  Multi-unit organizations such as retail chains are interested in the
diffusion of best practices throughout all divisions. However, the strict
guidelines or incentive schemes may not always be effective in promoting the
replication of a practice. In this paper we analyze how the individual belief
systems, namely the desire of individuals to conform, may be used to spread
knowledge between departments. We develop an agent-based simulation of an
organization with different network structures between divisions through which
the knowledge is shared, and observe the resulting synchrony. We find that the
effect of network structures on the diffusion of knowledge depends on the
interdependencies between divisions, and that peer-to-peer exchange of
information is more effective in reaching synchrony than unilateral sharing of
knowledge from one division. Moreover, we find that centralized network
structures lead to lower performance in organizations.

General Economics;Economics