Citation
Ramage, M., Bissell, C. and Chapman, D. (2013), "Editorial", Kybernetes, Vol. 42 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/k.2013.06742eaa.002
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2013, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Editorial
Article Type: Editorial From: Kybernetes, Volume 42, Issue 5
One of the pleasures of editing Kybernetes is the range of items which come into us. This is the first, and perhaps the only, occasion where we have received an entire special issue by e-mail. This special issue on Modelling and Simulation in Enterprises was agreed between the Guest Editors, Anna M. Gil-Lafuente and José M. Merigó; and the previous Editor-in-Chief, Brian Rudall. We are very pleased to receive it, and to publish it in our first volume under the new editorial team.
Modelling is a crucial subject within both cybernetics and systems thinking. Yet it is a complex subject, with many different aspects. As Bissell and Dillon (2012, p. v) observe:
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[…] a model could be a scale model, a mathematical model, a sketch, a segment of computer code, an analogy, a working device, or many other things. A model can be used to describe or explain some aspect of the natural world, it can be used as part of the design of an artefact, it can be part of an attempt to convince someone of some argument or ideology, or to determine public or corporate policy.
In particular, modelling and the associated area of simulation have great relevance when used to study enterprises. The apparently bounded nature of enterprises, but their considerable internal complexity and interconnectedness with many external factors, makes them especially suitable as an area of study for modelling, as exemplified by a work such as Sterman (2000).
The guest editors have brought together an interesting range of articles based on a workshop in Barcelona in 2010 on this important area, which help to discuss and expand various aspects of modelling and simulation in enterprises.
We are very grateful to the guest editors for producing this special issue, and we thank them for their patience in dealing with two sets of editors and their different requirements.
Magnus Ramage, Chris Bissell, David Chapman
References
Bissell, C. and Dillon, C. (2012), Ways of Thinking, Ways of Seeing: Mathematical and Other Modelling in Engineering and Technology, Springer, Berlin
Sterman, J. (2000), Business Dynamics: Systems Thinking and Modelling for a Complex World, Irwin/McGraw-Hill, Boston, MA