Search

Establishing a decision-making scheme for multiple land use types in a shrinking society is an urgent and persistent task. In particular, residents and governments face the complexity of cross-sectoral visions over concerned landscapes. This study examined the preference of residents for future visions and the effects of group deliberation in a Japanese rural community to enhance the current understanding of decision and learning processes on cross-sectoral land use types (i.e., agricultural land, forest land, and boundary areas) across ages and groups. This study posed the following questions: (i) what types of interactions do residents find among options on cross-sectoral land uses? and (ii) how do group deliberation influence the individual preferences of residents for land use? In the survey, the residents disclosed their preferences for the prepared visions over three land use types. The survey also enabled the comparison of choices before and after group deliberation. Regarding question (i), the residents' choice prior to the deliberation demonstrated thematic coherence through land use categories. Smart technology and potential productivity improvement were selected across agriculture and forests. However, regarding question (ii), thematic coherence decreased after the group deliberation. The residents could communicate disagreements during group deliberation and consider the issues relatively independently over land use types, which separately views agriculture lands and forests. The choice after group discussions became increasingly embedded and influenced by residential areas and land ownership of residents. These findings provide unique insights into the group discussion on how individual decisions are affected. In summary, the preferences of cross-sectoral land use types did not converge but tended to diverge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Establishing a decision-making scheme for multiple land use types in a shrinking society is an urgent and persistent task. In particular, residents and governments face the complexity of cross-sectoral visions over concerned landscapes. This study examined the preference of residents for future visions and the effects of group deliberation in a Japanese rural community to enhance the current understanding of decision and learning processes on cross-sectoral land use types (i.e., agricultural land, forest land, and boundary areas) across ages and groups. This study posed the following questions: (i) what types of interactions do residents find among options on cross-sectoral land uses? and (ii) how do group deliberation influence the individual preferences of residents for land use? In the survey, the residents disclosed their preferences for the prepared visions over three land use types. The survey also enabled the comparison of choices before and after group deliberation. Regarding question (i), the residents’ choice prior to the deliberation demonstrated thematic coherence through land use categories. Smart technology and potential productivity improvement were selected across agriculture and forests. However, regarding question (ii), thematic coherence decreased after the group deliberation. The residents could communicate disagreements during group deliberation and consider the issues relatively independently over land use types, which separately views agriculture lands and forests. The choice after group discussions became increasingly embedded and influenced by residential areas and land ownership of residents. These findings provide unique insights into the group discussion on how individual decisions are affected. In summary, the preferences of cross-sectoral land use types did not converge but tended to diverge.

The continuous and round-the-clock operation of cryptocurrency mining devices generates significant heat that requires powerful cooling systems. Therefore, the main problem of mining is its high electricity consumption and energy usage. Unfortunately, due to the lack of planning by the country's officials, we are facing the problem of electricity shortage, which the growing digital currencies have exacerbated. Since decision-making in the real world (including the electricity shortage problem caused by mining) is complex and uncertain due to various influential factors, this research aims to apply a strategic selection approach to decision-making and provide solutions to solve the electricity shortage problem caused by cryptocurrency mining in Iran. In this study, the Strategic Choice Approach (SCA), one of the soft operational research methods, has been used for analysis, structuring, and decision tree development. For this purpose, four methods (styles) of SCA, which include ten steps, have been implemented. A working group consisting of twelve experts and stakeholders in digital currencies, facilitated by the researchers of this study, has been formed, and specific flowcharts and labels have been used. According to the SCA method, decision-making areas, decision options, areas of uncertainty, exploratory options, and decision trees have been designed. Finally, a ″commitment package″ (″improvement package″) has been proposed to provide practical solutions. This article provides solutions for solving the electricity shortage problem caused by cryptocurrency mining through the SCA. For this purpose, specific tasks have been assigned to the Islamic Consultative Assembly, the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Energy and Foreign Affairs, and the government, excluding the mentioned ministries and some key players in digital currencies, which should be carried out in the present and future. By structuring the research problem through the SCA method as one of the soft operations research methods, the readers and users of this research will learn more details and dimensions of the mentioned method, contributing to expanding their knowledge of soft operations research. Although the SCA method has been implemented in Iran and other countries for a long time in various social and organizational issues, the diagrams, shapes, and tables used to implement SCA in this research contribute more to the readers' knowledge. It also helps to localize this method and other research done in the country.

The continuous and round-the-clock operation of cryptocurrency mining devices generates significant heat that requires powerful cooling systems. Therefore, the main problem of mining is its high electricity consumption and energy usage. Unfortunately, due to the lack of planning by the country's officials, we are facing the problem of electricity shortage, which the growing digital currencies have exacerbated. Since decision-making in the real world (including the electricity shortage problem caused by mining) is complex and uncertain due to various influential factors, this research aims to apply a strategic selection approach to decision-making and provide solutions to solve the electricity shortage problem caused by cryptocurrency mining in Iran. In this study, the Strategic Choice Approach (SCA), one of the soft operational research methods, has been used for analysis, structuring, and decision tree development. For this purpose, four methods (styles) of SCA, which include ten steps, have been implemented. A working group consisting of twelve experts and stakeholders in digital currencies, facilitated by the researchers of this study, has been formed, and specific flowcharts and labels have been used. According to the SCA method, decision-making areas, decision options, areas of uncertainty, exploratory options, and decision trees have been designed. Finally, a "commitment package" ("improvement package") has been proposed to provide practical solutions. This article provides solutions for solving the electricity shortage problem caused by cryptocurrency mining through the SCA. For this purpose, specific tasks have been assigned to the Islamic Consultative Assembly, the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Energy and Foreign Affairs, and the government, excluding the mentioned ministries and some key players in digital currencies, which should be carried out in the present and future. By structuring the research problem through the SCA method as one of the soft operations research methods, the readers and users of this research will learn more details and dimensions of the mentioned method, contributing to expanding their knowledge of soft operations research. Although the SCA method has been implemented in Iran and other countries for a long time in various social and organizational issues, the diagrams, shapes, and tables used to implement SCA in this research contribute more to the readers' knowledge. It also helps to localize this method and other research done in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Innovation Management & Operational Strategies is the property of Ayandegan Institute of Higher Education and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Researchers need maps to effectively navigate increasingly voluminous literatures. This is no less the case in the field of problem structuring methods (PSMs). This paper offers an atlas of the journal literature of the theoretical development of, what are currently acknowledged to be, the four main PSMs up to their consolidation in 1989. A thorough contextual appreciation of the structure and dynamics of this literature sets the stage for addressing some of its specific aspects, for which an atlas is especially effective as an orientation device. Substantiated suggestions for exploratory excursions, as well as potential pitfalls, are accentuated, the overall aim being to provide researchers with navigational support that may assist their research objectives. Based on evidence uncovered from the atlas, a number of issues current in the PSM field are discussed, including the use of the collective descriptor 'family', the extent to which PSMs find their origins, and belong, in the wider field of operational research and the identification of sources that have hitherto received little or no acknowledgment but which merit attention as precursors and promising contributors to PSM research. The paper is accompanied by an electronic supplement containing the basic data of the atlas from which additional maps may be designed and constructed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Strategic Choice Approach (SCA) is a method meant to deal with operational decision in a strategic way and to manage different sources of uncertainty in decision-making processes. The paper describes how SCA can deal with the future in the specific realm of urban planning in current cities, which represents a typical example of Wicked Problem, taking into account the three different levels of uncertainties that the method aims to manage (Uncertainties about the working Environment, UE; Uncertainties about Related decisions, UR; Uncertainties about guiding Values, UV). We argue that these three types of uncertainties are referred to the ‘ordinary’ problems of modern and contemporary cities. The project of an architectural/urban transformation has to do with this kind uncertainties and implications – in overcoming a series of approvals of different institutional order – and, with this purpose, takes the form of a contract. Instead, this categorisation doesn’t conceive some new and uncertain challenges of future cities, around climate change, infrastructural disruption, insecurity, pandemics, at local and global scales, that are currently under debate in the cities. In this study we suggest that this character of uniqueness can imply the exploration of a new category of uncertainty in the SCA scheme, the ‘uncertainty about disruptive events (UD)’, a type of catastrophic or just unknown in their effects. First of all, we define the PSMs (Problem Structuring Methods) as methods of structuring the «wicked problems». Secondly, we examine the SCA as «a strategic choice process through time», taking into account the three different levels of uncertainty that the method intends to manage.

Abstract Group decision models that contemplate the particularities of the decision-making process help organizations pursue their strategic objectives. In the financial market, the primary interest of organizations consists in ensuring financial returns, which guarantee stability for the organization. This study identifies major problems in the current process of credit granting in the financial market and argues the need for automatizing the organizational decision process while respecting the autonomy of decision-makers. To this end, this study proposes a group decision model based on the Strategic Choice Approach (SCA) for granting credit in a financial market organization. The results show that the adoption of the proposed model offers considerable gains in terms of organizational goals, transparency of the decision-making process, security for decision-makers, and reduction of organizational conflicts.

Recently, the combinations of modeling methods to overcome the complexity of the socio-technical systems are prevalent. However, these combinations have done without considering the compatibility of them in theoretical and tool level. Therefore, the current study proposes a guide framework to synthesize the modeling methods of socio-technical systems. To achieve this aim, a critical interpretive meta-synthesis has been developed. As a result, 12 descriptive themes are identified and categorized in five synthetic constructs. Then, positions of the methods in these constructs are specified and five analytic constructs are determined. In addition, to show that how the framework works, the possibility of synthesis of strategic choice approach as a modeling method with other methods is investigated.

In recent years, the policy of attracting population to border areas and strengthening the security of these areas by residents has been adopted by the Government. Located in the west Iranian Kermanshah province, Ghasr-e Shirin county is one of the areas earmarked for the implementation of this policy. Planning the development of this county faces complexities, conflicts and uncertainties, which must be taken into account in order to adapt the plan to realities and appropriately implement it. The Strategic Choice approach, makes it possible to manage complexities, conflicts and uncertainties in the decision-making process and its product in a balanced position. It is done through the application of simple and clear techniques in a cyclic process including four modes of configuration, design, comparison and choice. Bearing in mind the tendency of recent Iranian urban and regional planning system towards strategic planning, and thereby neglecting complexities, conflicts and uncertainties in mainstream plans, the strategic choice approach is adopted here as a methodology to plan the development of Ghasr-e Shirin border county, with its mainly qualitative techniques employed based on scientific, logical methods. This research intends to show how complexities, conflicts and uncertainties are managed in planning the development of Ghasr-e Shirin county. The areas concerning each of these issues have been identified at specific stages and in the decision-making process, as well as in designing the progress package as the end product. Balances have been struck according to the problem situation. Facing the complexities of the decision-making process, a more elaborate, narrowly focused approach is adopted as opposed to a simplistic treatment less focused alternative; and in the end product, a sequence of slow and steady steps has been designed according to the decision links. In order to manage the conflicts in the management of process and product, a more interactive treatment has been preferred to a more reactive treatment, with the uncertainties managed through the acceptance or reduction of uncertainties based on the flexibility of the decision-making process

Municipal government planning is challenging in the extreme being characterised by ill-structured and messy problems, the complexity of which is compounded by often conflicting views and priorities of multiple stakeholders. In South America, Situational Strategic Planning (SSP) is a wide spread method of such planning. The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of a proposed multi-methodological approach, Soft Situational Strategic Planning (SSSP) in a South American municipal government. SSSP is a variant of SSP enhanced with elements of Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) and Strategic Choice Approach (SCA). Through an action research case study in a Brazilian municipality, we implemented SSSP through a strategic planning cycle. The findings suggest that SSSP complement the SSP process regarding the implementation and monitoring of strategy. The application also indicated that SSSP has the potential to make government planning processes more structured for policy makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a water distribution system, maintenance is an essential pillar to ensure that an efficient service is provided and to combat problems such as real water losses. Managing such a system's maintenance needs involves multiple stakeholders, subjective variables, and requires a learning process to find a solution. Structuring the problem can provide clarity for the situation under analysis, especially by resolving the need to establish integrated management among different water company sectors. In this instance, the strategic choice approach is proposed as a framework to align maintenance management perspectives with the system's network so as to reduce losses and ensure greater social benefits. A case study in a metropolitan region of Brazil was presented. A strategic plan is developed that features comprehensive actions and practices for enriching the control of critical decision areas and their uncertainties. The importance of establishing partnerships with universities was one distinguishing factor in the outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Negotiating perspectives and values is at the core of using PSMs to tackle complex and uncertain problem situations. Exploring how such negotiations evolve at the micro-level of real-time interactions can help grasp communicative behaviours and workshop structures that influence negotiation processes, and the achievement of outcomes. This study reports on an exploratory experiment with three MSc student groups engaged in (i) a Soft Systems Methodology, (ii) a Strategic Choice Approach, and (iii) a non-problem structuring method workshop to make progress with a case of urban renewals. Our micro-level content analysis suggests that (no)model use can lead to three different dynamics in which participants discuss different perspectives and values, negotiate their meanings, create knowledge and agree on solutions to tackle the problem situation that are added to model content. Our findings contribute to increasing our understanding of the nature of soft OR and its effects on group interactions during workshops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper proposes the use of the Strategic Choice Approach as a way of structuring the architectural design process, done by individuals and partly supported by meetings and interviews with DMs, experts, and stakeholders. The aim is to stimulate a debate around the use of SCA and its possible merging with architectural design, also analysing how the micro-processes involved in this merging can work in practice. We reflect on the possible use of SCA to determine prescriptive conditions on physical form at a scale that is still intermediate between the single building and the urban tissue: the method is employed as a design tool to provide alternative transformation scenarios. It represents a way of approaching the challenge of planning in an uncertain world, eliciting guidelines and strategies, and furthermore it produces an architectural project or transformation in a physical sense. Moreover, by investigating what occurs during the different micro-processes with the interviewees, we focus on some behavioural issues and effects, in relation to the context, the models of the application and the different entities involved in the interventions. This proposal shows an application to a real-world problem, currently under debate by the City of Turin (Italy), the re-use of abandoned barracks located in a prestigious residential area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper was written with the objective of checking on the treatment given to the concept of organizational strategy within each of the strategic choice, cognitive and institutional approaches. To carry out this objective, theoretical and methodological criteria were defined. The identification of these criteria was presented in a descriptive fashion, starting with the examination of the referential background for each approach. The descriptions of their respective indicators were grouped into content matrixes, and analyzed by the means of a comparative methodology. The indicators of the theoretical criteria were the representations of the individual, the organization and the environment. The indicator of the methodological criteria was the dimension of analysis. The results obtained reveal significant variations which configure specific arrangements of definition and treatment of the constitutive elements of conception of organizational strategy in each of the approaches under analysis.

The problem structuring methods used to deal with complex and ill-structured problems. One of the method of structuring ill-structured problem is the Strategic Choice Approach (SCA), while one of the problems of complex and ill-structured problems is a supply chain management problems. This research proposes the use of a cognitive map and SCA on the problems structuring method of supply chain management at Perseroan Terbatas X a leading manufacturing company in Indonesia. Three main results of this study are structuring problems, choosing of the top priority problems, and choosing of troubleshooting options among other identified options. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to illustrate a multidisciplinary approach to selecting, designing, and evaluating sustainable solutions for energy-efficient buildings that are integrated into their neighborhoods at the early design stage. The paper discusses the Strategic Choice Approach (SCA), a tool which supports decision-makers in shaping problems in complex contexts. SCA is proposed as a tool for developing a sort of preliminary “platform” in which information derived from four disciplines (environmental technology, materials science and technology, architectural design, and real estate market evaluation) could be shared and accessed by stakeholders during the early design stage in order to manage the multidimensionality and uncertainty of building design. The challenge is to structure a support tool for designers, builders, developers, and urban planning authorities involved in sustainability-oriented land administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]