Economic Models - Convex Optimization

130 Nikitas Spiros Koutsoukis
lower the level of authority the more operational or specific the actions
that the constituents take in enterprise terms. At this level, constituents find
it harder to consider a single-entity view of the organization, and hence
organizational outcomes are less easily matched to personal interests.
It follows that inconsistencies in the constituents’ perspectives have the
ability to cancel out some of the main benefits that the other two facets bring
forward, namely the unified view of the enterprise as single entity and the
immediacy with which operational activities contribute to strategic goals.
Inconsistencies in constituents’ perspectives are being addressed mainly
through leadership and human resource practices, which aim to put in place
an organizational culture, or otherwise a unified perception of what the
enterprise stands for, its values and its practices among other things. Mission
statements, codes of practice, and team building exercises are some of the
most frequently used tools for scoping and setting out a unified, constituent
view of the enterprise.
Thus, a strong requirement is surfacing for developing new EI modeling
frameworks, which are able to incorporate heterogeneous modeling constructs,
such as the dimensions, entities or constituents considered above.
We find that some of the key requirements are set out as follows:
(a) Interchangeable dimensions: EI models should be able to shift between
the dimensions considered above, without loss of context.
(b) Use of hybrid modeling constructs: EI models should be able to utilize
interchangeably modeling constructs for representing any type of enterprise
activity unit, including procedural units, physical or logical units,
inputs or outputs, tangible and intangible processes, decision-making
points, etc.
(c) Ability to consolidate or analyze to successive levels of detail: this is
particularly useful for communicating enterprise structures throughout
multiple echelons and hierarchy levels. For instance, stakeholders will
most likely need access to a consolidated view of the integrated enterprise
whereas employees are most likely to require a position-centred
view of the enterprise, with detailed surroundings that are consolidated
further away from the employee’s position.
(d) Ability to interchange between declarative and goal-seeking states of
the integration models: when in declarative mode, models work simply
as formal structures, or simulators of how the integrated enterprise
operates. In goal-seeking mode, the model emphasizes improvements
that can lead to goal attainment or “satisfying,” to use Simon’s term
(Simon, 1957).