Complex adaptive system

About: Complex adaptive system is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 3190 publications have been published within this topic receiving 111947 citations. The topic is also known as: Complex adaptive system, CAS.

Mental health services conceptualised as complex adaptive systems: what can be learned?

Abstract: Despite many attempts at promoting systems integration, seamless care, and partnerships among service providers and users, mental health services internationally continue to be fragmented and piecemeal. We exploit recent ideas from complexity science to conceptualise mental health services as complex adaptive systems (CASs). The core features of CASs are described and Australia’s headspace initiative is used as an example of the kinds of problems currently being faced. We argue that adopting a CAS lens can transform services, creating more connected care for service users with mental health conditions.

Who Inhabits a Business Ecosystem? The Technospecies as a Unifying Concept

Abstract: Currently, many terms are used to describe business ecosystems and their inhabitants. These terms have meanings that can cause definitional confusion and an ambiguous level of analysis as to what constitutes a business ecosystem. To understand business ecosystem relationships, an unambiguous understanding of the ecosystem components is required. The importance of standardized terminology and clear definitions of these components has been recognized in the literature. From a managerial perspective, identifying the relationships a firm is situated in is valuable and useful information that can be practically applied. We propose a business ecosystem model anchored around interdependent technospecies similar to the biological model that many of the existing concepts are drawn from. Technospecies are unique entities based on their organizational routines, capabilities, and use of technology. This article will present an alternative formulation of the business ecosystem model with the aim of synthesizing the diverse terminology presently in use into a concise, common language. For evolution is not only substitution of independent components; it is also integration of the components to form adaptively coherent systems.

Regional Innovation Systems as Complex Adaptive Systems: The Case of Lagging European Regions

Abstract: This article proposes an agent-based model to support the development of self-sustaining regional innovation systems (RIS). The model is the base of a computational laboratory, CARIS (Complex Adaptive Regional Innovation System), which aims at evaluating the self-sustainability of RIS and at investigating what are the resources, competencies and mechanisms able to trigger powerful innovation and economic growth processes. Such a topic is particularly interesting for the so-called lagging regions, which, notwithstanding noticeable policy interventions, have been unable to significantly improve their innovation performances. Results of this study show that the exploration capacity, the propensity to cooperation, and the endowed competencies of actors belonging to a region could be considered as key aspects in affecting the regional innovation performance. This means that policy-makers should (i) incentivize investments in research and development activities both at the public and private levels; (ii) support public-private partnerships; (iii) enhance national and regional university systems; and (iv) increase the number of researchers employed both in the public and private sectors. In the next future, the CARIS laboratory could be adopted as policy support instrument to evaluate how much effective are current innovation policies and what are the most effective ones to reassess the current patterns.

Complexity and Emergence in Public Management

Abstract: This article reports on a three-year study of six urban regeneration projects in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in which a ‘complexity perspective’ was applied to the analysis and interpretation of decision making in the public domain. The goal of the research was to gain insight into the features that affect public sector outcomes and agent behaviour, particularly those that emerge over time and contribute to the unpredictability of complex projects. A Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) analytic framework is applied to the cases, which draws on the concept of a ‘performance landscape’ and a policy ‘arena’ to identify patterns of emergent properties, including new super-agents, new rules and new schema. These properties impact on the decisions, factors and performance outcomes of the projects, the implications of which for public administration theory and practice are discussed in the conclusion.

Social determinants of health inequalities: towards a theoretical perspective using systems science

Abstract: A systems approach offers a novel conceptualization to natural and social systems. In recent years, this has led to perceiving population health outcomes as an emergent property of a dynamic and open, complex adaptive system. The current paper explores these themes further and applies the principles of systems approach and complexity science (i.e. systems science) to conceptualize social determinants of health inequalities. The conceptualization can be done in two steps: viewing health inequalities from a systems approach and extending it to include complexity science. Systems approach views health inequalities as patterns within the larger rubric of other facets of the human condition, such as educational outcomes and economic development. This anlysis requires more sophisticated models such as systems dynamic models. An extension of the approach is to view systems as complex adaptive systems, i.e. systems that are 'open' and adapt to the environment. They consist of dynamic adapting subsystems that exhibit non-linear interactions, while being 'open' to a similarly dynamic environment of interconnected systems. They exhibit emergent properties that cannot be estimated with precision by using the known interactions among its components (such as economic development, political freedom, health system, culture etc.). Different combinations of the same bundle of factors or determinants give rise to similar patterns or outcomes (i.e. property of convergence), and minor variations in the initial condition could give rise to widely divergent outcomes. Novel approaches using computer simulation models (e.g. agent-based models) would shed light on possible mechanisms as to how factors or determinants interact and lead to emergent patterns of health inequalities of populations.