caa a22 4500 47573968X CHVBK 20180406123456.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170329e20000601xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s100580000017 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s100580000017 Project evaluation and organizational form [Elektronische Daten] [Thomas Gehrig, Pierre Regibeau, Kate Rockett] Abstract.: In situations of imperfect testing and communication, as suggested by Sah and Stiglitz (AER, 1986), organizational forms can be identified with different rules of aggregating evaluations of individual screening units. In this paper, we discuss the relative merits of polyarchical organizations versus hierarchical organizations in evaluating cost-reducing R&D projects when individual units' decision thresholds are fully endogenous. Contrary to the results of Sah and Stiglitz, we find that the relative merit of an organizational form depends on the curvature of the screening functions of the individual evaluation units. We find that for certain parameters organizations would want to implement asymmetric decision rules across screening units. This allows us to derive sufficient conditions for a polyarchy to dominate a hierarchy. We also find conditions for which the cost curves associated with the two organizational forms cross each other. In this case the optimal organizational form will depend on product market conditions and on the "lumpiness” of cost-reducing R&D. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2000 JEL classification: D23, D83, L22 nationallicence Key words: Organisations, screening, information aggregation, hierarchies, polyarchies nationallicence Gehrig Thomas Institut zur Erforschung der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung, Universität Freiburg, D-79085 Freiburg, GERMANY (email: gehrigt@vwl.uni-freiburg.de), DE aut Regibeau Pierre University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester CO4 3SQ, UK (email: pregib@essex.ac.uk), GB aut Rockett Kate University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester CO4 3SQ, UK (email: pregib@essex.ac.uk), GB aut https://doi.org/10.1007/s100580000017 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s100580000017 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Gehrig Thomas Institut zur Erforschung der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung, Universität Freiburg, D-79085 Freiburg, GERMANY (email: gehrigt@vwl.uni-freiburg.de), DE aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Regibeau Pierre University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester CO4 3SQ, UK (email: pregib@essex.ac.uk), GB aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Rockett Kate University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester CO4 3SQ, UK (email: pregib@essex.ac.uk), GB aut Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence SWISSBIB 056378157 BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer