The Universal & Atomic Elements of Organization
A falsifiable scientific theory proposing that the same irreducible structures organize both thought and reality — from the quantum to the social scale.
O-Theory proposes that four irreducible structures — Distinctions, Systems, Relationships and Perspectives (DSRP) — form the universal grammar of organization. Rather than being merely useful ways of thinking, these structures are hypothesized to be the atomic elements from which every organized phenomenon emerges, whether in cognition, biology, physics, mathematics, society, or the cosmos.
| D | S | R | P |
| Distinctions | Systems | Relationships | Perspectives |
| Identity ↔ Other | Part ↔ Whole | Action ↔ Reaction | Point ↔ View |
| D := (i ↔ o) | S := (p ↔ w) | R := (a ↔ r) | P := (ṗ ↔ v) |
This is a living scientific evidence compendium: an open, continually evolving collection of independent empirical research, formal theory, mathematical proofs, cross-disciplinary analyses, applications, critiques, and proposed falsifications. Every entry is included because it supports, refines, challenges, or attempts to falsify the theory.
Scientific theories are strengthened not only by evidence that confirms their predictions, but also by surviving attempts to falsify them. This compendium brings both together: independent evidence from researchers who were not testing DSRP and proposed counterexamples evaluated against the formal theory.
One counterexample is enough to falsify O-Theory. Until then, the question remains: do the same four structures organize everything from quantum systems to human thought?
Independent convergence is one of the strongest forms of scientific evidence because researchers arrive at the same conclusion while investigating different questions for different reasons.
The number is not the point. Researchers in different fields, studying different questions with different methods, repeatedly arrived at the same structural predictions—almost always without testing DSRP or using its language.
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This compendium began as the peer-reviewed literature review “A Literature Review of the Universal and Atomic Elements of Complex Cognition,” published in the Journal of Systems Thinking with 109 studies. That paper is the peer-reviewed foundation. What you see here is its living, continuously updated version . New studies are checked before they are added, and the collection now holds and keeps growing. Open any card to see what the researchers found, why it bears on DSRP, and where the original review discusses it, the fuller account.
The collection is updated continuously, so the citation carries the date you consulted it rather than a study count — the count changes weekly, and putting it in the reference would make the same collection look like a different work to everyone who cites it. To cite a single claim or study, use its own address: every one has a permanent link.
This is the adversarial half of the compendium. Where the evidence track asks what converges on DSRP, this one asks what would end it: a single organized phenomenon whose structure needs a fifth pattern, a ninth element, or a fifth structural dynamic. It holds written up from candidates across territories, and resolutions — the general answers those cases settle against. Every case is published whether it held or failed, including the ones still open.
Cite this rather than the evidence collection when the point is what survived attack. The two are separate works with separate addresses: one asks what converges on the theory, the other asks what would end it, and a reference to the first does not support a claim about the second. Case and resolution numbers change when the record is revised, so cite a case by its own permanent link rather than by number.
This collection is meant to keep growing. Send us a study, paper, book or critique that bears on DSRP, whether it supports the theory or cuts against it, and we will read it and decide whether it belongs.
Authors Issam EL Idrissi, Nada Rejeb, Youssef Alami
Year 2026
Publisher Journal of Family Business Management
Kind of work article
Discipline Business & Management
Read it at the publisher 10.1108/jfbm-03-2026-0074
Purpose: This paper examines governance mechanisms in Moroccan listed family firms, emphasizing how anticipated regulatory changes interact with strong family entrenchment to affect real earnings management and financial performance. Design/methodology/approach: This study analyzes 42 family firms listed on the Casablanca Stock Exchange from 2016 to 2022. It uses a dynamic panel with the System GMM estimator to address endogeneity, unobserved heterogeneity and moderation. Findings: The results indicate that a governance hierarchy emphasizing cognitive diversity, particularly gender diversity, more effectively challenges family power than structural independence does. While board independence reflects symbolic compliance and is associated with negative performance effects, gender diversity serves as a governance barrier that disrupts family entrenchment and significantly reduces opportunistic real earnings management. Research limitations/implications: The study is constrained by limited data access given the relatively small number of listed firms in Morocco. Comparative studies across emerging markets could examine whether the governance hierarchy we identify also appears in other legal and cultural contexts. Practical implications: The findings indicate that gender diversity is a strategic advantage for long-term survival, rather than a regulatory burden. It helps safeguard the family legacy by preventing value-destroying earnings manipulation that family CEOs might engage in to maintain control. Originality/value: This paper develops and tests a governance hierarchy model, showing that governance mechanisms occupy distinct positions, and extending previous work on the configurational perspective of corporate governance.
To examine how governance mechanisms in Moroccan listed family firms interact with family entrenchment to affect real earnings management and financial performance.
42 family firms listed on the Casablanca Stock Exchange, observed from 2016 to 2022.
Dynamic panel analysis using the System GMM estimator to address endogeneity, unobserved heterogeneity, and moderation effects.
A governance hierarchy in which gender diversity, rather than board independence, more effectively curbed family entrenchment: board independence was associated with negative performance effects, while gender diversity significantly reduced opportunistic real earnings management.
The finding combines a systems (S) structure, in which governance mechanisms occupy distinct positions within a hierarchical governance system, with a relationships (R) structure, in which specific mechanisms are shown to relate differently to family power and firm performance.
Patterns it shows S, R
Added 2026-09-17
How to cite this Issam EL Idrissi, Nada Rejeb, Youssef Alami (2026). Beyond structural compliance: a governance hierarchy perspective on family power and board effectiveness. Journal of Family Business Management.