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Purpose: For decades, troubled information systems (IS)/information technology (IT) projects have continued to lose billions of dollars all over the world. The purpose of this paper is to look for the root causes of this widespread and important phenomenon. Design/methodology/approach: This paper begins with a concise survey of empirical research and shows that a significant proportion of project failures are derived from the behavior of managers rather than from objective or technical obstacles. Although researchers have made significant efforts to improve the professional conduct of managers, the situation ameliorated only slowly. This raises the issue of a possible hidden cause lying behind the perceived determinants of failure; the authors, therefore, look for the root-cause of this broad noteworthy phenomenon and apply the techniques typical of "root-cause analysis". Findings: IS/IT managers handling troubled projects worldwide have nothing in common except for a similar cultural basis. As students, they learned the fundamental concepts of informatics, and it is, therefore, natural to hypothesize a specific cause and effect relationship between these lessons and the ineffective behaviors of managers. A careful analysis shows that computing theories are narrow, self-referential and abstract, and this negatively affects the conduct of managers, who have broad, practical responsibilities. Practical implications: The cultural causes of runaway projects require advanced theoretical research on the foundations of computer science to create a comprehensive and consistent construct that can support the manifold duties of IS/IT project leaders. A future theoretical structure will underpin innovative courses in universities and professional organizations, making leaders more aware of their roles and more capable of managing them. Originality/value: In general, when a problem is traced to its origin, it can be eradicated. This work offers evidence that the root causes of troubled projects lie in the management culture, and therefore, the professional preparation of managers needs to be improved so to remove the present difficulties in IS/IT projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Shortest path problem has always been a hot topic in the study of graph theory, because of its wide application field, extending from operational research to the disciplines of geography, automatic control, computer science and traffic. According to its concrete application, scholars in the relevant field have presented many algorithms, but most of them are solely improvements based on Dijkstra algorithm. The purpose of this paper is to enrich the kinds of (and improve the efficiency of) the shortest path algorithms. Design/methodology/approach – This paper puts forward an improved calculation method of shortest path using cellular automata model, which is designed to search the shortest path from one node to another node. Cellular state set is adjusted with combination of breeding and mature states. Evolution rule is improved to enhance its parallelism. At the same time, recording manner of cellular state turnover is modified to record all information sources. Findings – The result indicates that the improved algorithm is correct and more efficient, in that it could reduce the times of cellular state turnover; meanwhile, it can solve multi-paths problem. Originality/value – In this paper, cellular state set in exiting shortest path algorithm based on cellular automata theory is adjusted; evolution rule is improved; and recording manner of cellular state turnover is modified to record all information sources. All of which make the parallelism of this algorithm enhanced and the multi-paths problem solved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The concept of utility was the first time applied in Economics. The purpose of this paper is to report its usefulness for the decision making in complex technological systems, in general and in computer networks, in particular. Three selected decision-making problems are considered, corresponding solution algorithms are explained and results of numerical experiments are presented for the selected real-world case study. Design/methodology/approach – Referring to similar decision-making problems in Economics, three problems of different time horizon are investigated: strategic investment planning, short-term network rate allocation and on-line network operating. Deterministic and uncertain versions are taken into account, and the latter one is handled more thoroughly. The formalism of uncertain variables is used to represent the parameter uncertainty which concerns users’ demands for services in computer networks as well as network links’ capacities. Corresponding optimization tasks are presented. Numerical experiments concerning a part of the computer network Pionier working in Poland confirmed the usefulness of the solution algorithms proposed. Findings – The carried out numerical experiments verified the importance and worth of the decision-making algorithms for the Pionier computer network. It particularly concerns the game theory-based algorithm solving the on-line network operating problem which enables calculating the rates for computer links distinctly, i.e., separately for every link. Research limitations/implications – More case studies should be considered to formulate more general corollaries. The application of utility concept for wireless sensor networks needs further studies on solution algorithms. Practical implications – The results can be directly applied to a class of modern computer networks, e.g., content delivery networks, self-managing networks, context aware networks, multilevel virtual networks. Originality/value – The paper presents the unified and systematic approach for individual results previously obtained, and it considers one case study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Illustrate supported by Beer’s Viable System Model and four vignettes the relevance of self-organisation, recursive structures, self-reference and reflexivity in policy processes. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – First, the concepts of self-organisation, recursive structures, self-reference and reflexivity are briefly discussed to ground policy processes in good cybernetics. Then, with the support of four vignettes, the idea of good cybernetics in policies processes is illustrated. Findings – The cybernetics of policy processes is often ignored. Research limitations/implications – If the purpose of this paper were to influence policy makers it would be necessary to further the empirical base of the four vignettes and clarify desirable forums to ground the relevance of self-organisation, recursive structures, self-reference and reflexivity in policy processes. Practical implications – Beer’s recursive structures, self-reference and reflexivity have much to contribute to the betterment of policy processes and the amelioration of the unbearable social and organisational costs of many current policies. Originality/value – The application of concepts such as self-organisation, recursive structures, self-reference and reflexivity adds to the understanding of policy processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to expose how organizational cybernetics (OC)-related concepts could be used in combination with information and communication technologies (ICT) to facilitate group discussions on complex issues, and to show its impact in a real case. Design/methodology/approach – A software inspired by OC and team syntegrity concepts has been developed with the aim of helping groups of people to deliberate around complex issues through the internet. Two groups of persons with similar backgrounds were chosen to pursue a deliberation process around the same issue. One had the support of ICT while the other did not. The authors used the same questionnaires with both groups, aimed at getting qualitative and quantitative information about the results obtained in each case. Findings – The results obtained show that the group working with ICT support did produce a better output (quality and quantity) than the group not supported with ICT as well as a higher degree of satisfaction in practically all indicators than the second group. Research limitations/implications – The authors are dealing with only one experiment and therefore cannot make a generalization. It would be desirable to repeat the experiment with various groups and in different contexts. Originality/value – An internet-based software inspired by OC concepts was created to facilitate the first phases (generation and aggregation of ideas) of a deliberation process and the authors measured, in an experiment with two groups of people with similar backgrounds, the impact of using it on the quality and quantity of information produced through the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Pattern recognition systems often have to handle problem of large volume of training data sets including duplicate and similar training samples. This problem leads to large memory requirement for saving and processing data, and the time complexity for training algorithms. The purpose of the paper is to reduce the volume of training part of a data set – in order to increase the system speed, without any significant decrease in system accuracy. Design/methodology/approach – A new technique for data set size reduction – using a version of modified frequency diagram approach – is presented. In order to reduce processing time, the proposed method compares the samples of a class to other samples in the same class, instead of comparing samples from different classes. It only removes patterns that are similar to the generated class template in each class. To achieve this aim, no feature extraction operation was carried out, in order to produce more precise assessment on the proposed data size reduction technique. Findings – The results from the experiments, and according to one of the biggest handwritten numeral standard optical character recognition (OCR) data sets, Hoda, show a 14.88 percent decrease in data set volume without significant decrease in performance. Practical implications – The proposed technique is effective for size reduction for all pictorial databases such as OCR data sets. Originality/value – State-of-the-art algorithms currently used for data set size reduction usually remove samples near to class's centers, or support vector (SV) samples between different classes. However, the samples near to a class center have valuable information about class characteristics, and they are necessary to build a system model. Also, SV s are important samples to evaluate the system efficiency. The proposed technique, unlike the other available methods, keeps both outlier samples, as well as the samples close to the class centers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose an economic cybernetics model based on the grey differential equation GM(1,N) for China's high-tech industries and provide the necessary support to assist high-tech industries management departments with their policy making. Design/methodology/approach – Based on the principle of grey differential equation GM(1,N), the grey differential equations of five high-tech industries in China are established using the net fixed assets, labor quantity and patent application quantity as cybernetics variables. After the discretization and first-order subtraction reduction to the simultaneous equation of the five grey models, a linear cybernetics model is resulted in. The structure parameters in the cybernetics system show explicit economic significance and can be identified through least square principle. At last, the actual data in 2004-2010 are introduced to empirically analyze the high-tech industrial system in China. Findings – The cybernetics system for China's high-tech industries are stable, observable, and controllable. On the whole, China's high-tech industries show higher output coefficients of the patent application quantity than those of net fixed assets and labor quantity. This suggests that China's industry development mainly depends on technological innovation rather than capital or labor inputs. It is expected that the total output value of China's high-tech industries will grow at an average annual rate of 15 percent in 2011-2015, with contributions of pharmaceuticals, aircraft and spacecraft, electronic and telecommunication equipments, computers and office equipments, medical equipments and meters by 21, 16, 13, 10, and 28 percent, respectively. In addition, pharmaceuticals, as well as medical equipments and meters, present upward proportions in the gross of Chinese high-tech industries significantly. Electronic and telecommunication equipments, plus computers and office equipments exhibit an obvious decreasing proportion. The proportion of the output value of aircraft and spacecraft is basically stable. Practical implications – Empirical analysis results are helpful for related management departments to formulate reasonable industrial policies to keep the sustained and stable development of the high-tech industries in China. Originality/value – Based on the grey differential equation GM(1,N), this research puts forward an economic cybernetics model for the high-tech industries in China. This model is applicable to the economic system with small sample data set. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This paper aims to review current developments that have been initiated to meet the challenges of the information society. Design/methodology/approach - The approach takes the form of a general review and survey of selected research and development (R&D) topics. Findings - The paper illustrates the multi- and trans-disciplinary nature of cybernetics, systems and management sciences. Practical implications - The choice of reviews provides an awareness of the current trends in these areas of endeavour. Originality/value - The reviews are selected from a global database and give a studied assessment of present-day R&D initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This paper is the fourth part of the effort to resolve the following two problems that urgently need an answer: how can an appropriate theoretical foundation be chosen for modern mathematics and computer science? And, under what interpretations can modern mathematics and the theory of computer science be kept as completely as possible? Design/methodology/approach - The paper is a conceptual discussion. Findings - The paper lays out the set theoretical foundation for the mathematical system of potential infinities. Originality/value - This work is the non-logical axiomatic part of the mathematical system of potential infinities: the axiomatic set theoretic system. At the end, the problem of consistency of this axiomatic set theory is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This paper is the third part of the effort to resolve the following two problems, which urgently need an answer: how can an appropriate theoretical foundation be chosen for modern mathematics and computer science? And, under what interpretations can modern mathematics and the theory of computer science be kept as completely as possible? Design/methodology/approach - The paper is a conceptual discussion of the metatheory. Findings - The paper establishes the metatheory of the logical foundation for the mathematical system of potential infinities. Originality/value - The authors prove the relevant results on the reliability and the completeness of the logical system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This paper aims to draw links between the circularity of second-order cybernetics, and constructive, reflective conversations with oneself in design practice. The paper argues that a structured use of internal conversational dialogues with oneself can assist the design process, enhancing creativity and transformative approaches to design projects. Design/methodology/approach - Theories about the emergence of new knowledge, and the causal nature of internal conversations, are used to present a case for the value of a structured self-reflective conversational process in designing. Emergent knowledge is described in terms of flows across domains of public and personal knowledge, through dynamic processes of semantic absorption, codification and diffusion. The structure and agency of the internal conversation are discussed as a practical way to interpret and locate the emergence of project directions, as a kind of meta-language for design production. This is demonstrated through an action research case study, where an internal dialogue about teaching visual communication design is described. Findings - On the basis of the action research described, the use of a structured internal dialogue can be of benefit to designing, as it provides a mechanism for locating and mapping the flows and developments of emergent semantic concepts and design project directions. Practical implications - The model for internal conversations is a way for designers to acknowledge their dual role as both participant ("subject" self) and observer ("object" self). The paper argues that this can help in locating oneself within a design process. Originality/value - This paper contributes to the debate about knowledge of design and for design. A constructive conversational model is presented, which acknowledges the significant role of experiential, cultural and semantic contexts in framing emerging knowledge for designing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This paper aims to review current research and developments with particular reference to smart systems and environments. Design/methodology/approach - A general review and survey of, selected research and development topics. Findings - Illustrates the multi- and trans-disciplinary natures of studies in cybernetics, systems and management science with a view to further research and development activity. Practical implications - The choice of reviews provides the awareness of current trends in these areas of endeavour. Originality/value - The reviews are selected from a global database and give a studied assessment of current research and development initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This paper provides reviews of distributed computing initiatives and developments in systems and cybernetics. They include: brain fingerprinting, complex and systems research, cognition of animals, and innovative systems. Design/methodology/approach - A general review and survey of selected research and development topics. Findings - Illustrates the multi- and trans-disciplinary nature of cybernetics and systems in order to further research and development. Practical implications - The choice of topics enables researchers to be aware of current trends in their fields and gives readers an overview of a variety of important areas. Originality/value - Reviews from a worldwide database of: current reports and opinions to introduce new perspectives in research and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This paper is written in memory of the late Stafford Beer. The paper engages with only one dimension of the whole man: Stafford Beer as the diagnostician and prognostician of the social conditions that he so keenly observed. Design/methodology/approach - The paper revisits a talk that Stafford Beer gave, over three decades ago, to administrators of the UK National Health Service (NHS). It uses the content of the talk, entitled "Health and Quiet Breathing", to diagnose the problems that have been encountered in the development of NHS information management strategies. The paper concludes with some brief personal recollections of Stafford Beer as a friend and as a teacher. Findings - The paper finds Stafford Beer's managerial cybernetics to be a useful tool in understanding many of the problems that have beset NHS information management strategies: lack of operational research, problems in the commodification of information, financial scandal, and bureaucracy. In its examination of these issues, the paper recognises Stafford Beer's status as a legatee of not only Norbert Wiener but also of the great philosophers. Originality/value - The paper demonstrates how the problem-orientation of Stafford Beer's managerial cybernetics continues to be fresh and relevant to today's society and provides a brief portrait of him both as a friend and as a teacher. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The paper's purpose is to analyze the concepts of potential and actual infinities. Design/methodology/approach - The exploration and research on potential and actual infinities generally touch on many disciplines, such as philosophy, logic, computer science, mathematics, etc. From the angle of a brief history, recall and development, the authors analyze the concepts of potential and actual infinities on one starting point and two locations to cut in. Findings - Clarify the difference and connection of these two infinities on the level of mathematics and introduce the symbolized, descriptive definitions for potential and actual infinities. Originality/value - It is the first time that the difference between the concepts of potential and actual infinities are clarified, which leads to the discovery of the fourth crisis in the foundations of mathematics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This paper aims to review current research and developments with particular reference to some of the challenges of tracking and protecting data when innovative methods of capture and processing are used. Some ethical issues are considered. Design/methodology/approach - A general review and survey of selected research and development topics. Findings - Illustrates the multi- and trans-disciplinary natures of studies in cybernetics, systems and management science with a view to further research and development activity. Practical implications - The choice of reviews provides the awareness of current trends in these areas, of research and application. Originality/value - The reviews are selected from global database and give a studied assessment of current research and development initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This is the second part of the effort to resolve the following two problems that badly need an answer: how can an appropriate theoretical foundation be chosen for modern mathematics and computer science? And, under what interpretations can modern mathematics and the theory of computer science be kept as completely as possible? Design/methodology/approach - The paper sets out the foundation for the system. Findings - Here, the logical foundation for the mathematical system of potential infinities is given. Originality/value - The logical calculus, which will be used as the tool of deduction in the PIMS, is established. This new tool of reasoning is a modification of the classical two-value logical calculus system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This paper seeks to develop the argument that a cybernetic framework will enable designers to act as an observer and participant in the process of designing. The dynamic nature of the design process will be discussed in order to better understand how these aspects impact on a designer's ability to act effectively in design. Design/methodology/approach - A second-order cybernetic framework is offered as a means to facilitate a designer's capacity to act as an observer-participant in the co-creation of a design solution. It characterizes the design process as a conversation to enhance a designer's ability to conceptually develop novel design solutions in participative situations. Findings - The significance of the designer in the design process and the design solution is established. A second-order cybernetic framework provides an explanation for a designer's actions by acknowledging their presence in the design process. This makes possible the collaborative development of a design situation and its solution between various participants in this process through negotiation and mutual understanding. Practical implications - It is envisaged that the value of cybernetic concepts as a means to augment interaction, reflection, mutual understanding, creativity and innovation to facilitate designerly ways of knowing, thinking, and acting, is realized. Originality/value - The main value of this framework is for designers who struggle with finding an appropriate framework to facilitate and rationalize the subjective nature of human-centred design methods and the complexity of design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to develop a decomposed model to inspect the effect of knowledge management practices (knowledge sharing culture [KSC], knowledge-based human resource management [KHRM], strategy and leadership [S&L], information and communication technology [ICT] on organizational performance [OP]) by using the four balanced scorecard outcomes (BSC) (learning and growth [L&G], internal process [IP] perspective, customer satisfaction [CS] perspective and financial performance [FP]). Design/methodology/approach: The research methodology included development of a research model based on comprehensive literature review followed by survey of knowledge-intensive organizations. A sample of 277 employees was obtained and structured equation modeling analysis using SPSS AMOS was conducted to test the proposed hypotheses. Findings: The study shows that KSC and KHRM have a highly significant effect on all the four aspects of OP; S&L positively and significantly affects only L&G and IP but does not have any significant effect on the other two, i.e. CS and FP, while ICT practices did not affect any of the measures significantly. Research limitations/implications: The data are limited to 277 middle and senior level managers of Indian firms, which may be a limiting factor for generalizability. Originality/value: The proposed model uncovers the dynamics of individual relationships between KM practices and measures of performance (proposed by BSC) in comparison to existing models which have mainly focused on the overall effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - To preface Part II of the special issue focusing on the work of Heinz von Foerster. Design/methodology/approach - Outlines the contribution made by Heinz von Foerster. Findings - Highlights his role as the founder of second order cybernetics. Originality/value - Provides an outline of the importance of Heinz von Foerster's contribution to cybernetics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]