Canonical Papers
The canonical papers establish the vocabulary, architecture, economics, and governance of organizational cognition. Each is published openly and versioned as the research develops.
Business Architecture
Establishes the business case for treating organizational cognition as owned infrastructure rather than rented software. Defines the cognitive fabric as the connective layer through which an enterprise observes, remembers, reasons, and decides — and argues that its ownership determines long-run competitive position.
Read PaperTechnical Architecture
The companion technical account of the cognitive fabric: identity, ontology, relationships, memory, and reasoning as a layered, inspectable system. Specifies how evidence flows into judgment, how provenance is preserved, and how the fabric improves as connections accrue.
Read PaperHow leadership changes when reasoning is institutionalized
Examines how executive work is reshaped when judgment is captured, examined, and reused at the level of the institution. Distinguishes automation of tasks from institutionalization of reasoning, and describes the operating model of an organization whose leadership thinks with a persistent cognitive substrate.
Read PaperWhy organizations forget, and what it costs
A theory of organizational forgetting. Argues that most enterprise knowledge is lost in the transition from decision to document, and proposes institutional memory as a first-class capability — durable, queryable, and accountable — rather than an accident of tenure and turnover.
Read PaperJudgment as intellectual property
Frames judgment — the capacity to reason well under uncertainty — as the scarce, compounding asset of the modern enterprise. Develops a model for how organizational judgment is formed, transferred, and protected, and why it, not information, is the basis of durable advantage.
Read PaperA foundational definition
The founding paper of the discipline. Defines the cognitive organization as an enterprise that institutionalizes reasoning, preserves judgment, and learns continuously — and sets out the vocabulary, principles, and research agenda that the institute exists to advance.
Read PaperMarkets when judgment is the scarce resource
Analyzes how markets reorganize when compounding judgment, rather than information, becomes scarce. Describes the economics of a shared cognitive substrate serving many fields of use, and the conditions under which cognitive infrastructure accrues increasing returns.
Read PaperWorking drafts and earlier research are collected in the Library. For the active research agenda, see Research.