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Belk's conceptualisation of the extended self is one of the most influential articles published in the history of consumer research. However, less scholarly attention has been given to the broader ontological implications of Belk's later arguments that his original distinction between a core and extended self should be abandoned. In this comment, I first highlight how Belk's original formulation marked a contested transition from a dualistic view of consumers as possessing a core self that remains distinct from the socio-material world to a dialectical understanding of consumer selves as emerging from a centre-to-periphery network of relations. His ensuing update implicitly denotes another ontological shift towards an even more de-centred view of the 'extended self'. However, Belk's reformulation of the extended self in the digital age lacked a culturally established, alternative praxeomorphic model needed to fully disentangle the extended self from the 'heavy' ontology of the core self. Contemporary socio-technical innovations are beginning to offer a praxeomorphic means to ontologically re-vision consumers as distributed networks whose life narratives function as ledgers of their assembled experiences. As an emerging praxeomorphic future shaped by the mass diffusion of AI technologies is rapidly taking shape, I suggest that 'consumer research', as we currently understand it, may soon be radically transformed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While recent technological advancements have enabled improved performance in warehouse operations, companies still struggle with eliminating errors such as incorrect/damaged items or the wrong quantity sent to customers. Such errors result in inefficient resource use, costly returns handling, and customer dissatisfaction. Despite the importance of errors, current knowledge of the underlying causes is limited. This paper addresses the gap by investigating error causes through a relatively new technology - intelligent video analysis (IVA), an additional tool for analysing warehouse operations. A multiple case study involving companies that have implemented IVA in their outbound warehouse operations (i.e. order picking, packing, and sorting) was conducted. This study is the first to investigate implementations of IVA, offering novel empirical insights into error root causes. It shows how many errors reported by customers are actually not made by humans in outbound warehouse operations but are attributable to faulty customer claims, inbound warehouse operation errors, and malfunctioning technology. This study offers interesting insights into the interaction of various technical, organisational, and human factors, thereby contributing to the literature on sociotechnical systems and the human-centric Industry 5.0. Finally, the study outlines a way forward for managers to address and further reduce errors occurring in warehouse operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Order picking in warehouses is a labour- and time-intensive logistical process that significantly impacts the efficiency of supply chains. Although technical progress facilitates the automation of specific order picking tasks, human workers remain the primary actors of order picking. Owing to high operating costs associated with manual order picking, its design and management have been increasingly researched for decades. Because manual order picking systems are socio-technical systems, human factors and workers' interaction with technology are essential for operational success. As innovative technologies become increasingly utilised, such as augmented reality or exoskeletons, warehouse managers need to consider the effects of supportive and substitutive technologies on operational outcomes. However, the potentials and obstacles of using technologies in manual order picking require further investigations. Therefore, this study analyses literature content on supportive and substitutive technologies in manual warehouse order picking and investigates the existing state of research in this field. Text mining is employed to enhance the insights regarding the content analysis. Additionally, future research opportunities on the integration of supportive and substitutive technologies are proposed for manual order picking improvement and development of sustainable and human-centered logistics systems, according to the Industry 5.0 vision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manufacturing systems are socio-technical systems, with explicit interactions between humans and technologies in shared workspaces. These shared workspaces could also be called hybrid collaborative manufacturing systems, which involve workers as well as technological equipment and combine the benefits of human workers and new Industry 4.0 technologies, such systems are particularly useful in a context requiring flexibility and adaptability. Furthermore, the new Industry 5.0 approach has the objective to shift toward more human-centric and resilient manufacturing systems. The key problems to solve in the design of collaborative manufacturing systems are the combinatorial assembly line balancing problem and the equipment selection problem. An efficient and sustainable line requires a cost-effective choice of equipment while improving the ergonomics and the safety of workers. Both decisions of balancing workload and the assignment of equipment impact the ergonomics of a collaborative system and present conflicting criteria. To this end, we propose a multi-objective approach, the objectives are the optimisation of the investment costs and the ergonomics with a fatigue and recovery criterion. We propose to linearise the fatigue and recovery to formulate a new Mixed Integer Linear Programming formulation. We developed an exact multi-objective solving algorithm based on the ϵ-constraint to obtain the trade-off between these objectives. We conducted numerical experiments with different instances from the literature with promising results for instances with up to 45 operations. Finally, we discuss insightful managerial conclusions and future research perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue of the “Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology” examines conceptual models as products of, and tools for, critical inquiry in Information Science (IS). The papers included in this issue present diverse perspectives on how conceptual models impact sociotechnical systems, spanning topics such as knowledge organization, representation, and information system design. Key themes include the intersection of model development with ethical considerations, the historical and future implications of conceptual modeling decisions, and the potential for conceptual models to address issues of power, representation, and justice in emerging technologies. This introduction situates the contributions within broader discussions of conceptual modeling in IS and highlights the field's unique approach to reflexive critique and sociotechnical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manufacturing worksites have developed to have a socio-technical aspect with complex interactions between human operators, automated machines, and the environment. The operators must adapt to and cope with daily performance variabilities in these socio-technical systems to maintain resilient productions. However, more than conventional methods are needed to clarify the operators' adaptive aspects that interactive factors play a critical role. This study investigates attention management in multitasking as one crucial aspect of the adaptive behavior of manual operations in actual manufacturing worksites. The framework considering the functional structure of tacit knowledge was employed for this purpose. Data from a case study focusing on multitasking in steel plate processing was utilized. First, we extracted the attention characteristics with eye movement and interview analysis regarding the proximal and distal terms of tacit knowledge. Then, we took a model constructive approach using work domain analysis (WDA) and functional resonance analysis method (FRAM). The results showed that the expert operator could maintain the systematic attention strategy even when multitasking. Furthermore, the simulation results showed that extracted experts' attention strategy contributed to the resilient work performance. The current study confirmed that the framework based on FRAM could investigate the adaptive nature of expert skills in socio-technical systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many efforts from multiple academic and industrial disciplines have studied the notion of context. The systems engineering and human systems integration fields, however, lack a generalized definition and characterization of context, in particular the operational context of complex sociotechnical systems. This paper reviews context definitions and builds a generalized definition of the operational context of complex sociotechnical systems. The objective is then to identify and extract context properties which are often implicit in the literature and do not necessarily appear in the definitions. However, eliciting them is helpful for understanding what context is made of, how it relates to complex sociotechnical systems comprising human and non‐human agents, and how an early understanding of the operational context can prove valuable to designing efficient and robust systems. Our analysis is followed by an example of how our definition and derived properties apply to the case study of the design of a remote and virtual air traffic control center. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 has posed a massive challenge for destination marketers to restore safety perceptions among tourists after the onslaught of the pandemic. The objective of the current study is to develop an integrated model linking social and technical elements via socio-technical theory helping in theory development and tourism recovery. Destination marketing researchers agree on the importance of STTs to restore faith among tourists However, there is a lack of theory in the studies related to tourism recovery. Socio-technical theory, which attributes the interdependence of technical systems and social systems for maximizing organizational productivity is used by the current study to help understand the tourism recovery process. This study uses the elements of socio-technical theory in a structural equation model (SEM) to help destination marketers better understand the effect of technology in attaining tourism recovery. Based on self-selection sampling, we collected the data via a web survey from makemytrip.com, the modeling in this study was done via variance-based structural equation modeling. The study results demonstrate a strong effect of Smart Tourism Technologies (STTs) in reducing the impact of pandemics on tourists' perceptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transport policies affect the quality of life and social wellbeing of citizens and communities; incorporating such impacts in policy and decision making, however, remains a challenge. This paper aims to: (1) present a systematic literature review that links transport policy to Community Wellbeing using the Capability Approach by Sen and Nussbaum, and (2) using that basis, establish a theoretical framework to systematically address Community Wellbeing impacts of municipal transport policies. This can improve qualitative assessments of policy interventions on multiple dimensions, such as safety, health, the (built) environment and accessibility, and inequalities within those dimensions. Using existing literature on the Capability Approach, Community Wellbeing dimensions can indeed successfully be integrated in transport policies. Additional tools and theories, such as the Theory of Change, are needed to structure relations between the sociotechnical transport system and the policy process. For analyses and assessment of policy interventions, additions from the affordances theory, potential accessibility, activity spaces, and sufficientarianism are needed to finalise the framework. Further development and testing of the framework is recommended. The most prominent research gaps are processes to set thresholds for sufficient accessibility, as well as potential limits to mobility behaviours through collective capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Voice Intelligent Assistants provide users with new ways of human-computer interaction. With built-in screens, Voice Intelligent Assistants can display images and videos upon users' requests. Even though images and videos present information in a lively manner, they might also contain overwhelming harmful contents. Due to the lack of effective evaluation mechanisms, it is difficult to prevent the propagation of harmful contents while ensuring the dissemination of compliant visual contents. This research defined a standardized set of classification criteria to identify and classify harmful visual contents. Then, Intelligent Image and Video Rating System, a prototype rating system that implemented the classification criteria was designed and developed. This research further evaluated and verified the reliability and efficiency of the prototype. The prototype system demonstrated additional advantages in swiftly classifying new hazardous contents, and in differentiating the multiple meanings of the same object in different contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hazard mitigation planning requires disparate agencies to negotiate through the planning and implementation processes. These agencies must strategize, develop, and implement plans for addressing scenarios of natural and human-caused hazards. Competing perspectives exist in systems engineering at multiple levels of governance. This paper introduces a framework to understand and coordinate when one or more agencies have outlier perspectives of the priority ordering of initiatives in regional hazard mitigation. Each agency perspective is represented as a scenario that disrupts system order. The paper presents a mathematical framework with 40 initiatives, six ordering criteria, and eight scenarios. The method coordinates evidence and experience that are essential to negotiation of requirements among emergency managers in hazard mitigation planning in the postpandemic era. Practical Applications: Unprecedented combinations of natural and human-caused stressors are challenging to plan for since the perspectives of participating agencies can differ significantly. The agencies that collaborate on emergency management include transportation, law enforcement, environment, prisons, parks and recreation, forestry, energy, and others. This paper facilitates negotiations among these various agencies in the hazard mitigation planning process by introducing a framework to understand and coordinate when one or more agencies have outlier perspectives of the priorities for investments in hazard mitigation. The application of the framework identifies where negotiation among the agencies is most needed in determining hazard mitigation priorities. This approach, grounded in principles of systems engineering and risk analysis, reduces cost overrun and schedule delay in the life cycle of emergency management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interaction between actors in sustainability transition is fundamental for generating knowledge about what constitutes a just, equitable and sustainable society. This paper focuses on the Finnish housing and construction sector as a socio-technical system, which currently accounts for about 40% of energy consumption and 35% of greenhouse gas emissions. A qualitative interview study with 18 organizations and a larger network study involving 35 actors were conducted to address the research questions: How do actors constitute a network and define climate-wise housing and construction? What specific focus areas can be identified around climate action? What issues support or inhibit climate-wise housing and construction? Although the network appeared relatively dense and inclusive, misalignment emerged upon closer examination. The actors were uniformly engaged in energy-related topics, but differed in their emphasis level on household choices, low-carbon materials, and the circular economy. Supporting and inhibiting factors were identified within three broad categories: alignment of goals, network characteristics, and transformation propensity. The findings suggest that climate action is gaining ground in housing and construction, but there is evidence of institutional inertia, a demand for accelerating support for intermediation, and a need to harness organizational resources and individual capabilities to create sustainability transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Robust and trusted digital human representations are necessary to successfully account for human considerations in model‐based systems engineering (MBSE). Multiple domains and modeling frameworks leverage verification, validation, and accreditation (VV&A) processes to characterize when and under what conditions a model is valid to establish credibility. A literature review was completed on mathematical, physics‐based, software development, discrete event simulation, agent‐based, system dynamics, and MBSE models with the goal of proposing a process for performing VV&A on digital engineering (DE) and MBSE models for sociotechnical systems. However, this research also revealed the need for a broader framework to characterize the risk associated with using these models for making high‐consequence decisions. While accomplishing the literature review, another approach to building credibility was identified that is used heavily in the financial industry, namely model risk management (MRM). This process is extended by leveraging MRM approaches from within the financial community to propose a framework for sociotechnical model users to characterize the risk of using MBSE models to make programmatic decisions. The primary contribution of this work is to document a meta‐analysis of model VV&A while proposing an alternative approach to characterizing and communicating credibility that was discovered during this analysis. This approach could be a viable option for ensuring the credibility of human systems integration in MBSE models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green industrial policies (GIPs) aim to promote the adoption of green technology within a sustainability framework. While previous evaluations of GIP have focused more on the policy itself and the impacts within the policy boundaries, this paper further introduces the geographical factor to analyze the impact of different spatial geographic distances on implementing GIP. By integrating geographic distances into a spatial difference-in-differences analysis to assess the effects of municipal green industry policies (referred to as green industry pilot policies in this paper) enacted in 11 cities in China from 2006 to 2010, we find that these policies not only improve environmental and economic outcomes in targeted regions but also have spillover effects that may affect neighboring areas negatively, highlighting the importance of geographic considerations. The effectiveness of green industrial policies varies across cities, influenced by local socio-technical systems and regional characteristics such as infrastructure and information technology. These findings suggest that policy impacts are complex and multifaceted, requiring a comprehensive understanding of geographic interdependencies. By incorporating geographic factors, this research contributes to sustainability transition theory by offering insights into the spatial and temporal dynamics of socio-technical systems. The results underscore the need for policymakers to consider spatial-temporal aspects and potential secondary effects on adjacent regions when designing and implementing green industrial policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractBuilt for Zero (BFZ) is a data-driven methodology that some US homeless systems are using to allocate housing assistance. The ‘by-name data’ that BFZ needs is produced by actors within a ‘data assemblage’: a socio-technical system that people re/create to produce, analyse, and use data. Although BFZ is diffusing across the Global North, little research has examined the barriers that local administrators face whilst upgrading their systems’ data assemblage with this methodology. This paper advances housing scholarship by using interview data from 28 US homeless systems to answer the question: what barriers do administrators face whilst upgrading their data assemblage with BFZ? I delineate four barriers that fray the network ties that local administrators need to produce by-name data: disinterest, fragmentation, noncompliance, and incapacity. My analysis shows how data assemblage theory can be used to understand homeless governance, delineates several factors that prevent or complicate data sharing within homeless systems, and identifies new directions for research on homeless datafication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Featured Application: The article provides two applications of the Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM) in the healthcare sector. These analyses can be used as a reference by safety managers and practitioners prospectively and retrospectively for the effective risk assessment of interoperable medical device systems. In the recent literature, numerous tools have been found that have been used to evaluate and improve the resilience of socio-technical systems such as hospitals. The Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM) is certainly one of the most diffused, as it can provide information on the system structure and its components through a systemic analysis approach. FRAM has been successfully applied in different contexts. However, in the healthcare sector, only a few studies propose practical analyses that can support practitioners in systematically observing and analyzing events, both when things go right and when they go wrong. To reduce such a research gap, the current study focuses on the application of FRAM to two different case studies: (1) an accident that occurred in a hyperbaric oxygen therapy unit, and (2) the risk assessment of a magnetic resonance imaging unit. The results show the effectiveness of FRAM in detecting discrepancies and vulnerabilities in the practical management of these devices, providing valuable insights not only regarding the analysis of adverse events (i.e., retrospectively) but also concerning the improvement of safety procedures (i.e., prospectively). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore digital transformation and socio-technical systems through the perspectives of collaboration, co-generation, and domestication. Building on Morten Levin's influential work, we discuss how digital technologies are integrated into work environments, emphasising the necessity for democratic, participatory approaches. We discuss how his ideas of collaborative, democratic practice originating in the 1990s hold up to today's organisational challenges like digital and sustainability transitions. Are the ideas and practices still valid, or do we need to update them? We identify the grand challenges that must be met: Ensuring sustainable digital transitions and developing educated, skilled workers in digitally transformed organisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electric vehicle (EV) technological supply chain progresses when demand (pull) aligns with supply (push) to perform as a technology delivery system. Actors, institutions, and networks interconnect the technological supply chain with innovation as responses to external pressures to produce and deliver technology products/services. The literature separately examined the progress from a delivery perspective (linking the demand and supply network) and a systems perspective that examines technological change as a socio-technical system. Technological progress requires changes aligning push and pull or one feeding into the other. The 'motors of innovation' that shape the innovation system are used in systems dynamics modeling linking technological changes and progress. This study uses 'motors of innovation' to combine the two perspectives and uses interconnectedness to examine the alignment of push and pull and the resulting delivery phenomena. The phenomena require studying it in its settings with diverse heuristic and analytic views. Therefore, this study uses case study methodology and selects multiple Indian EV cases comprising all vehicle segments in a government direct market scenario. It makes two contributions to technological progress: one defines the combined delivery and systems perspective and includes interconnectedness. The other is moving knowledge to a broad scope and expertise and striving for interconnectedness with other systems. Further insights are possible with cases that display better technological progress, as findings noted poor interconnectedness with limited technological capability and infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sociotechnical thinking (STT) has recently emerged in response to technical-social dualism. It is defined as the ability to identify, address, and respond to both social and technical dimensions of engineering. As the number of publications on STT increases, so does the need to map the literature. This paper provides a scoping literature review of STT in engineering education, focusing on research purposes, methodologies, findings, and potential gaps. Our examination of 25 papers indicates that research on STT in engineering education covers a variety of purposes and methodologies. Key findings in the literature provide a better understanding of students' demonstration of and barriers to developing STT, the intersections between STT, engineering identity and culture, characteristics of STT, challenges and opportunities for teaching STT, and how prior knowledge and emotional connections can facilitate students' development of STT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Metro stations have become a crucial aspect of urban rail transportation, integrating facilities, equipment and pedestrians. Impractical physical layout designs and pedestrian psychology impact the effectiveness of an evacuation during a metro fire. Prior research on emergency evacuation has overlooked the complexity of metro stations and failed to adequately consider the physical heterogeneity of stations and pedestrian psychology. Therefore, this study aims to develop a comprehensive evacuation optimization strategy for metro stations by applying the concept of design for safety (DFS) to an emergency evacuation. This approach offers novel insights into the management of complex systems in metro stations during emergencies. Design/methodology/approach: Physical and social factors affecting evacuations are identified. Moreover, the social force model (SFM) is modified by combining the fire dynamics model (FDM) and considering pedestrians' impatience and panic psychology. Based on the Nanjing South Metro Station, a multiagent-based simulation (MABS) model is developed. Finally, based on DFS, optimization strategies for metro stations are suggested. Findings: The most effective evacuation occurs when the width of the stairs is 3 meters and the transfer corridor is 14 meters. Additionally, a luggage disposal area should be set up. The exit strategy of the fewest evacuees is better than the nearest-exit strategy, and the staff in the metro station should guide pedestrians correctly. Originality/value: Previous studies rarely consider metro stations as sociotechnical systems or apply DFS to proactively reduce evacuation risks. This study provides a new perspective on the evacuation framework of metro stations, which can guide the designers and managers of metro stations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This investigation aimed to explore whether strategic planning systems significantly influence the advancement of sustainable urban road infrastructure within Ugandan Town councils. The strategic planning systems were delineated into six components, encompassing planning tools, planning resources, consideration of internal and external factors, resistance to planning, and functional coverage. Grounded in the socio-technical systems theory, the study adopted a positivist philosophical approach, employing a descriptive cross-sectional survey design. The target population comprised established Town councils in eastern and central Uganda as of July 1, 2022. The results revealed a statistically significant positive correlation between strategic planning systems and sustainable urban road infrastructure development (R-value = 0.589, R-squared = 0.346, F statistic = 14.837, p < .001). Encouraging and enhancing the utilization of strategic planning resources and tools during the strategic management process could foster the development of sustainable urban road infrastructure. Further research encompassing diverse urban landscapes, varied performance metrics, and longitudinal designs could contribute to extending the generalizability of these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The metaverse represents a post-reality universe that seamlessly merges physical reality with digital virtuality. It provides a continuous and immersive social networking environment, enabling multi-user engagement and interaction through Extended Reality (XR) technologies, which include Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR). As a novel solution distinct from traditional methods such as mobile-based applications, the technical affordance of XR technologies in shaping multi-user social experiences remains a complex, multifaceted, and multivariate issue that has not yet been thoroughly explored. Additionally, there is a notable absence of mature frameworks and guidelines for designing and developing these multi-user socio-technical systems. Enhancing multi-user social engagement through these technologies remains a significant research challenge. This systematic review aims to address this gap by establishing an analytical framework guided by the PRISMA protocol. It analyzes 88 studies from various disciplines, including computer science, social science, psychology, and the arts, to define the mechanisms and effectiveness of XR technologies in multi-user social engagement. Quantitative methods such as descriptive statistics, correlation statistics, and text mining are used to examine the manifestation of mechanisms, potential system factors, and their effectiveness. Meanwhile, qualitative case studies identify specific measures by which system factors enhance multi-user social engagement. The study provides a pioneering framework for theoretical research and offers practical insights for developing cross-spatiotemporal co-present activities in the metaverse. It also promotes critical reflection on the evolving relationship between humans and this emerging digital universe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how a re-interpretation of the socio-technical, socioecological and transition design approaches to transition from the point of view of Niklas Luhmann's general systems theory of society. The need to understand and promote changes that include a technological and ecological dimension has led to different approaches, such as socio-technical or socio-environmental approaches, to incorporate links with society. While these approaches often include sociological insights, they rarely offer a general understanding of how these are embedded into society. We need a new environmental sociology that helps catalyze change processes with a collectively reorganized society, empowering more radically transformative actions to change the current structures and processes that have led us to where we are today. The article offers a cross-sectional look at the socio-ecological and socio-technical systems literature, specifically for what concerns their understanding of the 'systems' in transition and how they can be governed, and re-interpret it from the theoretical lens of the deep sociological knowledge, which refers to the profound understanding of social systems and their dynamics, embedded in Luhmann's theory of social systems. From here, we suggest the second-order coupling for a sociologically grounded understanding of the interactions that comprise socio-ecological and socio-technical systems, heterogeneous and almost self-organizing assemblies of social, technical, and natural elements and processes. At the same time, third-order couplings are analyzed, focused on governance, relationships between operations, and structures mediated by a deliberate attempt to ensure coherence and coordination against the autonomy and heterogeneity of socio-techno-ecological systems. Therefore, this manuscript offers a deeper conceptual and methodological understanding of socio-techno-ecological couplings and systems in the context of sustainability transformation and gives insights into its governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior studies on traceability as an enabler of supply chain resilience (SCRes) have focused on large‐scale disruptions and developed country contexts. Few studies have focused on developing countries where chronic, small‐scale disruptions are common and resource scarcity means advanced digital technologies are rarely adopted. This research explores how traceability is achieved across upstream actors in two Ghanaian agri‐food supply chains and how this affects global SCRes. Social characteristics are shown to influence the risks inherent in supply chains, while traceability is both a direct and indirect SCRes enabler. Informed by the relational view, the roles of relation‐specific assets and governance mechanisms in maintaining traceability are explored. Supply chain‐wide relation‐specific assets are prioritized over dyadic relation‐specific assets. This original finding is explained by the importance of maintaining social ties over short‐term economic gains in a collectivist culture, leading to greater relational rents in the long term. A novel, informal third‐party governance mechanism that reduces formal contracting costs and provides flexibility and continuity to interfirm relationships is also identified, further facilitating the attainment of relational rents. The findings are explained in light of sub‐Saharan Africa's collectivist culture, encapsulated in the philosophy of ubuntu. Overall, the research theorizes on achieving supply chain traceability and thus enhancing global SCRes as a sociotechnical system incorporating technological and nontechnological systems that are socially embedded in the local context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many data science endeavors encounter failure, surfacing at any project phase. Even after successful deployments, data science projects grapple with ethical dilemmas, such as bias and discrimination. Current project management methodologies prioritize efficiency and cost savings over risk management. The methodologies largely overlook the diverse risks of sociotechnical systems and risk articulation inherent in data science lifecycles. Conversely, while the established risk management framework (RMF) by NIST and McKinsey aims to manage AI risks, there is a heavy reliance on normative definitions of risk, neglecting the multifaceted subjectivities of data science project failures. This paper reports on a systematic literature review that identifies three main themes: Big Data Execution Issues, Demand for a Risk Management Framework tailored for Large-Scale Data Science Projects, and the need for a General Risk Management Framework for all Data Science Endeavors. Another overarching focus is on how risk is articulated by the institution and the practitioners. The paper discusses a novel and adaptive data science risk management framework - "DS EthiCo RMF" - which merges project management, ethics, and risk management for diverse data science projects into one holistic framework. This agile risk management framework DS EthiCo RMF can bridge the current divide between normative risk standards and the multitude of data science requirements, offering a human-centric method to navigate the intertwined sociotechnical risks of failure in data science projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Industry 4.0 context, it is very important for companies to apply a comprehensive and sustainable business model to grow steadily and quickly adapt to the fast-changing environment. Although the existing literature has explored Quality 4.0 by integrating Industry 4.0 tools into the TQM system, the question of how Quality 4.0 practices drive sustainable excellence (SE) remains unexplored. Therefore, to fill the gap, this research aims to investigate the relationship between Quality 4.0 practices and SE as well as the role of digital transformation (DT) and digital leadership in this connection, anchoring on the stakeholder theory, the natural resource-based view (NRBR) theory, and the socio-technical system (STS) theory. The research employs the quantitative Structural Equation Model method to analyse empirical data in the manufacturing industry in Vietnam. The findings demonstrate that Quality 4.0 practices positively influence both digital transformation and SE. This study confirmed the mediating role of digital transformation and the moderating role of digital leadership in the relationship between Quality 4.0 practices and SE. The findings of this study contributed to applications of Quality 4.0 practices and digital transformation to improve SE in the manufacturing sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various current trends in education highlight the importance of pedagogies that address societal and environmental questions while preparing and inspiring students to take action. Meanwhile, how we view the future influences how we act, and how we act influences the future. Research on young people's images of the future has shown how technology plays a central role in how we imagine the future and the changes that shape it. This suggests a need to address the role of perceptions of future sociotechnical change and agency in students' thinking, as it may instruct the development of action-oriented critical scientific literacy. Thus, in this study, we examine how images of the future reflect students' perceptions of sociotechnical change. Employing abductive qualitative content analysis on 58 upper secondary school students' essays describing "a typical day" in the future, we focused on how students' depictions of future sociotechnical change vary along three dimensions: from static futures to radical transformation, from nonproblematic change to issues deeply relevant to societal deliberation, and various framings of who, if anyone, has agency. We found that students' images of the future contained wide variation in the discussed range of sociotechnical change, while technology was discussed typically in nonproblematic and sometimes in more critical, problematised ways. Indications of agency were mostly vague, but students occasionally attributed agency over sociotechnical change to the general public, specialised experts and themselves. We conclude by discussing the potential implications of the results in regard to recent definitions of scientific literacy as well as future-oriented pedagogies in science education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted health systems around the globe. Lessons from health systems responses to these challenges may help design effective and sustainable health system responses for future challenges. This study aimed to 1/ identify the broad types of health system challenges faced during the pandemic and 2/ develop a typology of health system response to these challenges. Methods: Semi-structured one-on-one online interviews explored the experience of 19 health professionals during COVID-19 in a large state health system in Australia. Data were analysed using constant comparative analysis utilising a sociotechnical system lens. Results: Participants described four overarching challenges: 1/ System overload, 2/ Barriers to decision-making, 3/ Education or training gaps, and 4/ Limitations of existing services. The limited time often available to respond meant that specific and well-designed strategies were often not possible, and more generic strategies that relied on the workforce to modify solutions and repair unexpected gaps were common. For example, generic responses to system overload included working longer hours, whilst specific strategies utilised pre-existing technical resources (e.g. converting non-emergency wards into COVID-19 wards). Conclusion: During the pandemic, it was often not possible to rely on mature strategies to frame responses, and more generic, emergent approaches were commonly required when urgent responses were needed. The degree to which specific strategies were ready-to-hand appeared to dictate how much a strategy relied on such generic approaches. The workforce played a pivotal role in enabling emergent responses that required dealing with uncertainties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article develops a post-digital perspective for the study of international peacebuilding and elaborates its merits. Contrary to narratives in policy and practice that tend to fetishize the digital, digital peacebuilding cannot be meaningfully separated from peacebuilding before digitalization. Resisting the call for a "digital turn," a post-digital lens helps to research, rewrite, and rework the digital while simultaneously staying with and moving beyond digitalization. It aims to demystify the role of digital technologies while enabling critical scrutiny of their impact on contemporary and future peacebuilding. More specifically, the post-digital helps us to (1) establish a critical distance to narratives of fast-paced innovation and progress that fetishize the digital, (2) scrutinize how digitalization compounds contemporary approaches and constellations of peacebuilding, (3) engage with the uneven temporalities of digital peacebuilding and its diverse global manifestations, (4) shed light on its real, embodied, and tangible effects on conflict-affected populations, (5) hold digitalization accountable by unearthing disillusionments and failures, (6) re-adjust our focus on human agency in the development and use of the socio-technical systems that constitute digital peacebuilding, (7) and finally, take a rhizomatic view that is concerned with how power relations make and break digitalized peacebuilding networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The defossilisation of the agricultural sector is driven by intense worldwide academic research on non-fossil, renewable and energy-efficient agriculture, and the acknowledgment of the need for sustainable farming practices. For this purpose, not only technical transformations but also socio-technical system changes towards sustainability need to take place in a co-evolutionary manner. This paper investigates structural and qualitative characteristics of the knowledge produced by research on fossil-energy-free agriculture. We provide evidence on the worldwide research directions, as well as investigate whether academic research and publicly funded research projects foster knowledge creation for the desired transformation. Bibliographic maps are constructed using a query-based methodology as social networks to investigate the efficiency of the EU-funded research to achieve the goals set for the 2050 EU Green Deal. The H2020-funded papers are further analysed with dictionary-based text analysis to quantify the relative emphasis of different types of knowledge in the text. This approach is eventually used to relate transformational capacity to project profiles in the European Union, to evaluate past funding schemes and to improve the shape of future research programs on renewable and sustainable agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores a design fiction approach in an educational context by applying it to a third-year industrial design studio class. The Food Futures project is conducted with thirty students in the design studio. We approached the future of food using a design fiction approach since the combination of food and design is a highly complex and social issue that requires a systems-level change. The project started with a design fiction workshop to adapt the approach to the class. After the students had written their briefs in the context of the future storyworlds, the project continued with weekly critique sessions. The data is collected through the project outcomes, recordings, and questionnaires. A methodological discussion about using this approach in the educational context is presented based on the collected reflections. We argue that design fiction can be used in studio projects for research and idea-generation phases to support divergence processes through building storyworlds. Furthermore, we examined how this approach can be integrated into design education based on how students defined their limitations considering their visualisation techniques and design intervention levels (product, product-service-system, spatio-social) within future storyworlds. Imbued with the ability to envision socio-technical environments, we see design fiction as a useful tool for adapting industrial design education to emerging approaches such as systemic design and transition design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The commitment to a more sustainable world in social and environmental terms requires product design and development (PDD) models that will help achieve this goal. Based on a dialogue between theory and practice, this paper presents the reflections that led to such a sociotechnical model, including its main principles: Ergonomics Quality in Design (EQUID) 4.0. It is grounded on a broad concept of ergonomics and human factors (E/HF), going beyond the traditional, narrow view of E/HF in PDD. EQUID 2.0 included the organisational dimension in the design process but left its role only in the immediate sphere of product design. EQUID 4.0 recognises that E/HF quality in the design process depends on a higher level, i.e. the organisation itself and integrates the contributions of preceding versions in an expanded E/HF concept: one that proposes that E/HF should always include not just the social but also the environmental dimension of sustainability. THEORETICAL RELEVANCE: If a tool or method that aims to contribute to inserting E/HF into production spheres is to be proposed, there is a need to establish a conceptual framework derived from a dialogue between E/HF theory and practice in relation to quality, sustainability, and product design and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional approaches to safety assessment and management are limited when it comes to complex socio-technical systems, such as air traffic management (ATM). A modelling approach proposed in this paper relies on Resilience Engineering perspective, which is about work-as-done, where safety is one of the targets trading off with other goals. The model provides a description of everyday practices, procedures, strategies, etc. in providing, not only safe, but also efficient ATM system operations. The aim of the model is to help air navigation service providers (ANSPs) that still do not measure and monitor resilience to distinguish between main drivers of traditional safety and drivers of resilience emerging from everyday adaptation to uncertainties. The conceptual layer of the model uses the analogy of lever mechanism to represent the balancing between the demand side (including the uncertainties) and available resources on the supply side that considers air traffic controllers (ATCos), tools and working procedures. The quantitative layer of the model allows identification of periods of resilient behavior (negative demand-capacity imbalances) and thereby steers ANSPs in discovering sources of resilience and finding appropriate resilience indicators to monitor in the future. A data-driven application of the proposed model is shown with the example of Barcelona Area Control Centre – assessment of balancing conditions, analysis of proposed resilience indicators and discussion of the trade-offs. This research focuses on the tactical imbalances that emerge from work-as-done on an everyday basis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considerable efforts have been made to analyze human-system interconnections to address socio-technical system mismatches and human error in aviation, nuclear, and healthcare industries. These endeavors are growing in the production, manufacturing, technology, and logistics sectors. There is a low adoption rate of Human Factors Engineering (HFE) principles in the maintenance of power plants, yet they have also suffered catastrophic failures due to human error. This study aimed to unearth factors that influence the potential adopters' acceptance or decline of HFE programs at the persuasion-decision stage to accelerate the dissemination of HFE in power plants. The HFE adoption readiness model was developed by combining the HFE intervention attributes and organizational planning requirements. The study followed an exploratory, quantitative survey and cross-sectional research focusing on power plants, especially in South Africa. The results revealed that relative advantage, compatibility, cost, and planning are critical to HFE adoption. Of these factors, compatibility was significantly associated with the readiness to adopt (or accept) HFE in maintenance, while cost gave an essential hint. This paper highlighted the study's contributions to research and the use of HFE in the maintenance of power plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An increased interest in the resilience of complex socio-ecological and socio-technical systems has led to a variety of metrics being proposed. An overview of these metrics and their underlying concepts would support identifying useful metrics for applications in science and engineering. This study undertakes a scoping review of resilience metrics for systems straddling the societal, ecological, and technical domains to determine how resilience has been measured, the conceptual differences between the proposed approaches, and how they align with the domains of their case studies. We find that a wide variety of resilience metrics have been proposed in the literature. Conceptually, ten different quantification approaches were identified. Four different disturbance types were observed, including sudden, continuous, multiple, and abruptly ending disturbances. Surprisingly, there is no strong pattern regarding socio-ecological systems being studied using the "ecological resilience" concept and socio-technical systems being studied using the "engineering resilience" concept. As a result, we recommend that researchers use multiple resilience metrics in the same study, ideally following different conceptual approaches, and compare the resulting insights. Furthermore, the used metrics should be mathematically defined, the included variables explained and their units provided, and the chosen functional form justified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Socio-technical systems (STSs) are systems of systems, synthesising human and IT components that jointly operate to achieve specific goals. Such systems are overly complex but, if designed optimally, they can significantly improve STS performance. Critical phases in STS design are defining the functional requirements for automated or software-supported human activities and addressing social and human interaction issues. To define automation support for human operations, STS designers need to ensure that specifications will satisfy not only the non-functional requirements (NFR) of the system but also of its human actors such as human reliability/workload. However, such human factors aspects are not addressed sufficiently with traditional STS design approaches, which could lead to STS failure or rejection. This paper proposes a new STS design method that addresses this problem and introduces a novel type of requirements, namely, Task Support Requirements (TSR) that assists in specifying the functionality that IT systems should have to support human agents in undertaking their tasks by addressing human limitations. The proposed method synthesises a requirements/software engineering approach to STS design with functional allocation and an HCI perspective, which facilitates the application of human factors knowledge in conceptual models and evaluation through VR simulation. A case study methodology is employed in this work that allows in-depth, multi-faceted explorations of the complex issues that characterise STSs. Two case studies are presented in this work; the first is a detailed illustration of how the method is applied during the design of an in-vehicle information system to enhance drivers' situation awareness. The second is an empirical evaluation of the method using participants that apply it to design a mobile application to minimise the risk of pedestrian travellers conceiving a contagious disease while commuting in public space. The results from the empirical evaluation showed that the method positively contributes to STS design by addressing human factors issues effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informal interactions are vital in daily workplace communication, shaping performance, well-being, collaboration, and overall organizational functioning. However, as the ongoing trends of remote and hybrid work present significant changes and challenges to these interactions, supporting remote informal communication (RIC) becomes urgent. To address this pressing issue, we adopt a socio-technical systems perspective to gain in-depth insights into the enabling and constraining factors related to RIC. Our findings of semi-structured interviews with working adults (N=33) reveal important changes and challenges related to informal communication in the remote work context. We identify eleven interrelated socio-contextual, intrapersonal, and technological factors, culminating in a comprehensive conceptual framework of RIC. Based on our findings, we provide practical recommendations to effectively facilitate RIC in organizations and discuss future research avenues for understanding effective RIC in organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the dynamic, complex, and often safety-critical operations of many process industries, the integration of technology and human elements has given rise to sociotechnical systems (STSs), where the interaction between people and technology plays a pivotal role. To thrive in this complex environment, organizations must adopt adaptive error management strategies and cultivate organizational resilience. This approach involves managing the unexpected and designing systems to embrace disorder by organizational learning from errors in STSs. The main objective of this article was to present empirical data of error-causing elements in STSs based on the Dirty Dozen concept, their underlying structure, and implications for error causation screening and adaptive error management systems. A sample of 544 workers employed in seven process industries, such as automotive, chemicals, defense, metal, and timber, participated in this study. The results revealed a three-factor model of human error causation in STSs. Based on these results, an adaptive error management system (AEMS), which includes evidence-based interventions to manage causes of human errors and mitigate their risky consequences, was presented. Finally, implications for organizational resilience and safety culture in STSs were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Content on the World Wide Web that is not indexable by standard search engines defines a category called the deep Web. Dark networks are a subset of the deep Web. They provide services of great interest to users who seek online anonymity during their search on the Internet. Tor is the most widely used dark network around the world. It requires unique application layer protocols and authorization schemes to access. The present evidence reveals that in spite of great efforts to investigate Tor, our understanding is limited to the work on either the information or structure of this network. Also, interplay between information and structure that plays an important role in evaluating socio-technical systems including Tor has not been given the attention it deserves. In this article, we review and classify the present work on Tor to improve our understanding of this network and shed light on the new directions to evaluate Tor. The related work can be categorized into proposals that (1) study the security and privacy on Tor, (2) characterize Tor's structure, (3) evaluate the information hosted on Tor, and (4) review the related work on Tor from 2014 to the present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) is profoundly transforming the entrepreneurial landscape while presenting a myriad of opportunities and challenges. However, scholarly inquiries into this pivotal intersection remain fragmented and lack a comprehensive and interdisciplinary understanding. This study provides a systematic review that consolidates insights from across AI, innovation and entrepreneurship literature to provide an integrated examination of the AI-entrepreneurship nexus. Through rigorous analysis of 92 studies, key themes are elucidated, including AI's impact on opportunity recognition, business model reinvention and socioeconomic dynamics. An original Socio-Technical Systems framework is proposed, capturing the interplay between AI adoption decisions, AI-augmented opportunity exploration, innovative AI configurations and broader socio-economic consequences. While acknowledging AI's transformative potential, the review sounds a clarion call for responsible scholarship that centres on equity and social justice. It advocates a reflexive, inclusive approach, allowing marginalised voices and alternative perspectives to emerge. Theoretical contributions are made by extending established frameworks from technology adoption, business models and socio-technical systems to the AIentrepreneurship context. Furthermore, actionable implications are provided for policymakers to develop governance models balancing innovation and ethical oversight. Therefore, entrepreneurs and support organisations are guided in facilitating responsible AI integration across diverse ecosystems. This unprecedented cross-disciplinary synthesis illuminates crucial gaps, charting an agenda for future research on transparency, accountability and mitigating AI's unintended impacts. As AI continues reshaping entrepreneurial frontiers, this review catalyses a trajectory of ethically-conscious scholarship poised to shape inclusive technological progress aligned with human values and societal wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autonomous driving systems (ADS) operate in an environment that is inherently complex. As these systems may execute a task without the permission of a human agent, they raise major safety and responsibility issues. To identify the relevant issues for information systems, we conducted a critical and scoping review of the literature from many disciplines. The innovative methodology we used combines bibliometrics techniques, grounded theory and a critical conceptual framework to analyse the structure and research themes of the field. Our findings show that there are certain ironies in the way in which responsibility for apparently safe autonomous systems is apportioned. These ironies are interconnected and reveal that there remains significant uncertainty and ambiguity regarding the distribution of responsibility between stakeholders. The ironies draw attention to the challenges of safety and responsibility with ADS and possibly other cyber-physical systems in our increasingly digital world. We make seven recommendations related to (1) value sensitive design and system theory approaches; (2) stakeholders' interests and interactions; (3) task allocation; (4) deskilling; (5) controllability; (6) responsibility (moral and legal); (7) trust. We suggest five areas for future IS research on ADS. These areas are related to socio-technical systems, critical research, safety, responsibility and trust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Objective] To facilitate the achievement of China’s dual carbon goals and advance energy transitions tailored to local conditions across provinces, it is crucial to clarify the spatial differentiation patterns of energy transitions at the provincial level in China and identify the endogenous driving factors and their varying effects. [Methods] This study investigated 30 Chinese provinces, employing the proportion of clean energy in regional energy consumption as a metric. A multi-level analytical framework rooted in the sociotechnical systems perspective was constructed. The centroid model, ordinary least squares (OLS) method, and geographically and temporally weighted regression (GTWR) method were used to analyze the status and driving factors of China’s energy transition from 2000 to 2020. [Results] (1) Although the provinces exhibited differentiated progress in energy transitions, the regional disparities were gradually narrowing over time. (2) In terms of driving factors of regional energy transition,s resource endowments have been the core and dominant factor, particularly the underpinning role of hydropower resources and the locking-in and assurance role of fossil fuel endowments. However, regional carbon emission reduction pressures and innovation investments have become important driving forces for regional energy transition in the new period. (3) The driving factors and their effects on energy transitions in these provinces were characterized by significant spatial and temporal heterogeneity. Prior to 2012, clean energy production capacity and electricity imports from outside the region dominated almost all provinces. Post-2012, the influence of electricity imports weakened, while technological advancements gained greater influence. Spatially, resource endowments had a more significant impact on northern China, while economic development levels exerted a stronger influence on energy transitions in northwestern China. [Conclusion] As China’s energy transition accelerates, regional disparities are diminishing. This study recommends the construction of an integrated clean energy supply system of wind, light, water, and nuclear energy storage and transmission, supported by coal power; increasing technological investments to promote the efficient use of clean energy; and improving cross-regional energy allocation, thereby driving the transformation of energy structures and sustainable development.

Abstract Background The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted health systems around the globe. Lessons from health systems responses to these challenges may help design effective and sustainable health system responses for future challenges. This study aimed to 1/ identify the broad types of health system challenges faced during the pandemic and 2/ develop a typology of health system response to these challenges. Methods Semi-structured one-on-one online interviews explored the experience of 19 health professionals during COVID-19 in a large state health system in Australia. Data were analysed using constant comparative analysis utilising a sociotechnical system lens. Results Participants described four overarching challenges: 1/ System overload, 2/ Barriers to decision-making, 3/ Education or training gaps, and 4/ Limitations of existing services. The limited time often available to respond meant that specific and well-designed strategies were often not possible, and more generic strategies that relied on the workforce to modify solutions and repair unexpected gaps were common. For example, generic responses to system overload included working longer hours, whilst specific strategies utilised pre-existing technical resources (e.g. converting non-emergency wards into COVID-19 wards). Conclusion During the pandemic, it was often not possible to rely on mature strategies to frame responses, and more generic, emergent approaches were commonly required when urgent responses were needed. The degree to which specific strategies were ready-to-hand appeared to dictate how much a strategy relied on such generic approaches. The workforce played a pivotal role in enabling emergent responses that required dealing with uncertainties.