Computational & Mathematical Organization Theory 6:2 (2000): 161–170 c 2000 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Manufactured in The Netherlands °

A Niche Width Model of Optimal Specialization JEROEN BRUGGEMAN Faculty of Technology and Management, Twente University, PO Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, Netherlands [email protected] ´ O ´ NUALLAIN ´ BREANNDAN CCSOM, Universiteit van Amsterdam, Sarphatistraat 143, 1018 GD, Amsterdam, Netherlands [email protected]

Abstract Niche width theory, a part of organizational ecology, predicts whether “specialist” or “generalist” forms of organizations have higher “fitness,” in a continually changing environment. To this end, niche width theory uses a mathematical model borrowed from biology. In this paper, we first loosen the specialist-generalist dichotomy, so that we can predict the optimal degree of specialization. Second, we generalize the model to a larger class of environmental conditions, on the basis of the model’s underlying assumptions. Third, we criticize the way the biological model is treated in sociological theory. Two of the model’s dimensions seem to be confused, i.e., that of trait and environment; the predicted optimal specialization is a property of individual organizations, not of populations; and, the distinction between “fine” and “coarse grained” environments is superfluous. Keywords: theory reconstruction, niche theory, specialization, organizational ecology, bounded flexibility

1.

Introduction

Organizational ecology is a theory about “Darwinian selection” among organizations in populations (Carroll and Hannan, 1995). According to this theory, organizations are inert with respect to changes in their environment (Hannan and Freeman, 1984). Once an organization allocates its capacity to some range of environmental resources, it can not readily re-allocate, and environmental selection then determines what organizational forms are viable. Niche width theory, which is a part of organizational ecology, predicts for given patterns of environmental change whether “specialist” or “generalist” forms of organization will have higher “fitness.” After niche width theory was introduced to sociology by Hannan and Freeman (1977, 1983), it became part of an important and widely known handbook about organizational ecology (Hannan and Freeman, 1989), and found its way into student textbooks (Grandori, 1987; Scott, 1992), empirical studies (Br¨uderl et al., 1996), and organizational handbooks (Barnett, 1995). In niche width theory, Hannan and Freeman use a mathematical model borrowed from biology (Levins, 1968; Roughgarden, 1979). In this paper, we will analyze and discuss this particular model, and expand its domain of possible applications. Hannan and Freeman dichotomize organizational forms into “specialists” and “generalists.” We generalize the model to degrees of specialization, in Section 2, and predict the optimal degree, in Section 3. Subsequently, we generalize to more complex patterns of

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environmental change. In Section 4, we raise some points of discussion about the use of the model in organization theory and summarize our results in Section 5. 2.

Fitness

Organizations depend on resources from their environment (Hannan and Freeman, 1989, p. 98). Niche width theory deals with spreading organizational capacity over a range of environmental resources. The quantity optimized, then, is organizational fitness, here to be interpreted as survival chance. According to niche width theory, an organizational form can be efficient, thus having high fitness, in a narrow range of environments (narrow niche), or be less efficient, having lower fitness, in a broader range of environments (wide niche).1 In niche width theory, a specialist is conceptualized as having a narrow niche and a generalist having a wide niche. The optimal niche width, yielding highest mean fitness in a given period, depends on environmental fluctuations and the dissimilarity of environmental states. 2.1.

Fitness Function

In niche width theory, an environmental state is described as a point in a multidimensional environment space, of which the dimensions denote resources and environmental constraints. Similarly, an organization, or organizational form, is described as a point in a multidimensional parameter space. Each dimension in this parameter space corresponds to a property, called “trait,” of the organization. Fitness is a function of both the environment E XE ), where EE denotes the point in and the organization and can thus be written as f ( E, the environmental space corresponding to the environment in question and XE denotes the point in the organizational space corresponding to the organizational form in question. As a simplification, we consider, following Hannan and Freeman (1977), only one dimension of environment, E, and only one organizational parameter and describe the fitness of a particular organization in an environment by a fitness function, f (E, X ). Organizational ecology’s basic idea of organizational inertia (Hannan and Freeman, 1984) is modeled by assuming the trait fixed and only the environment varying. Hence we write the fitness as a function of only the environment, and refer to the niche function, n(E). When considering an organizational form given by a particular value of the organizational parameter, X , we have n(E) = f (E, X ). 2.2.

Niche Function

Niche width theory makes the assumption that an organization is at its best for one environment, and is decreasingly good at handling increasingly dissimilar environments, or resource levels. This assumption is modeled by a bell-shaped curve (Levins, 1968, p. 14). This means that given a certain organizational form, there is one optimal value of the environment, yielding maximal fitness and other environmental values yielding less fitness. In particular we assume a niche function to have the following properties (Levins, 1968):

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n is always positive; ∀E, n(E) > 0. n is a continuous, twice differentiable function of E. In the limit as E → ±∞, n(E) → 0. n has a single local maximum (an E 0 where n 0 (E 0 ) = 0 and n 00 (E 0 ) < 0). This will be the environmental value for which the given organization has optimal fitness. 5. n has precisely two points of inflexion (an E i where n 00 (E i ) = 0). This means that the curve does not have several “wrinkles” on each side.

1. 2. 3. 4.

In order to proceed we choose a particular functional form for the niche function, viz. a Gaussian function. This is perhaps the simplest and most natural functional form which has the above properties. This will allow us to make exact calculations and thus predictions about the relative fitness of an organizational form in an environment. Thus, we write: n(E) = φe−γ

2

(E−ε)2

Here, ε is the environmental value in which the organizational form has optimal fitness, φ is the optimum fitness, i.e. the fitness associated with the environmental value ε, and γ is a measure of the niche width, i.e. of specialization. Were n a statistical distribution then γ would be the inverse of the standard deviation of the distribution.2 Hannan and Freeman assume that an organization has a certain fixed capacity that it can allocate to a certain range of environment, i.e. niche. This constraint is called the principle of allocation (1983, p. 1119). To express the principle of allocation mathematically, we normalize the niche function so that we consider only functions which have a constant area under their curve. This is readily obtained by setting φ = γ . Our niche function has now two free parameters, which determine the organizational form. Moreover, Hannan and Freeman want to determine mean fitness during a period of observation. Following Levins, they approximate continuous environmental changes in such a period by a sequence of discrete “patches.” Also for simplicity, they start out with a variable environment which can be in one of only two states, E 1 or E 2 (Hannan and Freeman, 1977). The environment fluctuates between the two states, or “patches” as instances of these states. In order to predict the environmental focus and the degree of specialization which are optimal in a certain patchy environment, one needs an optimization principle that specifies the quantity which must be maximized. 2.3.

Optimization

An optimization principle from the biological literature (Roughgarden, 1979, p. 269) that is also used in organizational ecology, is the so called geometric mean fitness, Ag . We will elaborate Levins’s argument and show how this optimization principle is derived from simple assumptions about survival chances in a period of observation. Consider an observation period from t0 to t, and break it up into k intervals each of length 1t. In each time interval 1t, an organization has a chance of survival, w(t)1t, where w(t) is the fitness value for the environmental state at time t. By taking 1t small enough,

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w will take one value in any interval (ti , ti + 1t). We write P(t) for the probability of being “alive” at time t. Now, because the survival chance of the whole period is the product of the survival chances of the k intervals in that period, we have à P(t0 + k1t) =

! k−1 Y (w(t0 + i1t)1t) P(t0 ), i=0

the chance of surviving the interval (t0 , t) then being equal to k−1 Y

w(t0 + i1t)1t.

i=0

For an environment that can be in one of only two states, E 1 and E 2 , occurring in proportion c1 : c2 (and normalizing so that c1 + c2 = 1), this becomes the geometric mean fitness, Ag , Ag = w1c1 w2c2 . Here, the survival chance takes the value w1 in environment E 1 , and w2 in E 2 . Following Levins and Roughgarden, our optimization principle will be to maximize the quantity Ag . This will allow us to predict the optimal parameters for any proportion of patches whereas Hannan and Freeman (1977) consider only two different proportions of patches in their theory, namely high variability when c1 : c2 ≈ .5 : .5 and low variability when c1 (or c2 ) has a value close to one. Ag will be maximized to find the optimal point for maximum organizational effort, εmax , and the optimal degree of specialization, γmax . Organizations with optimal values for these two parameters have maximal fitness in the given environment.

3.

Optimal Specialization

In order to find these optimal values in an environment with two types of patches (E 1 and E 2 ) occurring in proportion c1 : c2 (normalized so that c1 + c2 = 1), we seek the maximum ∂A ∂A value of Ag by setting ∂εg = 0 and ∂γg = 0. Within Ag , we set w1 = n(E 1 ) and w2 = n(E 2 ). Since Ag = w1c1 w2c2 ¡ 2 2 ¢c ¡ 2 2 ¢c = γ e−γ (E1 −ε) 1 γ e−γ (E2 −ε) 2 , ∂A

setting ∂εg = 0 yields εmax = c1 E 1 + c2 E 2 , that is to say, selection favors organizations investing maximum effort in an environment corresponding to the weighted mean of the two environmental states.

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A NICHE WIDTH MODEL

Setting

∂ Ag ∂γ

= 0 yields

1 γmax = q ¡ ¢ 2 2 2 c1 E 1 + c2 E 22 − εmax The reader who wishes to see the details of the calculation is referred to the appendix. That γmax is unique and that it is in fact a maximum for Ag can both be readily shown. What we have now is a measure of how widely organizational effort should be spread among environmental states around the optimal value of ε, in order to have maximal fitness. Selection favors those organizations which have values at or near εmax and γmax . Figure 1 shows how the degree of specialization depends on the relative distance between environmental patches for several values of the variability. The results can be generalized in three steps. First we generalize to environments consisting of more than two types of patches. The resulting generalizations for an environment consisting of m types of patches, E 1 , E 2 , . . . , E m occurring in proportions c1 : c2 : . . . : cm respectively (where εmax =

m X

Pm

i = 1 ci

= 1) are:

ci E i

i=1

Figure 1. The closer the environmental states are, the more specialized we expect the organization to be. This relation is shown for various values of the variability, c1 : c2 .

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166 and 1 γmax = q ¡ P ¡ Pm ¢2 ¢ m 2 2 i=1 ci E i − i=1 ci E i

Continuously varying environments can be accommodated by replacing the weights ci by an environmental density function. The summations in the expressions above then become integrals over all possible values of the environment parameter. We can further generalize to allow for a richer description of an environmental state, given in terms of more parameters. In place of a scalar, E, an environmental state is then E which gives the values of the parameters characterizing the state. described by a vector, E, 4.

Discussion

As an example of a possible application of our model, consider an organization and one dimension of environment, E, denoting the amount of work to be done. If the amount of work is stable, the organization can install and exploit an efficient human resource arrangement for a fixed number of workers. If, however, the amount of work fluctuates, the organization must have a more flexible human resource arrangement to survive, with a varying number of workers and more complex scheduling and coordinating. The more flexible the human resource arrangement, the less efficient it will be for any given level of work. This flexibility can be modeled according to the principle of allocation, and environmental fluctuations can be modeled as a sequence of patches. Our model can then compute the optimal flexibility for the organization. In this example, the parameters of the model can be seen as specifying a window of flexibility. Beyond this window, organizations are inert, which points out that organizational flexibility is not without bounds and traded off against fitness—contrary to claims in popular management theory. Rather than computing optimal specialization, as we do in our model, the predictions in organizational ecology are graphically inferred from “fitness sets” (Hannan and Freeman, 1977; Freeman and Hannan, 1983). A fitness set is defined as { f (X, E) | E = E 1 or E = E 2 } (Roughgarden, 1979, p. 267). In this fitness set approach, a set of fitness values is depicted in a diagram for two given environmental states, E 1 , and E 2 , and a certain (continuous) range of trait values in a population (Levins, 1968, pp. 10–20), (Roughgarden, 1979, pp. 265– 273). This diagram is used by biologists to predict optimal trait values in a population, not to make predictions about specialization. The trait dimension is orthogonal to the environment dimension on which niche width and specialization are defined. What, then, is the niche width, i.e., the degree of specialization, of the trait values that are optimal according to the fitness set approach? Let us briefly return to our example. One could elaborate our example by explicating different traits of the human resource arrangement, such as the number of workers, the number of tasks, or remuneration for extra hours. If these trait dimensions are related to the environment dimension, each of these traits would have a different relation to it. Generalizing from example to niche theory, there is no general “law” in the possible relations between traits and environments, which could be implemented into the fitness function if there were such a law. Neither in the biological

A NICHE WIDTH MODEL

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source texts nor in organizational ecology niche width is related to traits. Without a clearly defined relation between niche width and traits, which should be based on a sound argument, it is not at all clear how fitness sets would predict optimal specialization, as Hannan and Freeman intend to do. This is not a problem with our model, though, since we compute our results and do not use fitness sets. Another point of discussion is that Hannan and Freeman’s niche width theory focuses on organizational populations, not individual organizations. For populations, fitness is usually interpreted in terms of a rate (founding, mortality, or growth rate) (Hannan and Freeman, 1989). When inferring an optimization principle, in Section 2.3, we have shown that the resulting optimization principle hinges on the assumption that fitness means survival chance. Chance of survival, however, is usually regarded as a property of individual organizations, not of populations. If fitness is not supposed to denote (individual) survival chance but population fitness instead, then additional assumptions would be necessary, or a different optimization principle. Furthermore, there is the principle of allocation. Hannan and Freeman sometimes say (but do not argue) that it holds for populations (1983, p. 1119; 1977, p. 948), but at other times they discuss allocation of capacity at the level of individual organizations (1977, pp. 948, 949). This is not our problem either, since we claim no more than computing fitness of individual organizations. Our last point of discussion considers the “grain size” of patches. Hannan and Freeman distinguish between environmental fluctuations at high frequency ( fine grained) and at low frequency (coarse grained) and use a different optimization principle in each case. Since the optimization principle of the former can be proven to be an approximation of the optimization principle of the latter, Ag , the former is redundant.3 In other words, if you want to compute optimal specialization for a fine grained environment by using that particular optimization principle, you can more accurately compute it by Ag , and more easily find an analytic solution. This was overlooked by Levins and Roughgarden, and both optimization principles have been carried over to organizational ecology. The distinction between fine and coarse grain is of course important, because organizations need slack resources to sit out bad patches. In coarse grained environments, patches, both good and bad, last longer than in fine grained environments and should, according to Hannan and Freeman, receive larger weight. Conversely, in fine grained environments, patches should receive relatively less weight. But this is precisely what the geometric mean fitness does. Calls for a second optimization principle are based on a misunderstanding. We compute all our results by means of Ag , and do not need to distinguish between fine and coarse grain, since our optimization principle will take care of it. 5.

Conclusions

By analyzing and reconstructing niche width theory, we showed that two dimensions of the mathematical model, trait and environment, are not related and should not be confused. We furthermore argued that predictions based on the model are about specialization of individual organizations, not of populations. After making the computational background of the optimization principle explicit, we could see no added value in approximating the optimal outcome by applying the optimization

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principle for fine grain, over computing it precisely, by applying the optimization principle for coarse grain. Therefore we discarded the optimization principle for fine grain. By developing an expanded version of the niche model, we can compute the optimal degree of specialization and the point of focal effort for individual organizations. We generalized high and low variability to any proportion of environmental states, and the dichotomy between specialists and generalists to degrees of specialization. For two types of patches, we predict that specialization increases with decreasing distance between E 1 and E 2 , i.e. increasing similarity of the states.4 We further generalized niche width theory to any number of environmental states. Appendix We have Ag = w1c1 w2c2 , where wi = γ e−γ

2

(E i −ε)2

for i = 1, 2 and c1 , c2 are normalized so that c1 + c2 = 1. Plugging in the values for the wi , we get Ag = w1c1 w2c2 ¡ 2 2 ¢c ¡ 2 2 ¢c = γ e−γ (E1 −ε) 1 γ e−γ (E2 −ε) 2 = γ c1 + c2 e−γ = γ e−γ

2

2

(c1 (E 1 −ε)2 +c2 (E 2 −ε)2 )

(c1 (E 1 −ε)2 +c2 (E 2 −ε)2 )

Differentiating with respect to ε gives ∂ Ag 2 2 2 = γ e−γ (c1 (E1 −ε) +c2 (E2 −ε) ) (−γ 2 (−2c1 (E 1 − ε) − 2c2 (E 2 − ε))), ∂ε which, when set to zero gives −2c1 (E 1 − ε) − 2c2 (E 2 − ε) = 0 since none of the other factors can be zero. Simplification then yields εmax = c1 E 1 + c2 E 2 . To find γmax , we maximize Ag w.r.t. γ : ∂ Ag 2 2 2 = e−γ (c1 (E1 −ε) +c2 (E2 −ε) ) ∂γ 2 2 2 −2γ 2 (c1 (E 1 − ε)2 + c2 (E 2 − ε)2 ) e−γ (c1 (E1 −ε) +c2 (E2 −ε) ) = (1 − 2γ 2 (c1 (E 1 − ε)2 + c2 (E 2 − ε)2 )) e−γ

2

(c1 (E 1 −ε)2 +c2 (E 2 −ε)2 )

,

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which, when set to zero, and setting ε = εmax , yields 2 (c1 (E 1 − εmax )2 + c2 (E 2 − εmax )2 ) = 0 1 − 2γmax ¡ ¢ 2 2 − 2c1 E 1 εmax − 2c2 E 2 εmax = 0 ⇒ 1 − 2γmax c1 E 12 + c2 E 22 + (c1 + c2 )εmax ¡ ¢ 2 2 − 2c1 E 1 εmax − 2c2 E 2 εmax = 0 c1 E 12 + c2 E 22 + εmax ⇒ 1 − 2γmax ¡ ¢ 2 2 − 2(c1 E 1 + c2 E 2 )εmax = 0 c1 E 12 + c2 E 22 + εmax ⇒ 1 − 2γmax ¡ ¢ 2 2 2 − 2εmax c1 E 12 + c2 E 22 + εmax =0 ⇒ 1 − 2γmax ¡ ¢ 2 2 c1 E 12 + c2 E 22 − εmax =0 ⇒ 1 − 2γmax 1 ⇒ γmax = q ¡ ¢. 2 2 c1 E 12 + c2 E 22 − εmax

The equational form used in figure 1 is reached via: 2 (c1 (E 1 − εmax )2 + c2 (E 2 − εmax )2 ) = 0 1 − 2γmax 2 (c1 (E 1 − (c1 E 1 + c2 E 2 ))2 + c2 (E 2 − (c1 E 1 + c2 E 2 ))2 ) = 0 ⇒ 1 − 2γmax 2 (c1 (c2 (E 1 − E 2 ))2 + c2 (c1 (E 1 − E 2 ))2 ) = 0 ⇒ 1 − 2γmax 2 ⇒ 1 − 2γmax (c1 c2 (c1 + c2 )(E 1 − E 2 )2 ) = 0 2 (c1 c2 (E 1 − E 2 )2 ) = 0 ⇒ 1 − 2γmax 1 . ⇒ γmax = √ 2c1 c2 |E 1 − E 2 |

Acknowledgments The authors wish to express their thanks to Natalie Glance, Dirk Sikkel, and Michael Masuch. This research was supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) through a PIONIER project awarded to Michael Masuch (grant # PGS 50-334). Notes 1. Niche width theory deals with spreading organizational capacity over a range of environments in an abstract manner, and does not treat organizational structure at any level of detail. In this paper, we do not treat organizational structure either and focus on the mathematical model. 2. For a statistical distribution, the surface area under its curve should equal 1. For our purposes, this area should be constant, which it is, although not necessarily 1, which it is not. 3. If in the geometric mean fitness 1t is very small, then the terms in (1t)2 and higher powers “vanish”, so to speak. Once these vanishing terms are left out of the equation, the alternative optimization principle is obtained (Levins, 1968, p. 18). 4. This conclusion is based on relatively simple assumptions. Organizational practice is more complicated, and in particular, if the distance between environmental states increases, an organization can not go on spreading its capacity indefinitely without substantial loss of fitness; an organization is then likely to form several divisions, each specialized to a different part of the environment (Chandler, 1962). The divisional form, called “polymorph” in organizational ecology, requires more complex assumptions, and is currently not taken into

170

´ NUALLAIN ´ BRUGGEMAN AND O

account. Notice that these polymorphs are not the same as polymorph populations in the fitness set approach. In the former, the pertaining organizations are linked by a holding company; hence they can mutually benefit from each other’s fitness in times of hardship. In polymorph populations, in contrast, individual organizations are not related in this way.

References Barnett, W. (1995), “Population Ecology” in N. Nicholson (Ed.) Encyclopedic Dictionary of Organizational Behavior. Blackwell, Cambridge, MA, pp. 432–435. Br¨uderl, J., P. Preisend¨orfer and R. Ziegler (1996), Der Erfolg neugegr¨undeter Betriebe. Duncker und Humblot, Berlin. Carroll, G.R. and M.T. Hannan (Eds.) (1995), Organizations in Industry. Oxford University Press, Oxford. Chandler, A. (1962), Strategy and Structure. M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, M.A. Freeman, J. and M.T. Hannan (1983), “Niche Width and the Dynamics of Organizational Populations,” American Journal of Sociology, 88, 1116–1145. Grandori, A. (1987), Perspectives on Organization Theory. Balinger, Cambridge, MA. Hannan, M.T. and J. Freeman (1977), “The Population Ecology of Organizations,” American Journal of Sociology, 82, 929–964. Hannan, M.T. and J. Freeman (1984), “Structural Inertia and Organizational Change,” American Sociological Review, 49, 149–164. Hannan, M.T. and J. Freeman (1989), Organizational Ecology. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA. Levins, R. (1968), Evolution in Changing Environments. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J. Roughgarden, J. (1979), The Theory of Population Genetics and Evolutionary Ecology. Macmillan, New York. Scott, W.R. (1992), Organizations: Rational, Natural, and Open Systems, 3rd ed. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs.

Jeroen Bruggeman is a sociologist with a strong interest in formal theory (re)construction. Together with his co-author and with G´abor P´eli and Michael Masuch, he has done work in logical formalization (e.g., “A Logical Approach to Formalizing Organizational Ecology,” American Sociological Review, 59:571–593).

´ Nuall´ain is a member of the Center for Computer Science in Organization and Management Science Breannd´an O (CCSOM) of the University of Amsterdam. He develops Automated Deduction techniques for reasoning about formal theories.

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