Giving shape and structure to the mess of sustainability accounting

Pidd (1996) defines a mess as an unstructured situation where disagreement exists as to what needs to be done and why. This work-in-progress establishes sustainability accounting as a mess. Transmitting new ideas on sustainability from a mess is unlikely to achieve positive responses from receivers. Combining secondary data on well-known sustainability accounting tools with the Innovation Adoption Curve is used to test this proposition. Adoption rates of ISO 14001 and the Global Reporting Initiative’s Guidelines cannot reach the critical mass interval on the Adoption Curve within any reasonable planning horizon. The adoption rate for Local Agenda 21 is significantly higher. Three hierarchical models are then aligned to offer a structure for going beyond the messy consequences from past initiatives in sustainability accounting. Daly’s capitals hierarchy is aligned with an Australian hierarchy of communities-of-place, and with the UN’s hierarchical classifications of human, natural, and built capital stocks

Studying Wicked Problems Forty Years On: Towards a Synthesis of a Fragmented Debate

Over the years, the concept of 'wicked problems' has inspired a diverse set of contributions. However, the lack of a clear underlying definition makes it difficult to advance scholarly knowledge on 'wicked problems' in public administration research. Against this backdrop, we ask the following in this article: First, what can be identified in the scholarly literature as the core properties of wicked problems? Second, which approaches are typically discussed by scholars to address wicked problems? Our objective is to establish the necessary properties of a wickedproblem concept that is parsimonious and coherent to then work out those approaches that speak well to precisely those properties. For this purpose, we surveyed a sample of more than one hundred journal articles on wicked problems in a systematic quantitative literature review. Our results bring us closer to determining on which strands of public administration research we should focus our scholarly efforts towards studying effective ways of managing wicked problems.Das Konzept der "wicked problems" hat im Laufe der Zeit wissenschaftliche Beiträge auf vielfältige Art und Weise inspiriert. Allerdings existiert bislang in der Verwaltungswissenschaft dazu keine eindeutige Begriffsdefinition, wodurch eine Weiterentwicklung des Forschungsstandes schwierig ist. Vor diesem Hintergrund befassen wir uns in der vorliegenden Untersuchung mit folgenden Fragen: Erstens interessiert uns, welche zentralen Charakteristika von "wicked problems" in der Literatur identifiziert werden können. Zweitens analysieren wir, welche Lösungsansätze die Wissenschaftsgemeinde für den Umgang mit "wicked problems" diskutiert. Unser Ziel ist es, ein konzises und kohärentes "wicked problems"-Konzept und dessen notwendige Eigenschaften zu beschreiben, um im Anschluss diejenigen Lösungsansätze zu identifizieren, die mit diesen Eigenschaften korrespondieren. Zu diesem Zweck untersuchen wir in unserem systematischen, quantitativen Literaturüberblick eine Stichprobe von mehr als 100 Fachartikeln zu "wicked problems". Unsere Ergebnisse helfen zu entscheiden, auf welche verwaltungswissenschaftlichen Forschungsstränge wir unsere Bemühungen konzentrieren können, um den Umgang mit "wicked problems" besser zu verstehen

Analyzing the determinants of e-commerce in small and medium-sized enterprises: a cognition-driven framework

The increasing use of information technology in enterprises’ daily operations has led to multiple innovative ways to run a business, including electronic commerce (hereafter, e-commerce). However, firms with fewer resources, such as small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), are more reluctant to use electronic channels during transactions. This aversion to contemporary business models is a result of these companies’ lack of knowledge and capabilities regarding e-commerce. To improve their businesses, SMEs’ managers and decision makers could benefit from a methodological framework that fosters a deeper understanding of the determinants of e-commerce. This study sought to explore the use of fuzzy cognitive mapping to address this need. The results are grounded in the knowledge and experience of a panel of experts in e-commerce. The fuzzy cognitive map (FCM) developed shows that entrepreneur profile, market, operational management, marketing and promotions, website and digital platform, and products present the highest centrality indices as determinants of SME e-commerce. The findings offer a better understanding of the cause-and-effect relationships between these determinants. The advantages, limitations, and shortcomings of our constructivist proposal are also discussed.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

“Cities go smart!”: A system dynamics-based approach to smart city conceptualization

The world’s population has grown rapidly. Thus, new challenges have arisen in terms of people’s quality of life, natural resources renewal, and urban environment sustainability. The smart city concept was developed to deal with these challenges by incorporating new technologies in order to find solutions that preserve cities’ environment while promoting their residents’ wellbeing. However, for cities to be truly “smart”, they should be evaluated, and, to that end, determinants that facilitate their creation need to be identified. This study thus sought to combine cognitive mapping and the system dynamics approach to find which factors foster smart city success, as well as the cause-and-effect relationships among these determinants. In two groupwork sessions, a panel of experts identified a wide range of smart city determinants and analyzed the dynamics of their relationships. The results were validated by the panel members and senior representatives of Cascais and Évora City Councils, Portugal, who confirmed that the analysis system developed provides a deeper understanding of this research context. The advantages and limitations of the proposed framework are also discussed.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Developing a green city assessment system using cognitive maps and the Choquet integral

Equitable human well-being and environmental concerns in urban areas have, over the years, become increasingly challenging issues. This trend is related to both the complexity inherent in the multiple factors to be considered when evaluating eco-friendly cities (i.e., green cities) and the way this type of city’s sustainability depends on many evaluation criteria, which hampers all decision-making processes. Using a multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA) approach, this study sought to develop a multiple-criteria model that facilitates the evaluation of green cities’ sustainability, based on cognitive mapping techniques and the Choquet integral (CI). Taking a constructivist and process-oriented stance, the research included identifying evaluation criteria and their respective interactions using a panel of experts with specialized knowledge in the subject under analysis. The resulting framework and its application were validated both by the panel members and a parliamentary representative of the Portuguese ecology party “Os Verdes” (The Greens), who confirmed that the evaluation system created distinguishes between cities according to how strongly they adhere to “green” principles. The advantages and limitations of the proposed framework are also discussed.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Analyzing the determinants of e-commerce in small and medium-sized enterprises: a cognition-driven framework

The increasing use of information technology in enterprises’ daily operations has led to multiple innovative ways to run a business, including electronic commerce (hereafter, e-commerce). However, firms with fewer resources, such as small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), are more reluctant to use electronic channels during transactions. This aversion to contemporary business models is a result of these companies’ lack of knowledge and capabilities regarding e-commerce. To improve their businesses, SMEs’ managers and decision makers could benefit from a methodological framework that fosters a deeper understanding of the determinants of e-commerce. This study sought to explore the use of fuzzy cognitive mapping to address this need. The results are grounded in the knowledge and experience of a panel of experts in e-commerce. The fuzzy cognitive map (FCM) developed shows that entrepreneur profile, market, operational management, marketing and promotions, website and digital platform, and products present the highest centrality indices as determinants of SME e-commerce. The findings offer a better understanding of the cause-and-effect relationships between these determinants. The advantages, limitations, and shortcomings of our constructivist proposal are also discussed. First published online 10 April 201

The Prophet's Legacy

This article explores the quantity and quality of publications in relation to quality theorists. Searching for the names of quality gurus to observe trends and differences concerning the quantity and quality of literature written by or discussing them offers a unique approach to addressing this area. A reduction in the quantity of literature in relation to any of the theorists might indicate that funding and time allocation for research into their theories is declining. The research that follows indicates that the quantity of literature discussing W. Edwards Deming has declined since the 2008 economic crisis, while his impact over time (as measured by the volume of citations for articles written by or mentioning Deming) is far greater than that of his contemporaries. The authors argue that this research justifies a call for greater funding allocated toward the study of Deming's philosophy

The Wicked World of Marketing Management

This paper reports some of the central findings of an extensive ethnographic study of a team of senior marketing managers in the UK subsidiary of a major multi-national supplier of branded consumer goods. It responds to repeated calls for more in-depth research that examines what marketing managers actually do and how their understandings inform their actions. It is argued that the particular character of the decisional milieu that confronts marketing managers has a central impact on their conduct and that this can be better understood by employing Rittel"s conception of wicked problems and Mischel"s conception of weak situations. It is demonstrated that the marketing managers studied confront a weakly situated wicked complex of commercial contradictions. It is contended that, due to their embedded formal techno-rationality, the marketing management discourse and pedagogy currently fail to speak to this reality of marketing management

IMAP: uma ferramenta para a projeção colaborativa de impacto no suporte à decisão

Apresentar uma ferramenta tecnológica de projeção colaborativa de impactos focada no Suporte à Decisão. Para o desenvolvimento da pesquisa foi realizada uma análise sobre ambientes de trabalho e pesquisa, onde o brainstorming é uma técnica cada vez mais usada para analisar diferentes cenários e encontrar a alternativa mais viável possível em um processo decisório. Neste processo, foi notável a escassez de ferramentas de pesquisa que permitam a análise de decisões complexas e a projeção do impacto que tais cenários ocasionariam, com base nas informações fornecidas pelos usuários. O uso de uma ferramentas colaborativas é cada vez mais disseminado, devido à praticidade de uso, possibilidade de múltiplos usuários interagirem simultaneamente e construção de cenários amigáveis que facilitem o entendimento da decisão pela equipe. Assim, deu-se a criação do IMAP, com a iniciativa de suprir a falta de um ambiente com as características citadas. Por fim, foram realizados dois experimentos com grupos de decisores, a fim de avaliar a ferramenta construída. O escopo destes experimentos incluiu, de forma geral, investigar se a ferramenta oferece suporte à projeção de impactos e se o ambiente proposto se mostrou amigável em seu uso

Human aspects of scheduling : a case study

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, September 2006.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 64-68).This work presents a look at real-life production-floor scheduling, comparing and contrasting it to both normative OR theory and Cognitive Psychology theory. Relevant literature in OR, scheduling and psychology is reviewed, and gaps in theory are pointed out, calling for observation of real-life scheduling and for modeling of the cognitive processes underlying such activities. While normative theory and cognitive psychology theory suggest certain behaviors should be observed, a case study conducted with a large manufacturing company reveals real-life scheduling to be different from behavior expected by OR as well as by cognitive psychology. Future research is suggested, which may enable better modeling of human schedulers.by Yishai Boasson.S.M