Collaborative Work Dynamics in Projects with Co-Production

What is it about?

Many knowledge-intensive projects such as new product and software design, research, and high technology development have flexible scope and involve co-production between a client and a vendor. In such projects, it is often challenging to estimate how much progress can be achieved within a certain time window or how much time may be needed to achieve a certain degree of progress, especially because the client and vendor often adjust their efforts as a function of the project’s progress, the time until the deadline, and the incentives in place. Effective contracts should therefore be flexible in scope and foster collaboration. In this study, we characterize the collaborative work dynamics of a client and a vendor who are engaged in a multi-state, multi-period stochastic project with a finite deadline.

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