Perceptions of Local Government Fiscal Health and Fiscal Stress: Evidence From Quantile Regressions With Michigan Municipalities and Counties

This study applies insights from open systems theory to explore how the perceptions of local officials can enhance our understanding of local government fiscal health—in particular, to understand differences between healthy and distressed jurisdictions. With a sample of local governments in Michigan from 2013 to 2019, we use quantile regression to investigate associations between subjective financial condition measures and objective indicators. The results show that these relationships are often more muted for lower-stress governments and more pronounced for higher-stress governments, a pattern that is not accounted for by traditional methods of measuring financial condition. The findings demonstrate the utility of open systems theory and quantile regression techniques to improve understanding of the financial condition and suggest that in order to avoid overlooking cases of fiscal distress, policymakers and analysts should incorporate these approaches into methods for diagnosing local fiscal health.

Entrepreneurial ecosystems: A study of organizational interactions and interrelations in entrepreneurial ecosystems

<p>Entrepreneurial ecosystems are emerging around the world, and their relevance in business and management is increasing. Practitioners and researchers are using biological metaphors to understand collaborative aspects of entrepreneurial ecosystems. This thesis explores the use of bio-ecological metaphors to study interactions and interrelations taking place in entrepreneurial ecosystems. Specifically, it examines the characteristics of an ecosystem that influence interactions and interrelations within ecosystems. This thesis is part of a qualitative ethnographic research that employs an inductive approach to data analyses. It studies a New Zealand based ecosystem and presents findings on three characteristics that influence interactions and interrelations in ecosystems: interdependence, diversity, and organizational birth and death cycles. In doing so, this thesis makes a number of contributions to management theory and practice. Firstly, it combines aspects of organizational ecology and open-systems theory to develop an ecosystem-level unit of analysis. By using an ecosystem lens, researchers can better observe collaborative aspects of organizations. Secondly, findings suggest that increasing the degree of interdependency and diversity and facilitating organizational birth and death cycles can enhance levels of interaction and interrelations in ecosystems. This implies that more skills, knowledge, ideas, resources, and different forms of support can be exchanged within ecosystems. Such exchange can enrich ecosystems.</p>

Entrepreneurial ecosystems: A study of organizational interactions and interrelations in entrepreneurial ecosystems

<p>Entrepreneurial ecosystems are emerging around the world, and their relevance in business and management is increasing. Practitioners and researchers are using biological metaphors to understand collaborative aspects of entrepreneurial ecosystems. This thesis explores the use of bio-ecological metaphors to study interactions and interrelations taking place in entrepreneurial ecosystems. Specifically, it examines the characteristics of an ecosystem that influence interactions and interrelations within ecosystems. This thesis is part of a qualitative ethnographic research that employs an inductive approach to data analyses. It studies a New Zealand based ecosystem and presents findings on three characteristics that influence interactions and interrelations in ecosystems: interdependence, diversity, and organizational birth and death cycles. In doing so, this thesis makes a number of contributions to management theory and practice. Firstly, it combines aspects of organizational ecology and open-systems theory to develop an ecosystem-level unit of analysis. By using an ecosystem lens, researchers can better observe collaborative aspects of organizations. Secondly, findings suggest that increasing the degree of interdependency and diversity and facilitating organizational birth and death cycles can enhance levels of interaction and interrelations in ecosystems. This implies that more skills, knowledge, ideas, resources, and different forms of support can be exchanged within ecosystems. Such exchange can enrich ecosystems.</p>

Extending the Tavistock model: bringing desire, danger, dread, and excitement into a theory of organisational process

This article develops some novel extensions of the classical Tavistock model of organisational psychodynamics. The classical model privileges the emotion of anxiety as the primary trigger for psychosocial experiences in organisations. While this approach has been very generative, it has also been limiting, since there are several other important emotions that shape how people take up their work and their roles in organisations. The article shows how open systems theory and sociotechnical thinking emerge logically from the anxiety model by highlighting how organisations become functional, and work becomes satisfying. The article goes on to explore how desire as a feeling for the future, stimulates such feelings as danger, dread, and excitement. When these feelings become dispositive, they generate experiences associated with anxiety, and the primary risk, as well as the potential for developmental politics. Politics can be developmental rather than defensive when executives create settings where conflict is seen as transaction and rationality as an achievement. This article explores these issues through the use of case vignettes in the public domain, including a skunk works project in Data General, and leadership struggles and strategy dilemmas in Apple, IBM, and Polaroid.

Understanding and Avoiding AI Failures: A Practical Guide

As AI technologies increase in capability and ubiquity, AI accidents are becoming more common. Based on normal accident theory, high reliability theory, and open systems theory, we create a framework for understanding the risks associated with AI applications. This framework is designed to direct attention to pertinent system properties without requiring unwieldy amounts of accuracy. In addition, we also use AI safety principles to quantify the unique risks of increased intelligence and human-like qualities in AI. Together, these two fields give a more complete picture of the risks of contemporary AI. By focusing on system properties near accidents instead of seeking a root cause of accidents, we identify where attention should be paid to safety for current generation AI systems.

Markovianization with approximate unitary designs

Memoryless processes are ubiquitous in nature, in contrast with the mathematics of open systems theory, which states that non-Markovian processes should be the norm. This discrepancy is usually addressed by subjectively making the environment forgetful. Here we prove that there are physical non-Markovian processes that with high probability look highly Markovian for all orders of correlations; we call this phenomenon Markovianization. Formally, we show that when a quantum process has dynamics given by an approximate unitary design, a large deviation bound on the size of non-Markovian memory is implied. We exemplify our result employing an efficient construction of an approximate unitary circuit design using two-qubit interactions only, showing how seemingly simple systems can speedily become forgetful. Conversely, since the process is closed, it should be possible to detect the underlying non-Markovian effects. However, for these processes, observing non-Markovian signatures would require highly entangling resources and hence be a difficult task.

Group relations conferences in China 2014 to 2019: theory and dynamics

This is a longitudinal inquiry into the theory and dynamics of four group relations conferences in China from 2014 to 2019. The study triangulates field notes, document artefacts, and verbatim transcribed interviews to investigate the application of Wilfred Bion's basic assumption (BA) group theory in the context of temporary learning institutions devoted to the examination of authority, leadership, and conscious/unconscious processes in groups. Given that group relations theory and practice in the Tavistock tradition is grounded in psychoanalysis and open systems theory, the study integrates psychoanalytic and psychodynamic systems theory in the analysis and interpretation of conference dynamics. The study concludes that group relations has important implications for psychoanalysis in China in light of: 1) the "psycho boom" in contemporary China; 2) the possibilities of cross-cultural learning and knowledge transfer; 3) cross-cultural trust building; 4) professional development of human services, mental health, and organisational development professionals; and 5) the application of psychoanalytical theory and practices to the understanding of organisational development in China.

The Nigerian Declaration Project and Actors’ Commitment to Industrial Peace in Nigeria

This article examines the linkage between the Nigerian Declaration Project and the levels of commitment to industrial peace among the employers’ associations, labour unions and government agencies in Nigeria, through a systematic review of the relevant literature and four key informant interviews among the representatives of prominent stakeholders in the Nigerian industrial relations system. The study adopted the open-systems theory of industrial relations to provide a basis for an understanding of the circumstances that led to the implementation of the Nigerian Declaration Project and the extent of actors’ participation in its implementation as well as the outcomes of the Project at workplaces in Nigeria. Findings from the study revealed that the Nigerian Declaration Project has enhanced the levels of commitment to the pursuit of industrial peace in Nigeria, although efforts made by the Nigerian government to achieve a peaceful coexistence between labour and management at workplaces remain inadequate in Nigeria. The findings also revealed the harrowing experience of unfair labour practices and the escalation of industrial actions, including strikes and other industrial actions in Nigeria, despite the existence of the relatively new laws such as the Trade Disputes Act 2004, the Trade Union Amendment Act 2005, the National Industrial Court Act 2006, the Employees’ Compensation Act 2010, and the Pension Reform Act 2014. The article therefore recommends that the collective interests in the pursuit of justice at workplaces be intensified until a lasting peace is achieved for sustainable development of industrial relations practices in Nigeria.

Small business success: factors influencing the NBA's D-league

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to determine the effects of initially controllable market factors on franchise success within NBA's Development League (D-League).Design/methodology/approachThe open systems theory provided the foundation for analyzing characteristics contributing to small business success, as measured by attendance capacity for NBA D-League teams. Multiple regression analysis was utilized.FindingsThe results of this study indicate specific market characteristics increase franchise success in NBA's D-League. Population, income, facility size and ownership model all influenced attendance capacity.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is limited to the teams that have operated in NBA's D-League. Contextual factors related to new business survival are not unique to minor league basketball and can be applied by scholars or professionals to any new business to help understand new business survival.Practical implicationsThis research is also useful to cities looking to invest in a professional sports franchise and for all small business owners to understand market characteristics that can contribute to success.Originality/valueThe results from this study significantly contribute to small business literature by being the first empirical study on NBA's D-League.