SYSTEMS RESEARCH AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE最新文献

{"title":"Mapping mental models through an improved method for identifying causal structures in qualitative data","authors":"Erin S. Kenzie, Wayne Wakeland, Antonie Jetter, Kristen Hassmiller Lich, Mellodie Seater, Melinda M. Davis","doi":"10.1002/sres.3030","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/sres.3030","url":null,"abstract":"Qualitative data are commonly used in the development of system dynamics models, but methods for systematically identifying causal structures in qualitative data have not been widely established. This article presents a modified process for identifying causal structures (e.g., feedback loops) that are communicated implicitly or explicitly and utilizes software to make coding, tracking, and model rendering more efficient. This approach draws from existing methods, system dynamics best practice, and qualitative data analysis techniques. Steps of this method are presented along with a description of causal structures for an audience new to system dynamics. The method is applied to a set of interviews describing mental models of clinical practice transformation from an implementation study of screening and treatment for unhealthy alcohol use in primary care. This approach has the potential to increase rigour and transparency in the use of qualitative data for model building and to broaden the user base for causal‐loop diagramming.","PeriodicalId":47538,"journal":{"name":"SYSTEMS RESEARCH AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2024-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141342828","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Strategic, tactical, complex and simple changes to farm systems","authors":"Geoff Kaine, Vic Wright, Suzanne Vallance","doi":"10.1002/sres.3026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/sres.3026","url":null,"abstract":"Pressure has grown to reconfigure commercial farm systems to ameliorate resource degradation as governments have increasingly sought to halt or reverse the damaging effects of agriculture on the environment. Now, climate change is creating additional pressure to redesign farm systems to withstand more variable, and historically more extreme, seasonal conditions. Meeting these pressures is thought to require a combination of responses ranging from incremental adjustments to farm systems through to their complete transformation into entirely new enterprises. Implementing each of these entails different resources, time horizons, skills, knowledge and planning, and this has corresponding consequences for any government or industry policies intended to promote adoption or compliance. While there is an extensive literature on the adoption of technology and management practices in agriculture, the literature on different types of change to farm systems, and the criteria for distinguishing between types, is limited. We describe a novel approach to classifying changes to farm systems by integrating a method for describing the strategic and tactical flexibility of farm systems with a method for describing the complexity of changes to farm systems. The resulting classification provides a framework for inferring the nature of the resources, skills, knowledge, planning and time needed to implement the different types of change. We provide illustrative examples drawn from a series of interviews with farmers of each type of change and discuss the implications for extension, agricultural and environmental policy and policy regarding adaptation to climate change. We found that heterogeneity in farm systems translates into heterogeneity in adoption processes. We believe that our approach provides a practical way of translating commonly used broad descriptors of adaptation, such as ‘incremental’, ‘systems’ and ‘transformational’, into the specific type of the change that farmers must make to their farm systems to enact adaptations, with consequent implications for the effective policy support of adaptation.","PeriodicalId":47538,"journal":{"name":"SYSTEMS RESEARCH AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2024-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141366184","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Systemic relation between innovation capabilities, innovation strategy, and financial performance of small and medium enterprises: Impact of technology trajectory, management obstacles, and investment","authors":"I. Quintero-Sepúlveda, Luciano Gallón‐Londoño, Alexander Zuñiga Collazos","doi":"10.1002/sres.3027","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/sres.3027","url":null,"abstract":"Innovation capabilities are an asset of the company to achieve competitive advantages, are related to strategy and impact on financial performance. They have been analyzed with quantitative methods that, although allow determining the causal relationships between the variables, are not enough to understand their dynamics, especially in developing countries. This study used structural equation modeling to confirm the relationships among four innovation strategies and innovation capabilities and financial performance in a sample comprising 135 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Colombia. In addition, an exploratory System Dynamics simulation model was designed based on archetypes to broaden the understanding of the behavior of relationships as variables change. It was found that investment in innovation capabilities, management obstacles, and the impact of changes in the technology trajectory influence the dynamics of the problem. Furthermore, different strategies generate different behaviors in innovation capabilities and different financial performance. Other theoretical and practical findings and implications are discussed.","PeriodicalId":47538,"journal":{"name":"SYSTEMS RESEARCH AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2024-06-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141374570","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Dynamics of circular business development: The case of social clothing recycle","authors":"Francesca Costanza","doi":"10.1002/sres.3025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/sres.3025","url":null,"abstract":"Nowadays, scholars and policymakers see circular economy (CE) as a relevant paradigm to pursue sustainability. Despite the mushrooming literature on CE, management studies lack in describing CE implementation features at a firm level and the driving forces for circular conversion. This paper thus seeks to investigate the key dynamics occurring in native circular firms to support hypotheses generation on the development and diffusion of circular business models. For this purpose, two representative case studies in the social clothing sector have been performed with a qualitative and participative approach, making use of system dynamics (SD) tools. Cases' narrative and embedded SD causal structures depict the organization's business, environmental, social and educational features. The model illustrates self‐reinforcing dynamics of circular consumptions and sales, organizational capacity building and consumer conversion to circularity. Composite learning mechanisms and educational initiatives catalyse the commercial business and disclose a role for circular companies in the affirmation of CE as an alternative paradigm to the linear economy. Furthermore, case‐based inductive understanding is discussed through a typological matrix that contains a classification of CE businesses. Overall, the paper attempts to contribute to the management field by describing the development dynamics of CE business models. The case studies, faced with an SD approach, provide insights on implementation mechanisms of CE at a company level and are the basis of new hypotheses generation on circular development and conversion.","PeriodicalId":47538,"journal":{"name":"SYSTEMS RESEARCH AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2024-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141386355","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Algorithmic responsibility without accountability: Understanding data‐intensive algorithms and decisions in organisations","authors":"C. Besio, Cornelia Fedtke, Michael Grothe‐Hammer, Athanasios Karafillidis, Andrea Pronzini","doi":"10.1002/sres.3028","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/sres.3028","url":null,"abstract":"Social science research has been concerned for several years with the issue of shifting responsibilities in organisations due to the increased use of data‐intensive algorithms. Much of the research to date has focused on the question of who should be held accountable when ‘algorithmic decisions’ turn out to be discriminatory, erroneous or unfair. From a sociological perspective, it is striking that these debates do not make a clear distinction between responsibility and accountability. In our paper, we draw on this distinction as proposed by the German social systems theorist Niklas Luhmann. We use it to analyse the changes and continuities in organisations related to the use of data‐intensive algorithms. We argue that algorithms absorb uncertainty in organisational decision‐making and thus can indeed take responsibility but cannot be made accountable for errors. By using algorithms, responsibility is fragmented across people and technology, while assigning accountability becomes highly controversial. This creates new discrepancies between responsibility and accountability, which can be especially consequential for organisations' internal trust and innovation capacities.","PeriodicalId":47538,"journal":{"name":"SYSTEMS RESEARCH AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2024-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141387673","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Facilitating learning at multiple levels with Systems Thinking‐assisted serious games: Insights from the SUSTAIN project","authors":"Stefano Armenia, Federico Barnabè, Alessandro Pompei, Rocco Scolozzi","doi":"10.1002/sres.3013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/sres.3013","url":null,"abstract":"This study focuses on the potential of Systems Thinking‐assisted serious games to facilitate learning at multiple levels. These levels refer both to the actors (primarily the designers and the players, but also the facilitators and the educators) involved throughout the main stages of a serious game lifecycle and the typology of learning that is facilitated (i.e., single or double‐loop learning). From a methodological point of view, this study presents and discusses an action research‐based case study aimed at developing a Systems Thinking‐assisted board game in the field of urban sustainability. Systems Thinking (in terms of methods, principles, and tools) is employed in all the phases of the design and use of the serious game and is key in fostering learning, both for the players and the game designers. Overall, this paper not only provides novel insights into the field of serious games but also leads to the proposal of a core set of methodological suggestions based on Systems Thinking principles and methods that can assist academics and practitioners in creating and using board games for educational purposes.","PeriodicalId":47538,"journal":{"name":"SYSTEMS RESEARCH AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2024-05-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141101099","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The intellectual endeavours of OR and systems scholars: The dynamic evolution of intellectual interactions","authors":"Richard Ormerod","doi":"10.1002/sres.3014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/sres.3014","url":null,"abstract":"In conducting their research, academics engage in intellectual work. To illustrate the dynamic evolution of scholars collaborating over time, the development and use of critical systems heuristics (CSH) is taken as an example; historically, CSH consists of an intergenerational chain involving Churchman, Ulrich and Midgley, each a highly productive intellectual worker. Twenty‐four published papers are selected to provide qualitative empirical data. The data was then examined using a theoretical model developed by the sociologist Randall Collins. The Collins model is developed from an analysis of a wide variety of intellectual endeavours and depicts the rules of the dynamics of intellectual competition between academics. The purpose of this paper is to develop a simple method whereby systems and OR academics can evaluate past research strategies and actions, and inform future research decisions, big or small that involve qualitative (soft) or quantitative (hard) OR and systems thinking.","PeriodicalId":47538,"journal":{"name":"SYSTEMS RESEARCH AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2024-05-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141110634","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A systems thinking approach to reimagining innovation models: The example of clean hydrogen","authors":"Sue McAvoy, Cristyn Meath, Agnes Toth-Peter, Ninad Jagdish, Jurij Karlovsek","doi":"10.1002/sres.3016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/sres.3016","url":null,"abstract":"As global temperatures, ocean heat and greenhouse gases reach record levels, transitioning to renewable energy systems offers hope for climate stabilisation. Globally, renewable capacity rose by 50% from 2022 to 2023. Clean hydrogen is attracting strong investment, yet its development is challenging as it requires supply chain‐wide innovation. Sustainably transitioning to hydrogen will require thinking and acting systemically, as opposed to current business‐as‐usual innovation. Whilst hinting at non‐linear relations and feedback loops, prevailing representations of innovation theories remain largely devoid of the feedback structures evident in transitioning socio‐technical systems. In this paper, generational innovation theories are recast as causal loop diagrams (CLDs), and the Success to the Successful archetype is modified to reflect the multi‐level perspective on transition theory. The outcome is twofold: to promote thinking systemically when innovating and diagnosing issues, and to show how CLDs can help elucidate the factors and interactions influencing hydrogen's trajectory.","PeriodicalId":47538,"journal":{"name":"SYSTEMS RESEARCH AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2024-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141124426","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Expanding the modelling capabilities of systemic interactions utilizing applied category theory","authors":"Neal Wilkinson, Javier Calvo‐Amodio","doi":"10.1002/sres.3015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/sres.3015","url":null,"abstract":"Current systems analysis approaches often lack the necessary clarity to capture details relating to the interactions of systems, defining arbitrary system boundaries, and expanding boundaries to capture interactions of interest. This paper proposes a new approach for identifying and defining system boundaries based on system‐level properties that can be defined in any system. The research proposes a unification of methodological understandings between systems analysis and applied category theory to bring further mathematical rigor to abstract system boundaries and interactions. This unification is demonstrated by the expansion of systemic interactions between an individual and an organization that employs them, periodically integrating applied category theory concepts to expand the scope of modelled information. We conclude with a call to action to further define the applications of applied category theory to systems analysis and to apply the rigorous practices that exist in the field to further the advancement of methods for modelling the exploration of systemic interactions.","PeriodicalId":47538,"journal":{"name":"SYSTEMS RESEARCH AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2024-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141124116","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Propositional logic, paradox, and Indian dialectics – towards a deeper ontological approach in paradox theory","authors":"Albrecht Fritzsche","doi":"10.1002/sres.3018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/sres.3018","url":null,"abstract":"The article responds to the call of organizational paradox theorists to explore the added value of eastern principles of thought as a basis for a better understanding of the treatment of contradictory opposites in organisations. Drawing on prior work in systems theory, it presents a logical analysis of paradox based on the Catuṣkoṭi or Tetralemma discussed in Madhyamika Buddhism. Unlike its predecessors, the article reads the Tetralemma as an expression of a gradual process of detachment from the subject matter in question, resulting from a change of perspective. On this basis, the article is able to distinguish two different accounts of paradox in organisations, one resulting from excess determinacy and the other resulting from a lack of determinacy. For organisational practice, this means that the perception of and attitude towards values, routines, strategy or identity needs more attention in the study of paradox, which Indian dialectics might facilitate.","PeriodicalId":47538,"journal":{"name":"SYSTEMS RESEARCH AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2024-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141124289","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}