Boundary Organizations: An Evaluation of Their Impact Through a Multi-Agent System

Abstract

Modern environmental issues imply that decision-makers consider simultaneously various dimensions, such as science and economics. To take into account opinions from experts of different fields, they can rely on boundary organizations, institutions able to cross the gap between different domains and act beyond the boundaries. By encouraging a flow of useful information, they provide a better understanding of a situation characterized by uncertainty, increasing the efficiency of the decision-making process. Though never formally proved, this hypothesis is widely accepted based on the observation of existing institutions. In this paper, we observe the impact of boundary organizations through an agent-based model of continuous opinion dynamics over two dimensions where heterogeneous experts distinguished by credibility and uncertainty interact. We conclude that boundary organizations significantly reduce the diversity of opinions expressed and increase the number of experts agreeing to emerging positions, which confirms their positive impact on the efficiency of decision-making.