Blackboxes, Hostages and Prisoners
基于IT创新项目样本的实证证据，检验技术知识组织的理论模型，指出威廉姆森交易成本理论忽视社会行动的作用，并提出IT专家使用的三种社会封闭策略：黑箱、人质与囚徒。
This paper uses empirical evidence drawn from a sample of IT-based innova tion projects to examine theoretical models of the organization of technical knowledge. It suggests that Williamson's transaction cost account is incom plete, in that it fails to take account of the role of social action in communicat ing technical knowledge and organizing transactions. As an alternative model, it describes the 'strategies of social closure' developed by IT experts to achieve effective knowledge trading and a mutually acceptable division of the eco nomic gains of innovation. Empirical data is used to describe three such strat egies : 'blackboxing', 'hostage' and 'prisoner' strategies.