenological Study of ‘Managing Creativity’

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (9) ◽  
pp. 1387-1407 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephan M. Schaefer
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experience ◽  
Organizational Context ◽  
Phenomenological Study ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Verbal Activity ◽  
Organization And Management ◽  
Scant Attention ◽  
Institutional Contexts ◽  
Determining Factor ◽  
Empirical Material

Ignorance has only received scant attention in organization and management studies. This paper focuses on ignorance in an organizational context by presenting and analysing the lived experience of three managers who attempted to manage creativity. The analysis of the empirical material with the help of a detailed agency framework illustrates how the managers’ clearly articulated visions contradicted their practices and how they also stuck to their visions even when they were confronted with or had the possibility to collect information that would challenge those visions. I suggest, based on these observations, that the managers deliberately and actively avoided using or collecting relevant information that could potentially lead to transformative practices, which engendered what I call ‘wilful managerial ignorance’. I further suggest that ‘symbolic work’, which refers to the active and continuous separation of verbal activity (symbol) and concrete practices (objective referent), is a determining factor in wilful managerial ignorance. Since wilful managerial ignorance and symbolic work prevent the productive and transformative integration of different institutional contexts it is possible to link it to the concept of ‘decoupling’. As a result, I propose that wilful managerial ignorance and symbolic work are micro-determinants which facilitate the decoupling of organizationally relevant institutional contexts.

Nurses’ and patients’ perceptions of privacy protection behaviours and information provision

2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (5) ◽  
pp. 598-611 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyunghee Kim ◽  
Yonghee Han ◽  
Ji-su Kim
Keyword(s):  
Privacy Protection ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Information Provision ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Patient Privacy ◽  
Model Of Care ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Actual Performance ◽  
Medical Institutions ◽  
And Performance

Background: With increased attention to patient privacy and autonomy, privacy protection and information provision for patients are becoming increasingly important. Objectives: The aim of this study was to identify and analyse nurses’ and patients’ perceptions of the importance and performance of protecting patients’ privacy and providing them with relevant information. Research design: This study is a descriptive cross-sectional investigation. Participants and research context: Participants were 168 patients hospitalised in medical and surgical wards and 176 nurses who cared for them. Ethical consideration: This study was approved by the Chung-Ang University Bioethics Committee, and informed written consent was collected from all participants. Findings: Nurses’ recognition of the importance of protecting patients’ privacy and providing adequate information was higher compared to their actual performance, and the nurses’ level of performance was higher in comparison with the patients’ recognition of its importance. Discussion: Although a holistic approach to patient privacy protection and information provision is needed, the medical field has not embraced this model of care. Conclusions: These findings provide empirical data to create an ethical environment for the future, as considerable attention has been devoted to patients’ rights and medical institutions’ liability for providing explanations to patients.

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