Leverhulme Lecture: Regulating Complexity in Financial Markets

Lecture given November 9, 2010, the second of three delivered by Prof. Schwarcz as Leverhulme Visiting Professor of Law, Oxford University. Complexity is the greatest challenge to 21st Century financial regulation, having the potential to impair markets and investments in several interrelated ways. Furthermore, complexity can cause failures that individual market participants cannot, or will not have incentive to, remedy. These failures are driven by information uncertainty, misalignment of interests and incentives among market participants, and nonlinear feedback and tight coupling that result in sudden unexpected market changes. These are the same types of failures that engineers have long faced when working with complex engineering systems. The lecture uses engineering solutions such as chaos theory to examine how financial regulation should be structured to correct those failures

Understanding Coordination in the Information Systems Domain: Conceptualization and Implications

In this paper, we suggest a new conceptualization of coordination in the information systems (IS) domain. The conceptualization builds on neurobiological predispositions for coordinating actions. We assume that human evolution has led to the development of a neurobiological substrate that enables individuals to coordinate everyday actions. At heart, we discuss six activity modalities: contextualization, objectivation, spatialization, temporalization, stabilization, and transition. Specifically, we discuss that these modalities need to collectively function for successful coordination. To illustrate as much, we apply our conceptualization to important IS research areas, including project management and interface design. Generally, our new conceptualization holds value for coordination research on all four levels of analysis that we identified based on reviewing the IS literature (i.e., group, intra-organization, inter-organization, and IT artifact). In this way, our new approach, grounded in neurobiological findings, provides a high-level theory to explain coordination success or coordination failure and, hence, is independent from a specific level of analysis. From a practitioner’s perspective, the conceptualization provides a guideline for designing organizational interventions and IT artifacts. Because social initiatives are essential in multiple IS domains (e.g., software development, implementation of enterprise systems) and because the design of collaborative software tools is an important IS topic, this paper contributes to a fundamental phenomenon in the IS domain and does so from a new conceptual perspective

Coordinating dependencies in global system development projects -The use of dependency diagrams

Abstract-This paper addresses the problems that arise in the coordination of complex system development projects. The empirical setting is based on studies at Ericsson and ABB, and the total project manager's instrument to manage and coordinate these projects. ABB used what they called dependency diagrams. Ericsson developed a method they call the anatomy concept. The approaches are used as a complement to the traditional work breakdown structure. The paper evaluates the ability of these notations to address the needs of the total project management. The studies have shown that it is crucial to create compact highlevel pictures of the resulting product and its projects in order to make the dependencies obvious to everyone involved (organizations as well as persons). The paper stresses that when developing complex system solutions the traditional diagrams easily become complex and unreadable. Thus, there is a need for supplementing approaches

A Pro Bono Requirement for Faculty Members

This paper addresses the problems that arise in the coordination of complex system development projects. The empirical setting is based on studies at Ericsson and ABB, and the total project manager’s instrument to manage and coordinate these projects. ABB used what they called dependency diagrams. Ericsson developed a method they call the anatomy concept. The approaches are used as a complement to the traditional work breakdown structure. The paper evaluates the ability of these notations to address the needs of the total project management. The studies have shown that it is crucial to create compact high-level pictures of the resulting product and its projects in order to make the dependencies obvious to everyone involved (organizations as well as persons). The paper stresses that when developing complex system solutions the traditional diagrams easily become complex and unreadable. Thus, there is a need for supplementing approaches

A Coordination Approach Towards Alignment A Coordination Approach Towards Alignment

Abstract. In this paper we present a coordination approach towards creating and maintaining alignment between the business and its support systems. The business objectives are related to the coordination of the outcomes of a number of work practices. A practice is apprehended as an activity domain which is the central construct in a new theory for coordinating human activity -the Activity Domain Theory. In this theory the achievement of shared meaning among the actors is in focus. The activity domain is constructed through an experiential learning strategy which integrates shared meaning, processes, information structures and support systems into a coherent whole. Some results from the Ericsson telecommunication company are discussed

From IT Design to Workpractice Construction”,

ABSTRACT In this paper we describe an approach for information system design that aims at constructing the social reality in which the system is used. Thus, rather than designing the information system in a given context, the design target is the context itself, including the information system. The expertise knowledge of users and information system designers are jointly utilized in co-constructing the context, which is structured as a particular form of workpractice called the activity domain. In the activity domain, coordinating elements of a practice are integrated into a coherent whole. The theory behind the approach -the Activity Domain Theory -originated in the Ericsson telecommunication company where it has been gradually refined over more than a decade by the author. It has profoundly influenced the coordination of the development of the 3 rd generation of mobile systems at Ericsson

Cognitive Grounding of Activity Modalities Cognitive Grounding of Activity Modalities

Abstract In this paper, we assume that the social reality and the communal meaning about this reality are reflected in each other. In object-related activity two kinds of congruent elements are constructed -objectivated elements oriented internally towards the human mind and objectified elements oriented externally towards the social reality. We propose that the mutual construction of mind and social reality proceeds along certain dimensions called activity modalities. Previously, the "objectification side" of these modalities has been grounded in the practice of developing large telecom systems. The purpose of this paper is to ground the "objectivation side" of the modalities. We claim that the "ontological categories" in the conceptual structure proposed by Jackendoff are compatible with the activity modalities. Thus, the contribution of this paper is a reinforced grounding of activity modalities as basic dimensions for coordinating human activity

Towards Theorising Information Systems from a Neurobiological Perspective

In spite of more than 25 years of research, the nature of Information Systems (ISs) remains elusive. To this end, a new conceptualization of ISs from a neurobiological perspective is proposed. ISs are seen as instruments for action, which in turn requires coordination. We posit that the phylogenetic evolution has endowed humans with a neurobiological substrate enabling coordination. The construct of activity modalities – objectivation, contextualization, spatialization, temporalization, stabilization, and transition – is introduced as inherent factors in this substrate. These modalities provide an analytical link for integrating the neural and social realms; thus enabling IS conceptualization as a dialectical relationship between coordinative, individual brain structures and the IT artefact. Consequently, the IS is seen as intrinsically related to the individual. We exemplify implications for the IS discipline by discussing how the concept of sociomateriality can be articulated from the neurobiological perspective. As a result, the “individual” is to put on equal theoretical footing as the “social” and “material”, thus providing a way to disentangle the problematic conflation of the “social” and the “human” in sociomaterial contributions. In conclusion, we claim that the neurobiological approach opens up for hitherto untrodden paths to advance the IS discipline

IS Design as Domain Construction

In this paper we describe a method for IS design which focus on constructing the social reality in which the IS is used. This reality is structured as a particular form of work practice – the activity domain – which is the main construct in the Activity Domain Theory. The gist of this theory is to integrate coordinating elements of a practice into a coherent whole in which the IS is one of these elements.The theory originated in the Ericsson telecommunication company where it has been gradually refinedover more than a decade by the author. It has profoundly influenced the coordination of the development of the 3rd generation of mobile system

Vad bör hanteras i ett PLM-system?

Ett PLM-system kan uppfattas som ett centralt verktyg för att hantera produktdefinierande information under hela produktens livscykel. Vad innebär detta egentligen? Det ligger i den mänskliga naturen att obekanta och främmande företeelser så småningom blir en självklar del av vår vardag. Ta till exempel MP3. Ingen säger väl idag ”Jag vill se på en MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 spelare” när vi ska handla julklappar. Att omvandla det främmande till det bekanta är helt nödvändigt för att vi ska klara av vardagen – ingen orkar fundera på allt hela tiden