The productivity paradox, chaotic systems, and dissipative enterprises

Abstract

This paper explores the problem of "the productivity paradox," in which some industries that experienced the highest rates of capital investment during the past decade encountered low growth rates. It uses interdisciplinary concepts from the fields of deterministic chaos, information theory and cybernetics to construct a model of a production system as a dynamic, self-organizing system, in which dynamic, "far from equilibrium" dissipative systems are fundamental instruments in productivity improvement.<>