Perspective—From Gaussian to Paretian Thinking: Causes and Implications of Power Laws in Organizations
指出组织中普遍存在幂律分布，忽视其影响会导致错误结论和无用建议，并介绍了15种适用于组织的无尺度理论及研究启示。
Although normal distributions and related current quantitative methods are still relevant for some organizational research, the growing ubiquity of power laws signifies that Pareto rank/frequency distributions, fractals, and underlying scale-free theories are increasingly pervasive and valid characterizations of organizational dynamics. When they apply, researchers ignoring power-law effects risk drawing false conclusions and promulgating useless advice to practitioners. This is because what is important to most managers are the extremes they face, not the averages. We show that power laws are pervasive in the organizational world and present 15 scale-free theories that apply to organizations. Next we discuss research implications embedded in Pareto rank/frequency distributions and draw statistical and methodological implications.