The development of tourist activities has been present in different spaces, being one of the most significant the coastline, which valuation as a recreational scenario has motivated the rapid conditioning and transformation of the beaches. The massive tourism produced tourist activities without planning that have undermined the quality of the resource and its aesthetics. In this sense, it is considered important to propose alternatives from the Systems Science that allow designing strategies for the suitable management of these spaces. This paper presents an option which, from a holistic perspective, contributes to strengthen the management of the coast line through the integration of relevant actors in order to protect it. The methodological approach was carried out through Soft Systems Methodology and the Viable System Model, having as a result an inclusive diagnosis that allowed: to characterize the coastline where the study was conducted, to elucidate interrelations between actors who intervene in the problem and determine an administrative structure based on mechanisms of control, coordination, surveillance, respect and estimation of the space coast. The above, in order to strengthen the coastline as a political, social, environmental and economic resource.
MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions) Tourism in Mexico generates more than 501 thousand jobs and contributes 1.43% to the national GDP. According to the World Ranking of the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) Mexico is increasingly positioned as a destination for this tourism market, becoming a key driver in the economy.
This tourism activity is characterized to be a large-scale phenomenon, in which an interdependence is generated between the various agents involved creating positive and negative impacts and repercussions on the hosting destinations of the events. That is why is relevant manage this activity as a complex system identifying the relationships of its elements to generate solutions considering its economic, social, cultural, and environmental reality.
In this research is presented the current situation of MICE Tourism in Mexico through the Soft Systems Methodology. In the end, all those components and external agents that make up this tourist segment in Mexico can be identified, as well as the problem situations existing in the system and its environment. This diagnosis guides to the generation of a Viable System Model that allows the system to persist over the time despite the changes that occur in the environment, this by the realization of sustainable events.
The development of smart cities is considered an alternative to face urban problems; one of them is the growth of population with disabilities and senior citizens, which will lead to sustainability issues particularly those dealing with services and infrastructure. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the need for innovation in the tourism sector, considering the Triple Helix model to achieve competitiveness in urban tourism destinations.
This research presents a literature review of the smart cities characteristics, challenges, and opportunities that bring technological development in social inclusion. The Soft Systems Methodology is applied to show how the smart tourism destination can be modeled. This review shows that smart cities can make more competitive and inclusive the tourism destinations, considering the cultural, economic, politic and social context and how the Triple Helix model of innovation is capable of building strategies and public politics that bring social inclusion for people with disabilities and senior citizens, making the city a more competitive destination.
The Workshop is in three parts: (1) the theoretical foundation of SAGE-P, (2) the ‘big data’ algorithm to construct SAGE-P and (3) the policies to reduce the rate of entropy production per unit of consumption. While part (1) and (2) are theoretical/technical issues, part (3) assumes the focal point of the Workshop. The participants will be introduced to a hierarchical structure of values upon which to frame policies aimed at reducing to a minimum the rate of entropy production per unit of consumption of economic, social and ecological product. This value-structure represents the essential cultural values unique to each, and every, decision-taking unit, be it a village level council to a grand UN Assembly of Nations, be it a family household to multi billion dollar investors of multinational Corporations.
We have formalised, and thus reduced, the value-structure to represent the qualitative properties of ‘objects’ and ‘functions’ we wish to conserve in any well-defined (complex) Economic, Social and Ecological System. Employed is the concepts of Category Theory to map values on any well-defined set of objects/functions we wish to conserve: {i.e., A: Ecosphere; values conserved-in-themselves, or intrinsic → B: Sociosphere; values conserved-in-use → C: Econosphere; values conserved-in-exchange. Or A [B(C)]}.
Leadership is usually by definition about leaders, meaning that it is inherently an issue of humans and their characteristics. That characterization, though, has allowed for many competing theories with minimal clarity over decades of research. The purpose of this presentation is to consider what leadership might mean in more formal terms. It will suggest several possible models of leadership, drawing on principles from James Greer Miller, Stafford Beer, Russ Ackoff, Andryas Angyal, et al. The models will build on data about great leaders, taken from a study of officers in the U.S. Army by Gary Metcalf and Teresa Daniel.
Systems thinking and design thinking are two powerful and complementary approaches for addressing complex multistakeholder problems. Combining these two approaches seems to be especially promising for finding new and creative solutions for ambiguous and dynamic issues. The challenge of integrating systems thinking and design thinking has been of increasing academic and practical interest in recent years, but there are many remaining questions regarding the conceptual synthesis and practical implementation. The proposed framework tries to fill this gap. Teams, projects, companies and communities are facing many situations where previous knowledge and strategies are no longer valid but a shared understanding and vision is highly needed for coordinated action. Traditional approaches, such as lengthy and unguided group discussions or top-down authoritarian control by a single leader, do not work well in complex multistakeholder situations where both emotional commitment and technical expertise are of high relevance. The proposed framework provides a conceptual and practical synthesis of systems thinking and design thinking for solving complex problems. The presentation also includes a guideline for workshops in companies and educational settings. The method incorporates visual elements of systems thinking (such as behavior-over-time-graphs and causal loop diagrams) and elements of design thinking (such as observation, empathy, point-of-view, brainstorming, presentations and peer-feedback). The format is optimized for rapid reflection and fast-prototyping in meetings and workshops, while more detailed research and elaborations may be included in later iterations. An example case illustrates the use of the method along with typical needs and questions of novice participants.
The focus of this paper is on counterfactual narratives and whether they can be used as a learning tool in a business setting to enhance systemic thinking. Counterfactuals have recently received a lot of attention from academics of different disciplines – from politics and international relations to philosophy and management. However, little attention has been paid to evaluating the outcomes of the use of counterfactuals and whether they can be used to increase decision makers’ systemic reasoning skills and their ability to deal with the complexities of the business world. Hence this paper will discuss how counterfactuals can be used to expose deterministic worldviews and to encourage managers’ explorations of alternative scenarios of the past. The discussion of theory in this paper is complemented with the description of a PhD project, still being designed, that aims to evaluate the impact of counterfactuals on managerial awareness. The research is essentially systemic in nature, given its focus on holistic understanding and appreciation of complexity. The field work will be based around executive education-style sessions involving the analysis of a fictional case study with multiple points of intervention. In addition, the project will also aim to determine whether there is an intercultural aspect to counterfactuals and management learning, as it will involve fieldwork in Turkey, Ukraine, the Netherlands and the UK.
As known, innovation is the most important tool for individuals, organizations and states at todays’ world. Innovation has a strategic role for companies especially, because they can increase their revenues, access to new markets, increase profit margins and have a competitive advantages in sector.
Innovation can be defined as the process of implementing new ideas to create value for an organization. It involves deliberate application of information, imagination and initiative in deriving greater or different values from resources, and includes all processes by which new ideas are generated and converted into useful products. So by that way companies can be sustain business growth. Also it is the key to maintain the competitiveness for long term.
This study aims to analyze the innovation kinds of most innovative companies that are in the list of 2016 Forbes. Firstly, a literature research is done and the strategic importance of innovation is highlighted. Then Boston Consulting Group’s The Most Innovative Companies 2016 List is analyzed for determining their innovation types. In the list there are 50 companies in different sectors and they were ranked by company’s revenue, R&D spending. Content analysis is used for determining the innovation types.
The study also comprises the innovation ranks between 2005 and 2016 for these companies. As a result of these analyses most of the companies are technology and telecom and most of them use product innovation.
The ‘truths’ of project management are changing with increasing attention being paid by practitioners and researchers on climate change and other public priorities. Projects and their management are recognized as “a way to sustainability” and sustainability is recognized as a developing theme in project management research. With the examination of the relationship between sustainability and project management increasing, a more detailed review of the associated research designs can now occur. The purpose of this research is to identify methodological insights that indicate and guide the transdisciplinary research in this field.
As sustainability is a topic that crosses several disciplines, such as physical sciences, natural sciences, ecology and social sciences, its research requires transdisciplinarity. Project management similarly crosses multiple disciplines as seen in papers concerning ‘schools of thought’ contributing to project management and complex applied problems requiring innovative and novel approaches . Preliminary analysis of the methods of a ‘sustainability school’ indicate conceptual studies of an interpretive nature, giving meaning to how the concepts of sustainability could be interpreted in the context of projects, or of a normative nature, prescribing how sustainability should be integrated into projects.
Scholars in project management have also been urging project management researchers to use translational research by borrowing research methods from other disciplines. Research in sustainability requires systemic thinking and project management researchers would benefit from systems research approaches that also support transdisciplinary research. Scholars of systems thinking have also labelled issues arising from sustainability as ‘wicked problems’ and urged the use of systems methodologies in transdisciplinary research.
A systems approach to project management offers a framework that connects the change associated with an individual project (at a micro level) to an intermediate (or meso) level where the results of a particular project could address a larger societal issue (eg, climate change). Beyond this—at the ‘macro’ level—project managers can see how their projects contribute to not only the sustainability of the planet, but its thrivability. And its partly through the incremental work of project management researchers that a fourth stage of ‘protopia’ can be described…one where nuances of societal progress could be as valuable (or even more) than the great leaps associated with traditional measures of project management success.
In this paper we will identify strategies used by researchers who have investigated sustainability in project management, describe specific methods, and propose how future research could be designed that can further evolve the field towards transdisciplinarity.
The interventions of a tourist MSMEs in a conventional Mexican destination turn out to be inefficient in facing the perturbations of a changing environment. The forces of global markets do not provide equal conditions, increasing barriers that risk their life cycle. This context, provides the opportunity to address a local problem with high implications at national level through the Systemic Method and propose effective and adaptive actions. This paper presents the design of a model based on the beneficial adaptation of MSMEs heterogeneous attributes. The Soft Systems Methodology, served as an integrative frame of factors and actors that influence the problem situation and its abstraction in a model, which was contrasted through AHP. The results allow to establish that, systemic complementarity is a framework for integrating local collaboration opportunities and increasing the variety of response to generate a favorable environment and extend the permanence of these organizations. Likewise, the relationships could absorb deficiencies from the collective learning and the development of individual capacities.
The lodging SMEs operate in a dynamic environment where aspects such as turbulence and information asymmetry undermine them compared to large enterprises. On this matter, it is considered that Human Capital Management is relevant to overcome deficiencies, delays in operations and to ensure the permanence of the organization. However, these human activity systems (HAS) lack of a systemic model that contributes to the achievement of such an end. This paper presents a perspective on this matter, from the Systems Thinking. In the methodological approach the Soft Systems Methodology was used, obtaining as finding a conceptual model that considers the heterogeneity in lodging SMEs problems and the human capital management. The construct was verified through the Analytic Hierarchy Process, that allowed to find congruence between what had been proposed from the Systems Thinking and reality, enabling its conduction towards a viable equilibrium state in its current environment. Personnel with managerial functions can benefit from an approach that pursues systemic solutions and the transcendence of the whole system like the one mentioned.
