Resilience and complex adaptive systems : A perspective on healthcare

Citation: Araja, D. (2022). Resilience and complex adaptive systems: A perspective on healthcare. Journal of Business Management, Vol. 20. DOI: 10.32025/JBM22006Purpose. The term “healthcare system resilience” is becoming topical in policy planning documents around the world, increasingly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. This research aimed to explore the role of the contextual framework in the research on resilience and prevailing aspects of the healthcare system’s resilience. Design / methodology / approach. The research hypothesised on the increasing relevance of the concept of resilience in the healthcare system as demonstrated by scientific literature; on determining elements that characterise the interrelationship between the domains of the healthcare system and the concept of resilience; and on the role of the contextual framework in creating an awareness of the concept of resilience in the healthcare system. The hypotheses were verified by the literature review on the PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus databases. Findings. The concept of resilience was introduced to the healthcare system literature from the ecological sciences through an increased understanding of the healthcare system as a complex adaptive system (CAS). The perception of the nature of the healthcare system in the context of a CAS, viewing it as a complex, dynamic part of the socio-economic system, operating in circumstances of high uncertainty, provides additional opportunities for understanding the healthcare system’s functioning, governance and decision-making. Originality / value. This study identified a research gap in the practical implementation of the CAS approach in the healthcare system on the highest level of governance. A CAS contains a multitude of characteristics and elements that could assist in attaining a more nuanced understanding of healthcare system resilience. Significantly, the inherent characteristics of a CAS, such as flexibility and an adaptive nature, which seem to undermine the stability of the system, actually create the core of this system’s resilience, and these aspects merit increased attention. Further research could be devoted to the investigation of healthcare system resilience in the context of healthcare system reforms.publishersversionPeer reviewe

Raising irrigation productivity and releasing water for intersectoral needs (RIPARWIN): RIPARWIN final technical report

River basinsHydrologyRiver basin managementRiver basin developmentDevelopment projectsWater allocationIrrigation waterProductivityIrrigation managementRiceTanzaniaGreat Ruaha River BasinUsangu River Basin

A characteristics framework for Semantic Information Systems Standards

Semantic Information Systems (IS) Standards play a critical role in the development of the networked economy. While their importance is undoubted by all stakeholders—such as businesses, policy makers, researchers, developers—the current state of research leaves a number of questions unaddressed. Terminological confusion exists around the notions of “business semantics”, “business-to-business interoperability”, and “interoperability standards” amongst others. And, moreover, a comprehensive understanding about the characteristics of Semantic IS Standards is missing. The paper addresses this gap in literature by developing a characteristics framework for Semantic IS Standards. Two case studies are used to check the applicability of the framework in a “real-life” context. The framework lays the foundation for future research in an important field of the IS discipline and supports practitioners in their efforts to analyze, compare, and evaluate Semantic IS Standard

ROLE AND IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNICATION IN TRANSDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH MANAGEMENT

This paper is devoted to studies of communication process peculiarities, role of “negotiators” in transdisciplinary studies and also interaction processes between science and practice on an example of an empirical case. Based on the conducted analysis, a hypothesis has been confirmed that effective realization of the transdisciplinary approach is grounded on effective communication, and factors, worth attention for successful realization of research aims in transdisciplinary projects have been determined: balance of power relations between participants of transdisciplinary studies, choice of mediators’ groups, change of initial instructions of scientists, cultural differences and their influence on general organization of processes, choice of communication types and forms. A necessity to construct a communicative strategy of a transdisciplinary project, forming a common field for effective interaction, has been determined; at that there must be taken into account group development stages, key topics of communication and its success indicators. It has been proved, that communication management is a necessary element of transdisciplinary studies organization and conduction. For improving communication quantity and quality, it is necessary for scientists and stakeholders to take equal responsibility and to participate in decision making

BANKS AND FINTECH: IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION ON COMPETENCES MANAGEMENT IN LATVIA

Purpose: To explore information and communication technologies (ICT) impact on competences management in the financial sector in Latvia.Methodology: Focus group discussion with leading financial sector experts in the Latvia.Findings: There is a mismatch between academically provided competences and what is expected by the financial sector representatives within Latvia.Originality/value: Empirical research on what kind of competences are important in the financial sector at present and in the future. Contribute to the current literature by researching on how resulting competencies from the focus group compare to the academically provided competences for potential financial sector employees. By exploring received responses to the questions from this research, it can help policymakers, financial sector and academical representatives to stay agile to the arising changes of supplied and demanded competencies in the financial sector.

Youth and Digital Media: From Credibility to Information Quality

Building upon a process-and context-oriented information quality framework, this paper seeks to map and explore what we know about the ways in which young users of age 18 and under search for information online, how they evaluate information, and how their related practices of content creation, levels of new literacies, general digital media usage, and social patterns affect these activities. A review of selected literature at the intersection of digital media, youth, and information quality -- primarily works from library and information science, sociology, education, and selected ethnographic studies -- reveals patterns in youth's information-seeking behavior, but also highlights the importance of contextual and demographic factors both for search and evaluation. Looking at the phenomenon from an information-learning and educational perspective, the literature shows that youth develop competencies for personal goals that sometimes do not transfer to school, and are sometimes not appropriate for school. Thus far, educational initiatives to educate youth about search, evaluation, or creation have depended greatly on the local circumstances for their success or failure

Biggest Failures in Security (Dagstuhl Seminar 19451)

In the present era of ubiquitous digitalization, security is a concern for everyone. Despite enormous efforts, securing IT systems still remains an open challenge for community and industry. One of the main reasons is that the variety and complexity of IT systems keeps increasing, making it practically impossible for security experts to grasp the full system. A further problem is that security has become an interdisciplinary challenge. While interdisciplinary research does exist already, it is mostly restricted to collaborations between two individual disciplines and has been rather bottom-up by focusing on very specific problems. The idea of the Dagstuhl Seminar was to go one step back and to follow a comprehensive top-down approach instead. The goal was to identify the "biggest failures" in security and to get a comprehensive understanding on their overall impact on security. To this end, the Dagstuhl Seminar was roughly divided into two parts. First, experienced experts from different disciplines gave overview talks on the main problems of their field. Based on these, overlapping topics but also common research interests among the participants have been identified. Afterwards, individual working groups have been formed to work on the identified questions

A PRISMA-driven systematic mapping study on system assurance weakeners

Context: An assurance case is a structured hierarchy of claims aiming at demonstrating that a given mission-critical system supports specific requirements (e.g., safety, security, privacy). The presence of assurance weakeners (i.e., assurance deficits, logical fallacies) in assurance cases reflects insufficient evidence, knowledge, or gaps in reasoning. These weakeners can undermine confidence in assurance arguments, potentially hindering the verification of mission-critical system capabilities. Objectives: As a stepping stone for future research on assurance weakeners, we aim to initiate the first comprehensive systematic mapping study on this subject. Methods: We followed the well-established PRISMA 2020 and SEGRESS guidelines to conduct our systematic mapping study. We searched for primary studies in five digital libraries and focused on the 2012-2023 publication year range. Our selection criteria focused on studies addressing assurance weakeners at the modeling level, resulting in the inclusion of 39 primary studies in our systematic review. Results: Our systematic mapping study reports a taxonomy (map) that provides a uniform categorization of assurance weakeners and approaches proposed to manage them at the modeling level. Conclusion: Our study findings suggest that the SACM (Structured Assurance Case Metamodel) -- a standard specified by the OMG (Object Management Group) -- may be the best specification to capture structured arguments and reason about their potential assurance weakeners

A characteristics framework for Semantic Information Systems Standards

Semantic Information Systems (IS) Standards play a critical role in the development of the networked economy. While their importance is undoubted by all stakeholders—such as businesses, policy makers, researchers, developers—the current state of research leaves a number of questions unaddressed. Terminological confusion exists around the notions of "business semantics”, "business-to-business interoperability”, and "interoperability standards” amongst others. And, moreover, a comprehensive understanding about the characteristics of Semantic IS Standards is missing. The paper addresses this gap in literature by developing a characteristics framework for Semantic IS Standards. Two case studies are used to check the applicability of the framework in a "real-life” context. The framework lays the foundation for future research in an important field of the IS discipline and supports practitioners in their efforts to analyze, compare, and evaluate Semantic IS Standard