Search

Using tournament theory and agency theory, our research analyzes the different effects of internal and external tournament incentives on corporate financial misconduct and the moderating effects of organizational complexity (e.g., firm size and firm diversification) on these relationships. Based on the data of Chinese listed companies for 2008 to 2018, our results show that internal tournament incentives inhibit corporate financial misconduct, while external tournament incentives induce financial misconduct. Furthermore, firm size strengthens the positive impacts of external tournament incentives on financial misconduct, whereas firm diversification weakens the negative impacts of internal tournament incentives on financial misconduct. Our results are of interest to scholars of financial misconduct and tournament theory.

To describe local sociopolitical and organizational factors that influence health system development in Karachi, Pakistan, we conducted participant observation while working with health providers and communities in one urban district to reorient services towards a primary health care district health system. We found that the community characteristics, particularly the diverse socialpolitical and cultural make-up and organizational complexity that involved multiple levels of government, influenced efforts towards collaboration and shaped the development of the health system. We conclude that for effective implementation of health sector reform there is a need to comprehend fully the community context and complexity of existing health service provision

We investigate the effects of mandatory private Country-by-Country Reporting (CbCR) to European tax authorities on multinational firms' capital and labor investments, as well as their organizational structures. We exploit the threshold-based application of this 2016 disclosure rule to conduct difference-in-differences and regression discontinuity tests. We document increases in capital and labor expenditures in Europe, but these effects are more pronounced in countries with preferential tax regimes. Cross-sectional tests and analysis using consolidated financial data provide evidence consistent with multinational firms reallocating capital across Europe to mitigate increased tax enforcement risk, as well as with CbCR hindering capital investment efficiency. We also find evidence consistent with firms responding to CbCR by reducing organizational complexity. Collectively, our results support the conclusion that mandatory private CbCR causes firms to change real investment activities to substantiate their tax avoidance activities in Europe while reducing the appearance of aggressive tax practices. JEL Classifications: H20; H25; H26; H32; K22; L51; M41; M48; O47.

How did Renaissance listeners experience the polyphonic mass ordinary cycle in the soundscape of the church? We hypothesize that the textural differences in complexity between mass movements allowed listeners to track the progress of the service, regardless of intelligibility of the text or sophisticated musical knowledge. Building on the principles of auditory scene analysis, this article introduces the Auditory Streaming Complexity Estimate, a measure to evaluate the blending or separation of each part in polyphony, resulting in a moment-by-moment tally of how many independent streams or sound objects might be heard. When applied to symbolic scores for a corpus of 216 polyphonic mass ordinary cycles composed between c. 1450 and 1600, we show that the Streaming Complexity Estimate captures information distinct from the number of parts in the score or the distribution of voices active through the piece. While composers did not all follow the same relative complexity strategy for mass ordinary movements, there is a robust hierarchy emergent from the corpus as a whole: a shallow V shape with the Credo as the least complex and the Agnus Dei as the most. The streaming complexity of masses also significantly increased over the years represented in this corpus.

PurposeSmall- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) depend on a large measure on commercial banks for external capital, and US SMEs are increasingly experiencing bank credit constraints and resorting to costly alternatives. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of lender organizational complexity on SME financing shortfalls. In particular, it examines the credit shortage effects associated with the SME's reliance on bank holding company (BHC) owned, as opposed to independent, lenders.Design/methodology/approachBuilding on agency–theoretic rationales, the authors posit that both hierarchical and horizontal complexity associated with present-day BHC structures will diminish an affiliated bank's ability and willingness to properly underwrite SME credit needs. Consequently, they hypothesize that SMEs whose commercial lenders are BHC affiliates are likely to experience greater credit shortages. This hypothesis was tested using exhaustive financial data from a large and nationally representative sample of US SMEs.FindingsGreater SME reliance on loans from BHC lenders was found to be associated with a greater use of late trade–credit payments. The latter is an expensive form of financing and a generally accepted indicator of shortages in conventional (and cheaper) bank credit.Originality/valueDespite the evolution toward more complex bank organizational forms, especially among community banks, the implications for SME lending are not yet fully understood. This paper's contribution is to offer a first examination of the impact of post-deregulation BHC structures on SME financing shortfalls.

The recent U.S.–China trade conflicts cast new light on the role of trade policies in global value chains (GVCs). Contrary to the expectation that trade restrictions lead to the shrinking or disruption of GVCs, our article posits that the unintended consequences of trade policies (both restrictions and trade agreements) are amplified by the prevalence and organizational complexity of GVCs. We anchor our argument in the historical evolution of three classic GVCs – apparel, automobiles, and electronics – from the 1970s to the present. Our framework highlights the dynamic interaction between GVC-oriented trade policies and firm strategies, which often has counterintuitive implications in terms of upgrading outcomes for the countries and companies involved in these GVCs. While trade policies often provide momentum for an adaptive reconfiguration of GVCs, firms’ strategic actions are crucial in modifying the geographic and organizational features of GVCs in ways that support their longevity. Firm strategies can mediate the effect of trade policies on GVC configurations in two ways: (1) firms can accommodate trade restrictions and trade agreements by altering supply and demand locations and by switching supply-chain partners; and (2) firms pursue diverse strategies to upgrade their value chain activities, leveraging the shifting geographies associated with new trade rules.

Organizations are now more complex and require collaboration to function effectively across multiple stakeholders. Consequently, they need to be familiar with collaborative projects and participate consciously in shared processes for the accomplishment of particular goals. In order to support and strengthen business partnerships, organizations could use a model based on a multi-perspective approach, as a way of visualizing effective decision-making processes and gaining an understanding regarding how they can establish and maintain stable relationships with other organizations and strategic alliances. The benefits of the new multi-perspective model could be utilized for the collaboration of multiple stakeholders and to drive future organizational change. This study presents a case study which explores the use of a multiple perspective framework in Australian Government Organizations. The results from this study suggest that a multi-perspective model may be used to address organizational complexity through the holistic integration of stakeholder perspectives and sustained knowledge flow.

PPP program is characterized by great organizational complexity, complicated communication network, and high coordination cost, which lead governance problems to be more complex than usual construction projects. Investigating 49 stakeholders of the D characteristic town construction program, the author constructs the work interaction network and supervision network of characteristic town PPP program based on organizational relationship. Through the calculation and comparison of network parameters, the network problems were analyzed, and the governance improvement scheme was proposed. The results show that, during the construction phase of the PPP program, (1) the SPV is still the core stakeholders; (2) the PPP program supervison belongs to hierarchical supervision characteristics and (3) the government regulators and loan institutions have limited influences on the program but they can restrict the SPV by strengthening supervision with subprogram stakeholders.

Interestingly, the factors which propagate volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA) challenges globally, seem to be closely associated with collaborative practice and the initiatives they serve. Organisations need to adopt an agile, adaptable, and learning approach if they are to overcome the challenges presented by the VUCA phenomenon. This paper presents a conceptual argument for leadership collaboration for understanding organizational complexity and the associated challenges in an insurance industry environment, and reports on a qualitative study conducted in a large insurance company in South Africa to determine if the leadership is able to create a link between collaboration and customer-centricity.

An established succession planning program for the identification and grooming of its next leader helps maintain the continuity of firm strategy and leadership style, which influences long-term firm performance and viability. Disclosure of succession planning information may alleviate investors’ doubts about whether the firm has a succession planning plan, while it may increase competition for CEO candidates, leading to increases in the cost of securing qualified candidates. This study explores what determines firms’ decisions to provide this disclosure using firms that initiate CEO succession planning disclosure in a given year and their control firms. We find that firms are more likely to initiate the disclosure of CEO succession planning when 1) segment concentration (negatively related to organizational complexity) becomes lower, 2) the board of directors becomes more independent, 3) the CEO has reached the retirement age of 64, 4) the CEO becomes more important relative to other executive officers in the industry labor market, 5) the number of analysts following (reflecting external monitoring) increases, and 6) CEO tenure (reflecting CEO entrenchment) declines. Overall, our findings suggest that the disclosure of CEO succession planning is motivated by investor demand for a smooth transition among top management and enhanced transparency in CEO succession planning.

A long-standing question in the organizations literature is whether firms are better off by using simple or complex representations of their task environment. We address this question by developing a formal model of how firm performance depends on the process by which firms learn and use representations. Building on ideas from cognitive science, our model conceptualizes this process in terms of how firms construct a representation of the environment and then use that representation when making decisions. Our model identifies the optimal level of representational complexity as a function of (a) the environment’s complexity and uncertainty and (b) the firm’s experience and knowledge about the environment’s deep structure. We use this model to delineate the conditions under which firms should use simple versus complex representations; in doing so, we provide a coherent framework that integrates previous conflicting results on which type of representation leaves firms better off. Among other results, we show that the optimal representational complexity generally depends more on the firm’s knowledge about the environment than it does on the environment’s actual complexity. We also show that the relative advantage of heuristics vis-à-vis more complex representations critically depends on an unstated assumption of “informedness”: that managers can know what are the most relevant variables to pay attention to. We show that when this assumption does not hold, complex representations are usually better than simpler ones.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze three characteristics of strategic alliances in Italy to estimate their influence on financial performance. The authors test how alliance complexity, strategic planning and accounting control influence revenue growth, asset growth and EBITDA margin.Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses contractual and financial data to test hypothesized relationships in structural equation modelling (SEM) using partial least squares (PLSs).FindingsThis paper highlights that the extent of strategic planning positively influences the growth in assets but not in revenue or EBITDA margin. In addition, the findings of this paper support the idea that the complexity in the alliance is significantly related to the quantity of accounting controls within alliance.Originality/valueThis paper improves existing research on the subject, as it contributes to open the black box of alliances’ internal operations by examining the details of 50 Italian contracts to create a multidimensional profile of each alliance.

The problem of distance between the processes of world transition to a new technological platform, information technologies, to the digital economy and digitalization of various spheres of activity, including education, on the one hand, and not sufficiently deep studies of the phenomenon of digital transformation, including the digital transformation of education, on the other hand, is studied. Lack of elaboration of the essence of digital transformation provokes the free and often marketing use of the concepts of digitalization, digital technologies, and digital transformation of education, and in practice leads to low efficiency of actions taken to implement projects and programs of digital transformation. The lack of strict assumptions leads to a lack of meanings, a multiple increase in the managerial and organizational complexity of implementing the actual practice of digital transformation in education, and as a result, there is an imitation or formal implementation of promising projects. The purpose of the study is to substantiate the General model of digital transformation and to specify it in relation to the digital transformation of education, demonstrating all the elements of the structure of the transformed object and the nature of the cardinal transformations. The hypothesis being tested — the transformation process covers not only the means of educational activity, in particular, digital technologies, but also other elements of it — the goal, object, subject, changing the essence of the educational activity itself, contrasting it with the processes of training and preparation. The system-based research methodology is used. Research methods: main — theoretical analysis and synthesis of existing scientific positions, observation of practical artifacts of digital transformation of education; accompanying — experimental method for testing the results of research. The main results were: distinguishing digital transformation projects, highlighting their unique properties and characteristics that differ from projects of optimization, improvement, development; substantiating the model of digital transformation of education, including proof that in the process of transformation, not only the means (digital technologies), but also the content of the educational process, its goals, subjects and methods of communication between them change dramatically. This suggests a new approach to changing the education process under the influence of digital transformation, its distance from the processes of education and training, which will become a starting point in the self-organization of teams of projects of digital transformation of education. The results will be useful to heads of education authorities at all levels, managers and development teams of educational organizations of basic and additional education, who are planning or implementing digital transformation projects.

PurposeUnderstanding the impact of project complexity on the mega construction project success will help improve the efficiency of project management. However, the influencing mechanism of project complexity on project success has not been clearly depicted. This paper aims to divide project complexity and project success into five dimensions, trying to explore the impact of different complexity combinations on mega construction project success.Design/methodology/approachThis study applies the qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) method to find out the impact of the combinations of different project complexities on the every dimension of mega construction project success. First, 21 cases were interviewed and scored in five categories of project complexities and five aspects of project success. Second, with the QCA program, the combinations of different project complexities influencing every aspect of mega construction project success was obtained.FindingsThis research found that high organizational complexity or a combination of high environmental complexity and goal complexity can lead to serious schedule delays of mega construction projects, high technological complexity and goal complexity are important reasons for cost overrun, high technological complexity or a combination of high environmental complexity and low organizational complexity usually lead to low quality of mega construction projects, high goal complexity and cultural complexity are important factors affecting the key stakeholders' satisfaction and high technological complexity and environmental complexity are the reasons for the poor sustainability of mega construction projects.Originality/valueThis study clearly reveals the influencing mechanism of project complexity on mega construction project success, which can help the project managers to understand and assess the complexity of mega construction projects and accurately predict their negative impacts on the mega construction projects.

PurposeThis research is aimed to better understand what characteristics of family firms create a context in which family governance systems are more frequently adopted.Design/methodology/approachWe analyse a sample of 490 Spanish family businesses using cluster analysis, and we identify four different types of family businesses whose characteristics are associated to the adoption of different family governance systems, i.e. family councils and family protocols. The comparison between clusters of the baseline parameters was performed using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) for parametric variables, the χ2 test for parametric variables and Kruskal-Wallis for nonparametric variables. By conducting between-profile analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), we tested for differences in the dependent variables (i.e. the existence of family councils and/or existence of family protocols) between the clusters, using cluster membership as the independent variable.FindingsTaking into account the characteristics of family firms in terms of ownership structure, management involvement, and family and organizational complexity, we identify four different contexts that create different communication needs and are related to the use of different family governance mechanisms. We characterize the different contexts or types of family firms as: founder-centric, protective, consensual and business-evolved. Our findings show that family protocols are associated to contexts with high family involvement in management and family complexity, while family councils are more frequent when there is a separation of managerial and ownership roles and there is a high organizational and family complexity.Research limitations/implicationsThe study highlights the value of social systems theory in order to explain the association between the characteristics of different firm types and contexts, and the use of family councils and family protocols to govern the relationship between the owner family and the business.Practical implicationsFamily governance mechanisms are widely recommended by practitioners and scholars. However, they are usually adopted only by a small percentage of family firms. This study helps to better understand what family governance systems may be more appropriate in different contexts and relativize the necessity of these governance mechanisms in function of the communication needs created within each context.Social implicationsThe improvement of family governance mechanisms helps to increase the likelihood of survival and durability of family firms. These firms contribute to more than 60% of employment in most developed countries. Consequently, good governance in family firms has social implications in terms of labour conditions and stability.Originality/valueMost family firms don't use family protocols or family councils to govern the relationship between the owner family and the firm. However, little is known about the reasons for this lack of structuration of the family-firm relationship. Using social systems theory, our research contributes to better understand the conditions in which business families are more prone to use structured forms to manage this relationship, as well as the reasons that may be constraining their adoption.

We explore the mediating role of moral disengagement in counterproductive behavior by professional sellers. Moral disengagement is a cognitive state in which moral standards are deactivated from one's actions. We theorize that the effect of job-related complexity on salesperson counterproductive behavior is better explained when this relationship is mediated by salesperson moral disengagement. Our empirical findings support the explanation that complexity influences salesperson's moral disengagement. In turn, this influences counterproductive salesperson behavior. Ethical role modeling is found to play a strong mitigating role. Overall, our results indicate how counterproductive salesperson behavior develops, why salespeople engage in such behavior, and how sales managers can project themselves as ethical mentors to lessen unfavorable behaviors by salespeople.

Almost any firm faces a change during its life that requires a redefinition of the business model to be more innovative, namely business model innovation (BMI) that designs an architecture to create, capture and deliver value to customers in the marketplace and society. These changes are a great opportunity to improve revenue and costs, but the associated organizational complexity also has drawbacks, due to the set of interrelationships and linkages within the firm. This situation could be even more relevant for firms that implement Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), due to the complexity of the software and also the difficult implementation process in the organization. In order to fill this gap, this study analyses 104 firms that have implemented ERP and deal simultaneously with BMI. The research objective is therefore to test the role of organizational complexity between ERP and BMI. Specifically, the aim is to test the mediating role of organizational complexity between ERP and BMI. Our findings reveal that organizational complexity mediates between ERP and BMI. Important implications for researchers and managers are provided to optimize ERP implementation so as to obtain a higher return on the costs and revenue associated with BMI.

The health provider workforce is shaped by factors collectively influencing the education, training, licensing, and certification of physicians and allied health professionals, through professional organizations with interlocking and often opaque governance relationships within a state-based licensing system. This system produces a workforce is that is insufficiently responsive to current needs and opportunities, including those created by new technologies. This lack of responsiveness reflects the complex, nontransparent, and cautious nature of the controlling organizations, influenced by the economic interests of the organized professions, which seek protection from competitors both local and international. The first step in addressing this is to comprehensively examine the organizational complexity and conflicted interests within this critical ecosystem. Doing so suggests areas ripe for change, to enhance the health workforce and benefit public health.

BACKGROUND: Poor communication between physicians and nurses is a significant contributor to adverse events for hospitalized patients. Overcoming communication difficulties requires examining communication practices to better understand some of the factors that affect the nurse-physician communication process. OBJECTIVE: To develop a more detailed understanding of communication practices between nurses and physicians on general care units. We focused on patient care rounds as an important activity in the care delivery process for communication. DESIGN: Qualitative study design PARTICIPANTS: A total of 163 physicians, registered nurses, and nurse practitioners who worked on pre-specified general care units in each of four hospitals in the Midwest. APPROACH: On each unit, data collection consisted of 2 weeks of observing and shadowing clinicians during rounds and at other times, as well as asking clinicians questions about rounds and communication during interviews and focus groups. A directed content analysis approach was used to code and analyze the data. KEY RESULTS: Workflow differences contributed to organizational complexity, affecting rounds and subsequently communication practices, both across and within provider types. Nurse and patient participation during rounds appeared to reduce interruptions and hence cognitive load for physicians and nurses. Physicians adopted certain behaviors within the social context to improve communication, such as socializing and building relationships with the nurses, which contributed to nurse participation in rounds. When rapport was lacking, some nurses felt uncomfortable joining physicians during rounds unless they were explicitly invited. CONCLUSIONS: Improving communication requires bringing attention to three contextual dimensions of communication: organizational complexity, cognitive load, and the social context. Initiatives that seek to improve communication may be more successful if they acknowledge the complexity of communication and the context in which it occurs. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1007/s11606-019-05580-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Introduction Safety management in construction is complicated due to the complex “nature” of the construction industry. The aim of this research was to identify safety management factors (e.g., risk management and site management), contextual factors (e.g., organisational complexity) and combinations of such factors connected to safety performance. Method: Twelve construction projects were selected to compare their safety management and safety performance. An analytical framework was developed based on previous research, regulations, and standards where each management factor was defined. We employed qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) to produce case knowledge, compare the cases, and identify connections between the factors and safety performance. The material collected and analyzed included, for example, construction planning documents, reports from OHS-inspections, safety indicators, and interviews with project leaders and OHS experts. Results and conclusions: The research showed that: (a) the average score on 12 safety management factors was higher among projects with high safety performance compared to projects with low safety performance; (b) high safety performance can be achieved with both high and low construction complexity and organizational complexity, but these factors complicate coordination of actors and operations; (c) it is possible to achieve high safety performance despite relatively poor performance on many safety management factors; (d) eight safety management factors were found to be “necessary” for high safety performance, namely roles and responsibilities, project management, OHS management and integration, safety climate, learning, site management, staff management, and operative risk management. Site management, operative risk management, and staff management were the three factors most strongly connected to safety performance. Practical implications: Construction stakeholders should understand that the ability to achieve high safety performance in construction projects is connected to key safety management factors, contextual factors, and combinations of such factors.

Background The COVID-19 pandemic definitely changed the approach to technologies evaluation, firstly in terms of timeliness. In order to answer to this need, a new methodology was proposed, joining the elements of horizon scanning with the Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA). In this work we describe the results of 2 case studies of application. Methods By means of an assessment matrix, a multidisciplinary expert panel gave a score based on a Likert scale and related to potential value and perceived risk for each technology. Economic, clinical and ethical criteria were considered as a summary of Health Technology Assessment (HTA) main domains. The final scores were then weighted by the MCDA and a scatter plot defined 4 positioning scenarios according to the balance of values and risks resulted, each conducting to an appropriate recommendation (full HTA report or reject). A Monte Carlo simulation was also carried out for the assessment of variability of results. Results An individual protection device for COVID-19 and a contact tracing app were assessed. The first technology was placed in the “Danger Zone” of the graph, because of its high costs and organizational complexity. The second one was placed in the “Comfort Zone” of the graph, due to low costs and easiness of implementation and management. For this innovation a recommendation for a full HTA and a pilot testing was given. In both cases, the Monte Carlo simulation confirmed the results of previous analyses. Conclusions The implementation of this new tool presented for the large amount of innovations created in response to COVID-19 could be supportive for decision makers, especially in pandemic times when a rapid answer is necessary. Improvements in the subjective judgement process, by introducing an objective approach, is now ongoing as it could enhance the strength of the final decision. Key messages In a pandemic time as the current, HTA should be as rapid as possible without losing scientific robustness. The methodology described could be an answer in support to the decision-making process, allowing an adequate and quick priority setting.

Anthropologists and historical comparative social scientists have seen value in understanding not only how different locations and cultures are distinct but also where and when sociocultural complexity and hierarchy have emerged over the past 12 000 years. Knowledge of where and when the sizes of human settlements have changed over time is useful for testing aspects of general models of sociocultural evolution. This chapter examines the roles of settlement networks in sociocultural evolution using the comparative world-systems perspective. The first section focuses on settlements, and the interaction networks built among them, before the emergence of states. The second section describes how interaction networks were involved in the rise and fall of large settlements and polities and in the emergence of settlements that were larger than any that had existed before. The third section discusses the early emergence of cities and states in Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus River Valley, the Yellow River Valley, Mesoamerica and the Andes, and the expansion of empires and their building of empire cities. The fourth section considers the emergence and spread of semiperipheral capitalist city-states, and their roles in the construction of commodity trade networks and the spread of commercializations networks in world-systems in which state power and tributary accumulation remained the main instruments of reproduction. Then we consider how the emergence of the Europe-centered capitalist world-system drove and was driven by the establishment of core world cities and dependent colonial cities. We conclude by providing an overview of the implications of research on the evolution of settlement systems for understanding the contemporary global system of city-regions and possible futures for the world city system. The emergence of sedentism, the growth of settlements and interaction networks among settlements and polities, are fundamental processes of social change that required the invention of institutions that could facilitate cooperation and enable polities to effectively compete with one another for resources, including territory. The study of settlement-size distributions – the relative sizes of interacting settlements within polities and in networks of independent interacting polities – provides another important window for viewing and comprehending the emergence and growth of human organizational complexity and hierarchy.

The vision of higher education organizations is needed to show the goals and how the higher education organizations work. With a vision, the activities of organizational members can be moved, directed and controlled to achieve organizational goals. In addition to being disseminated to members of the organization, the vision must also be introduced to stakeholders and the wider community as a way to create an institutional branding. One of the ways that a vision can be remembered easily is to use color symbols of the institution strategic elements. This article discusses how to design color concepts based on organizational vision and apply them to architectural elements of buildings. Vision always changes over time. On the other hand, buildings have a relatively longer life. The architect's task is to align the design age of higher education architecture so that it is always in line with its vision. Research location at Unhas Tamalanrea Campus Makassar with consideration of the level of organizational complexity. The research method uses a constructive paradigm. Data collection was carried out using the review of institutional documents, in-depth interviews, FGD, and transactional dialogue with the academic community. This research is conducted since the preparation of the Unhas Strategic Plan’s 2006-2010, 2011-2015, and 2016-2020. The results of the discussion are in the form of a concept recommendation for the vision color of the institution.

Oncology is going through the fastest innovation period in the history of medicine and a growing number of patients improve or experience increased chances of survival. The declining death rate, starting from 1991, resulted in 2.9 million deaths avoided in the United States so far. A growing prevalence of patients is observed in all Western countries. New cancer drug approvals between 2000 and 2016, linked to other diagnostic, surgical, and health care improvements, were significantly associated with death reduction for the most common cancers. Alongside many positive aspects, other effects of innovations in oncology also deserve attention, especially challenges associated with the substantial increase of knowledge volume, the sharp growth of prevalence, and a concomitant or consequent increase in clinical, social, and organizational complexity. We analyse some of the consequences of oncology innovation on healthcare systems and professionals and present some suggestions on how these could be addressed by healthcare systems.

Previous research has emphasized the need to further investigate the impact of manufacturing complexity on company strategies and performance in developing countries' manufacturing sector. Indonesia is one such developing country where this relationship has yet to be adequately studied. The manufacturing industry sector is expected to drive Indonesia's economic growth to achieve the targeted average growth of 6% per year in the next five years. This study aimed to examine the relationship between manufacturing complexity, manufacturing strategies (cost, delivery, flexibility, and quality), and manufacturing performance of Indonesian automotive component manufacturing industries. Partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed in the investigation. The sample size comprised 72 automotive component manufacturing companies located in the Jakarta region. Results indicated that the higher the value of manufacturing complexity, the higher the manufacturing strategies should be prioritized. The manufacturing strategy related to quality, particularly, has a significant positive impact on manufacturing performance. The novelty of this study lies in its detailed examination of the relationship between manufacturing complexity, manufacturing strategies, and manufacturing performance, particularly in developing countries. The results are expected to fill the existing research gaps., Manufacturing complexity, Manufacturing performance, Manufacturing strategy, Quality strategy.

This study investigates how corporate organizational complexity affects analyst forecast behavior and the information environment of the firm. Using a unique sample of publicly traded Taiwa...

During the financial crisis of 2007-2009, large banks (BHCs with assets exceeding $1 billion) suffered a sharper decline in performance and a greater increase in systemic risk, than small banks (BHCs with assets less than $1 billion). Performance is measured by return on assets (ROA) and EBIT/TA. Systemic risk (SRISK) is measured by the capital shortfall indicator proposed by Brownless and Engle (2017) and total risk is standard deviation of monthly returns. We test four hypotheses associated with the dissimilarity in behavioral patterns of large and small banks during the crisis: (1) the nontraditional banking activity hypothesis, (2) the organizational structure hypothesis, (3) the accounting risk hypotheses, and (4) the accounting conservatism hypothesis. We find that behavioral dissimilarities between large and small banks can be, at least, partially related to the first three hypotheses. Non-nested test procedures show that factors associated with nontraditional activity hypothesis fit the data for performance (ROA and EBIT/TA) and total risk the best. Organizational complexity factors are the most relevant set of variables related to systemic risk of banks (SRISK). The implications of our findings are that regulators should focus on factors related these two hypotheses to optimally alter bank performance and bank contribution to systemic risk, rather than limiting bank size and bank acquisitions as proposed by Section 622 of the Dodd-Frank Act (effective January 1, 2015). Our recommendation is in accord with attempts by the Trump administration to relax the Dodd-Frank Act.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to focus on the implementation process of enterprise resource planning (ERP), the evolution of business model innovation (BMI) and the organizational outcome. This research analyses how ERP and BMI are related and, in turn, what is the final the impact on organizational performance.Design/methodology/approachThe sample consisted on 104 organizations from different industries, all of which used an ERP software. A structural equation model was used to test the six hypotheses.FindingsThe results indicate that the BMI constructs considered (i.e. value-generation and organizational complexity) mediate the impact of the ERP constructs (organizational adaptation and organizational resistance), in organizational performance. Successful ERP implementation is not an end itself for this companies, but merely a path and a process for improving the business model with the aim improving performance in the marketplace.Research limitations/implicationsThis study offers a new outlook on how a company should leverage the ERP adaptation, and any resistance in the organization to innovating in the business model. This study is rooted in the evolutionary perspective of BMI, but it also integrates into an overall model other points of view such as the rational positioning view and cognitive view.Practical implicationsOrganizations must understand the ERP flows in depth, each ERP flow is the work result of a multitude of companies over several years. All departments, and in particular the research and development department must participate actively in the ERP implementation. Organised complexity means opportunities for success in the market. Organizations must train their departments in ERP and not just teach them how the ERP works. ERP implementation needs consider improvements to the business model and ultimately the performance, but not separately.Originality/valueBMI has received contributions from several domains such as entrepreneurship, management organization and strategic management among others. Nonetheless, the role of ERP in BMI is far from being understood and the few contributions focus only on technologyper se. To the best of our knowledge this is the first study that has explored the connections of ERP and BMI and in turn the final outcome in organizational performance.

Project teams play an important role in project performance. In the Engineering and Construction industry, the successful delivery of a project requires the collaboration of people with different skills and expertise which makes a healthy work relation among project team members very essential for the success of the project in particular and the organization in general. In this paper, we look at "Project team building" from three main dimensions: firstly, communication among project team members. Effectiveness of team communication in projects is becoming increasingly important due to the growing technical and organizational complexity of construction projects. Secondly, trust among project team members. Because trust is a major factor leading to the success or failure of construction project and finally, the role of leadership in project management, particularly in the construction field is very crucial to the success of the team. To achieve the above objective, we selected a case study investigation through which a major construction project in Jordan was analyzed. After studying the project related documents. We conducted several interviews and distributed several questionnaires asking key project stakeholders about the three dimensions of project team building defined. The study involved the identification of barriers and enablers for each dimension in the project team building model. The study concluded with a framework for project team building based on the dimensions of: trust, communication and leadership that could be applied on projects with similar context in Jordan.

Traditional and current approaches to modelling the impacts of health care interventions have focused on detail complexity and been ceteris paribus dependent and thereby ignored the wider system impacts. In this study, we have demonstrated that system dynamics (SD) offers theoretical and practical advantages over conventional methodologies and the qualitative assessment tools that have informed the business of emergency care. We translate the key findings of qualitative research, existing literature reviews and studies of the use of simulation and economic evaluation models into a value proposition for using SD tools. We conclude that there is growing evidence of a strong value proposition for the use of SD tools to investigate interventions targeting improved emergency care access. SD models can incorporate dynamic and organizational complexity and fill a gap beyond the microscope of the conventional methodologies informing health care. This potential to strengthen health care systems warrants further investigation.

Purpose: In an intensely competitive and changing environment, innovation can be considered as a survival strategy. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of organization structure on innovation in business school libraries in India. Design/methodology/approach: The study focused on libraries of leading business schools, viz., IIMs,. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data for this study. The quantitative data were analyzed to test the hypothesis. Findings: The dimensions of organizational structure i.e., vertical complexity, employee participation and organizational complexity are positively related to innovation and have higher OS influence in innovation among business school libraries. On the other hand, increase in formalization, the degree of centralization and strict adherence to pre-defined roles and rigid rules in the organization are negatively related to innovation. Research Limitations: The study is limited to libraries of Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) India. Thus, other scientific and technical libraries are not in the ambit of this study. Originality/value: In India, there is no study conducted in academic management libraries. This study can be used as a guide for library administrators to accomplish the objectives of the organization by enabling innovation in the context of organizational structure.

We examine how a firm's organizational complexity affects innovation portfolio decisions in response to a shock to innovation incentives. Using the 2013 medical device sales tax as a quasi-natural experiment, we find that firms with a complex organization structure, as proxied by organization size and multi-division structure, generate fewer radical innovations (introduction of new products) but more incremental innovations (improvements on existing products) after the tax. Multidivision firms also shift capital investment to their corporate divisions that are not affected by the tax, thereby decreasing their innovation output. Collectively, these responses cause a significant decline in the radical innovation output of the industry in aggregate. We contribute to the literature by advancing the understanding of how organization structure influences managers' innovation portfolio decisions in response to economic shocks.

We introduce “trusting effects” to market complexity strategy and, through modeling, measure the decision‐making behavior of financial institutions' complexity choices as online and offline finance develops into different stages. We find that the complexity of financial products is not only determined by the intrinsic value and structure of products but also largely influenced by the behavior of investors. In addition, the characteristics of financial institutions, as well as different investor structures, also affect the complexity of the products and the equilibrium. Therefore, financial institutions attempt to exploit investors' biases and cognitive limitations through complexity strategies and ultimately obtain excess returns.

In this study, we examined the relationship between organizational complexity and the adoption of participatory innovation in German municipal government. We proposed that organizations with more c...

Resumen Objetivo: Explicar el desempeño de una red de conocimiento, entendida desde la psicología de la inclusión como un sistema de gestión, producción y transferencia entre las demandas del entorno y las capacidades de la organización. Método: Se realizó un estudio no experimental, transversal y correlacional con una selección muestral no probabilística de 300 administrativos, docentes y estudiantes de una universidad pública, considerando su interacción en prácticas profesionales. Se utilizó la Escala de Complejidad Organizacional de García (2016), la cual es una síntesis de 1) Inventario de Estrategias de Pensamiento (Torkamani & Mahmoudi, 2016); 2) Escala de Inteligencia Competitiva (Saleh, Rahimi & Amirnejad, 2015); 3) Cuestionario de Aprendizaje Organizacional (Erfani & Jafari, 2013), los cuales se procesaron con la técnica Delphi. Resultados: El grado de aprendizaje de la red de conocimiento siguió un patrón selectivo, ya que las posibles combinaciones de las redes de conocimiento sugieren que la capa de entrada al estar regulada por la capa intermedia refleja, en la capa de salida, una gestión, producción y transferencia de conocimiento en función de las tareas más que de los objetivos o las metas. Se advierte la emergencia de una inteligencia organizacional centrada en cuatro factores: Autorregulación, disipación, adaptabilidad y dinamismo. Conclusión: Se advierten líneas de investigación alusivas a las posibles relaciones entre factores tales como la motivación al logro, la utilidad esperada o la facilidad de llevar a cabo una tarea en red como determinantes del clima de tareas, principal factor emergente de la red de conocimiento. Abstract Objective: To explain the performance of a knowledge network, understood as a system of management, production and transfer between the demands of the environment and the capabilities of the organization. Method: A non-experimental, cross-sectional and correlational study was carried out with a non-probabilistic sample selection of 300 administrative staff, teachers and students of a public university, considering their interaction in professional practices. The Organizational Complexity Scale de García (2016) was used, which is a synthesis of 1) Inventory of Thinking Strategies (Torkamani & Mahmoudi, 2016); 2) Scale of Competitive Intelligence (Saleh, Rahimi & Amirnejad, 2015); 3) Organizational Learning Questionnaire (Erfani & Jafari, 2013) which were processed with the Delphi technique. Results: The degree of learning of the knowledge network followed a selective pattern because, the possible combinations of the knowledge networks suggest that the input layer, when regulated by the intermediate layer, reflects in the output layer; management, production and transfer of knowledge in terms of tasks rather than objectives or goals. One can see the emergence of an organizational intelligence centered on four factors: self-regulation, dissipation, adaptability and dynamism. Conclusion: There are lines of research alluding to the possible relationships between factors such as the motivation to achieve, the expected utility or the ease of carrying out a network task as determinants of the task climate, the main emerging factor of the knowledge network.

O presente estudo teve como objetivo identificar as diferenças em termos de complexidade organizacional das empresas auditadas por homens, quando comparadas com aquelas auditadas por, pelo menos, uma mulher. A plataforma teórica da pesquisa fundamentou-se nos fenômenos do glass ceiling e do pink collar work. A base de dados contou com 447 empresas listadas na BM&FBovespa. Para análise dos dados, foram estimadas regressões logísticas simples. Os resultados da pesquisa indicam que quanto mais complexa é a organização menor é a probabilidade de ela apresentar uma mulher como técnica responsável pelos serviços de auditoria. Além disso, identificou-se que das 447 empresas analisadas apenas 64 apresentaram, pelo menos, uma mulher como auditora externa responsável pelos serviços de auditoria no exercício de 2015. Esse número cai para 38, quando se considera as empresas cujo trabalho de auditoria externa é chefiado exclusivamente por mulheres.

HCI and STS researchers have previously described the ethical complexity of practice, drawing together aspects of organizational complexity, design knowledge, and ethical frameworks. Building on this work, we investigate the identity claims and beliefs that impact practitioners’ ability to recognize and act upon ethical concerns in a range of technology-focused disciplines. In this paper, we report results from an interview study with 12 practitioners, identifying and describing their identity claims related to ethical awareness and action. We conducted a critically-focused thematic analysis to identify eight distinct claims representing roles relating to learning, educating, following policies, feeling a sense of responsibility, being a member of a profession, a translator, an activist, and deliberative. Based on our findings, we demonstrate how the claims foreground building competence in relation to ethical practice. We highlight the dynamic interplay among these claims and point towards implications for identity work in socio-technical contexts.

The inability to handle rising complexity effectively is often the cause of project, organizational, enterprise, and even societal collapse. A tractable set of heuristics for handling complexity that can mitigate this risk is consequently highly sought. However, conventional experience-based approaches for identifying complexity handling advice tend to lead to informed but complicated constructs that may be considered over-prescriptive and burdensome for handling complex problems, especially when the need for this support is acute. Further the cacophony of advice, with their tailored lexicons, can cause organizational confusion. This paper explores the development of a simple set of heuristics using an inductive approach that seeks to reduce the decision space and add insight without being overly prescriptive or complicated. An initial set of Heuristics are developed using first-principles. These are then tested and proven by comparison with the dominant discourse in a literature search, to assess if they are simplifying and contributing to established practice, and assessed in a survey to determine if they are useful compared to other similar sets. It is concluded that the proposed set are more useful than similar sets, and that the simplified set of seven heuristics should be developed further to complement other approaches that aim to inform decision-makers in projects, organizations, and society as they seek to handle complexity effectively.

New product development (NPD) is essential to most business organizations to create new values and protect existing values for maintaining high profitability and sustainability. However, the success of NPD projects is deemed to be difficult and challenging owing to high organizational complexity, uncertain business environment, and time-critical innovation. Under the smart manufacturing paradigm, NPD is an active research area to establish effective measures through the adoption of systematic approaches so as to facilitate idea management in the fuzzy front end for the product innovation. In this paper, the domain of new product idea selection is focused on and enhanced by means of the multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach, in which multiple criteria and sub-criteria can be considered in the selection process. Among a number of MCDM approaches, the fuzzy set theory and best-worst method (BWM) are integrated as the fuzzy BWM in this study to structure the new product idea selection process under a group decision-making process. The hierarchy structure for the new product idea selection is also established to consider the perspectives of finance, marketing, engineering, manufacturing, and sustainability. Overall speaking, this study contributes to the field of NPD through overcoming the new product idea selection problem, while the group decision-making process is incorporated into the fuzzy BWM.

The 2020 global crisis triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic progressively shut down economies from East to West as the virus spread worldwide. Progressively, nations suffered massive economic losses as their markets became both disrupted and polarized, reflecting public authorities’ weaknesses to collaborate on a socio-economic speed adaptation. Beyond an organizational crisis, significant management and leadership concerns were raised on the sporadic and disjoint initiatives taken across sectors. Paradoxically, big data utilization wasn’t optimized and fully potentialized. It, in turn, leads to a worrying number of R&D waste in time and outputs. Globalized trans-disciplinary and multi-sectorial ecosystems’ intertwined character adds to a Global Alliance’s organizational complexity to operate successfully. This paper proposes the International Collaboration Guideline on Crisis Management (ICGCM), which aims to be automatized by International Triangulation Systems (ITS).

The aim was to trace the profile and build the matrix of clinical nurse managers of public and private hospitals, from the perspective of the budget process. Cross-sectional, exploratory study with a quantitative approach. The sample consisted of 69 nurses who occupied management positions and had intra-hospital budgetary responsibility. The data collection instrument, containing 20 questions, was previously validated. The study variables were synthesized in the Profile Matrix of clinical nurse managers. The quadrants that make up the Matrix represented the profile of managers, with the 1st quadrant showing the time of experience that was above average, postgraduates, with less organizational complexity, belonging to private hospitals and high levels of participation and budgetary feedback. The characteristics of greater organizational complexity and public funding placed them in the 4th quadrant – low levels of budgetary participation and feedback. The characteristics of hospital institutions, with emphasis on organizational complexity and funding source, apparently promote different demands for knowledge and skills about inputs and budgeting processes of clinical nurse managers, suggesting demands for economic-financial skills of these professionals since their basic graduation training.

Systems used by an organization to achieve business objectives are supported by technologies included in its technological platform, creating a software ecosystem (SECO). Modifications on these technologies can lead essential systems to lose performance or support. Thus, IT managers and architects should pay attention while making changes by not only accounting for information on technologies, but also considering their relationships. Such information may be spread in different documents and also difficult to analyze mostly due to the organizational complexity and lack of tooling support. The purpose of this work is to assist IT managers and architects in making decisions as regards to IT architecture modification, i.e., the set of technologies that supports products and services of an organization. Firstly, critical factors for maintaining IT architecture were investigated through a systematic mapping and a survey research. As a result, an approach to support technology assessment and analysis was defined, exploring the network structure that represents the organization's ecosystem. A tool implementing the key features of the proposed approach was developed, including visualization of SECO networks and configuration of well-defined criteria. Finally, both the approach and tool were evaluated through a feasibility study on the technology and concepts acceptance within a specific, real scenario. A positive feedback on the approach's relevance and tool's resources was observed.

Today, as organizations face constant change, they must rapidly adapt their strategies and operations. This involves continuous business transformation. However, guiding and managing such transformation can be an intimidating task because of organizational complexity. Hence, organizations resort to Enterprise Architecture (EA) to address this complexity and achieve their transformation goals. Nonetheless, there is a lack of research on EA benefits realization and a dearth of conclusive evidence on how EA enables business transformation and delivers value to organizations. Therefore, this research uses a case study method to explore how EA investment is converted into organizational value. This research makes two contributions. The first of these is the development of an EA value realization model, which comprises three iterative and interrelated processes: the EA conversion process, the EA use process, and the EA competitive process. The second contribution is the identification of factors that may influence the value realization process.

This article examines sustainability from a policy perspective rooted in environmental economics and environmental ethics. Endorsing the Brundtland Commission stance that each generation should have undiminished opportunity to meet its own needs, I emphasize the foundational status of the intergenerational commitment. The standard concepts of weak and strong sustainability, WS and SS, are sketched and critiqued simply and intuitively, along with the more recent concept of WS-plus. A recently proposed model of a society dependent on a renewable but vulnerable resource (Barfuss et al. 2018) is introduced as an expositional tool, as its authors intended, and used as a platform for thought experiments exploring the role of risk management tools in reducing the need for safety. Key conclusions include: (i) Safety, in this case, the elimination of risk in uncertain production systems, comes at an opportunity cost that is often non-trivial. (ii) Welfare shocks can be cushioned by savings and diversification, which are enhanced by scale. Scale increases with geographic area, diversity of production, organizational complexity, and openness to trade and human migration. (iii) Increasing scale enables enhancement of sustainable welfare via local and regional specialization, and the need for safety and its attendant opportunity costs is reduced. (iv) When generational welfare is stochastic, the intergenerational commitment should not be abandoned but may need to be adapted to uncertainty, e.g., by expecting less from hard-luck generations and correspondingly more from more fortunate ones. (v) Intergenerational commitments must be resolved in the context of intragenerational obligations to each other in the here and now, and compensation of those asked to make sacrifices for sustainability has both ethical and pragmatic virtue. (vi) Finally, the normative domains of sustainability and safety can be distinguished&mdash, sustainability always, but safety only when facing daunting threats.

The design optimization of the system of systems (SoS) is of great significance but extremely difficult. A collaborative optimization method based on coevolutionary game is proposed to solve this problem. More specifically, it first provides a standardized design decision model for a large number of heterogeneous systems within an SoS in order to reduce the organizational complexity of the design process significantly, and then uses different game models to describe the collaborative interactions between heterogeneous systems and effectively deal with various coupling constraints and objective conflicts in the evolutionary design process of the SoS. Then, the multi-attribute utility theory, experimental design method, response surface modeling technology and differential evolution algorithm are combined to find a satisfactory global optimal solution with the least information exchange and iterative process. Finally, the design of the over-the-horizon amphibious operation equipment SoS is used as an illustrative example to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

PurposeAlthough most research considers organizational learning as an antecedent of innovation, the relationship is complex and could be reciprocal. Therefore, more research is needed on the profit gained from the learning and organization acquires from its innovation activities. Using the concept of fit, this paper aims to investigate whether organizational learning increases when an organization’s technical innovation level exceeds that of its competitors (positive misfit), theorizing the curvilinear effect of positive technical innovation misfit on organizational learning.Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses regression analysis with survey data gathered from 202 European firms.FindingsThe findings support the argument that positive technical innovation misfit has an inverted-U shaped effect on organizational learning.Practical implicationsThe findings obtained should orient firm managers to developing a work environment that enables optimal levels of technical innovation and learning – levels at which the technical innovation developed drives learning among the organization’s members but avoids becoming trapped in the organizational complexity involved in very high levels of positive technical innovation misfit.Originality/valueThis study resolves conflicting views of the relationship between organizational learning and technical innovation and adds to the existing literature that indicates that proactive innovative firms can fail when becoming learners.

This theoretical paper argues that a proper way to deal with the problem of organizational complexity is through the paradigm of managerial and organizational cognition and proposes a three part framework for analysis of organizational dynamics. The perspective of organizational complexity arises from the notion that a number of different kinds of activities are being carried out simultaneously by different people or groups of people. Therefore, there is no single authoritative locus of control that sets tasks and controls results for everybody. The paper proposes that in order to generate helpful theories of organizational action in such context we should be adapting a cognitive paradigm which define ways in which people in organizations define the situation, become aware of alternative courses of action, evaluate the consequences of these actions, and consider the significance of the action in a socially constructed world. The paper argues that there are three crucial tension that would benefit from the application of complexity theory in organizational studies: the tension between subjects and their surroundings which give rise to its unpredictability, the tension from discrepancy and ambiguity of interpretations of organizational members and the tension between individual interpretations and coherent and meaningful modus operandi set by the management.

This chapter aims to utilize complexity theory and complex adaptive systems in global business, thus describing the theoretical and practical overview of complexity theory, the application of complex adaptive systems, and the significance of complexity theory and complex adaptive systems in global business. The utilization of complexity theory and complex adaptive systems is vital for modern organizations that seek to serve suppliers and customers, increase business performance, strengthen competitiveness, and acquire routine success in global business. Thus, it is essential for modern organizations to utilize complexity theory and complex adaptive systems, create a strategic plan to investigate their dynamic promotions, and instantly respond to the needs of customers. The chapter argues that utilizing complexity theory and complex adaptive systems has the potential to improve organizational performance and gain sustainable competitive advantage in global business.