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Purpose: The purpose of the chapter is to determine the dependence of the process of decision making in modern business systems on their organizational structure and to substantiate the necessity for considering the requirements to the process of decision making during designing the organizational structure of a business system.

Methodology: A new simplified classification of the organizational structure of business systems according to the criterion of complexity is offered, and its two main types are distinguished – organizational structure of low complexity and organizational structure of high complexity.

Conclusions: According to the offered classification, dependence of the process of decision making in modern business systems on complexity of their business structure at each stage of making of managerial decisions is determined. As a result of analysis of statistical data, it is determined that business systems with organizational structure of low complexity dominate in Russia. By the example of modern Russian business systems with the organizational structure of high complexity – Sberbank, Lukoil, Gazprom, and Rosneft – it is shown that formation of the structure of this type and supporting its functioning requires resources and thus is inaccessible for most modern business systems. Moreover, the expected advantages, related to high probability of making of optimal managerial decisions, are not always gained in practice.

Originality/value: It is substantiated that the process of decision making in modern business systems largely depends on the complexity of their organizational structure. With increase of complexity of a business system, resource intensity of decision making and duration of this process increase, but the risk of nonoptimal decisions decreases. Organizational structure of low complexity is peculiar for business systems that have deficit of financial and human resources, which does not allow using the means of optimization and fully control the process of decision making. However, in this case, managerial decisions are made much quicker. In the conditions of modern market economy, it is necessary to make quick optimal decisions, which cannot be achieved within the organizational structure of either low or high complexity. Thus, it is necessary to find a way to make quick optimal managerial decisions beyond the design of organizational structure.

This study aims to distinguish businesses by their degree of complexity and to analyse the influence of complexity on the performance of firms during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

Data were collected from 468 businesses, and various multivariate statistical techniques were used. Initially a factor analysis was conducted, organising variables into five factors. A discriminant analysis, performed with the five factors, allowed discriminating firms based on whether they internationalise or not. A linear regression was performed in order to estimate the contribution of each factor in the business performance.

The results suggest the existence of additional variables for measuring the complexity. From the factorial analysis it is possible to conclude that business complexity can be explained by size, indebtedness and profitability, internationalisation, number of employees, and age and leverage. Total assets, indebtedness and age are the variables that contribute the most to business performance. On the other hand, indebtedness, internationalisation, age and leverage are the independent variables that most contribute to explain business performance.

This paper presents advances in two ways. First, it proposes measures of complexity (highly debatable in the literature). It also proposes internationalisation as an explanation of complexity. Second, this paper sheds light on businesses decisions to grow, taking into account how complexity may affect performance.

Drawing on the theoretical lens of the job demands-resources model, this study builds upon and tests a conceptual model that links customer prioritization, product complexity, business ties, job stress and customer service performance. Conceptualizing customer prioritization and product complexity as job demands and business ties as personal job resources, this research explicates the mediating process by which customer prioritization and product complexity affect customer service performance through job stress and its boundary conditions. The purpose of this paper is to offer a theoretical framework in which business ties moderates the mediated relations of customer prioritization and product complexity to customer service performance.

Structural equation modeling and a moderated mediation analysis were used on a unique multi-level, multi-respondent data set of 248 participants from 124 small and medium-sized enterprises in Turkey.

This study finds that both customer prioritization and product complexity increase job stress. In addition, this paper finds that business ties have a bitter-sweet nature as a personal resource and reverse the relation of customer prioritization to job stress while strengthening the negative direct relation of product complexity to job stress. Finally, this study finds that the indirect relation of customer prioritization to customer service performance through job stress is contingent on business ties. Specifically, this paper finds that high levels of business ties negate the indirect relation of customer prioritization to customer service performance while low levels of business ties exacerbate the negative effects of customer prioritization to customer service performance, channeled through job stress.

The findings demonstrate the critical role that personal networks play in reducing job stress and enhancing customer service performance for small and medium-sized enterprises that adopt customer-centric strategies such as customer prioritization. Nevertheless, the results suggest that the managers need to cognizant of the undesirable consequences of business ties may have on job stress when boundary-spanners handle a wide range of products/services that are technically complex. Accordingly, this study recommends small and medium-size enterprise managers and owners should be cautious in resource allocation to establish informal, personal ties with suppliers, competitors, customers and other market collaborators.

This paper offers a deeper perspective of the relations of customer prioritization and product complexity to job stress and customer service performance. This study also specifies business ties as a personal coping resource, which decreases the undesirable consequences when used in small and medium enterprises that adopt customer-centric strategies.

This study aims to review and try to understand the importance of complexity management for maritime business to gain competitiveness in global business environment. The purpose of the study is to discuss and evaluate managing change and requirements of understanding the complexity management.

To find peer-reviewed journal publications, a large scientific database used by searching Web of Science and Scopus as the most relevant abstract and citation databases that provide peer-reviewed literature data for many different academic disciplines and selected papers evaluated from the maritime business context.

As a conceptual paper, the contribution of the study is to offer practical/required management applications with the help of six proposes for making better management decisions to confront future challenges to catch organizational competitiveness and success. With adaptation of complexity management, maritime stakeholders able to create an important core competency.

The research has some limitations and further research into this area should be extended. This study is designed as a first step to provide an insight to the field and to understand the main views of the subject. Subsequently, complexity management in maritime business is a slightly deficient area of research, which offers remarkable research opportunities. First, it would be fruitful to collect qualitative data to examine the current issues and changing business environment of the maritime business. Second, it would be helpful develop quantitative models to offer practical solutions from the maritime stakeholders’ point of view according to loading/discharging/transportation requirements. Future studies should deepen the subject with the help of simulation models of operations or agent based applications of stakeholder problems or vessel/ship-owner management implementations to understand changing circumstances of new business environment for the sake of managing complexity.

As the core point of view in strategic management; “achieving and sustaining” competitive advantage in organizations always takes an important place in organizational survival. With the help mentioned proposes stakeholders of the system could understand the ways of dealing with the complexities of new business world which enhances organizational competitiveness.

Maritime business could be defined as a social ecosystem which has it is own dynamics and customs. Socio-eco systems, like all complex systems, show unique non-linear dynamics in space and time which could be tough to define via classical quantitative methods. Organizations co-exist and co-evolve with their environment. It is possible that organizations effect their environment and gain some control over it while at the same time affected from environment and should steer the new trends.

The originality of the study lies in highlighting the importance of change management as a handler of complexity management for maritime business. The contribution of the paper is to indicate expected opportunities and challenges of smart changes for relevant readiness of maritime business for better management decisions, benefiting maritime business stakeholders by simultaneously enhancing effectiveness to confront future demands to achieve organizational competitiveness. With the help of proper complexity management lenses organizations could able to create their source of competitive advantage that represents capacity to align and enable required functions under tough contextual environment.

Blockchain is a distributed ledger technology that uses cryptography to ensure transmission and access security, which provides solutions to numerous challenges to complex supply networks. The purpose of this paper is to empirically test the impact of blockchain implementation on shareholder value varying from internal and external complexity from the complex adaptive systems (CASs) perspective. It further explores how business diversification, supply chain (SC) concentration and environmental complexity affect the relationship between blockchain implementation and shareholder value.

Based on 138 blockchain implementation announcements of listed companies on the Chinese A-share stock market, the authors use event study methodology to evaluate the impact of blockchain implementation on shareholder value.

The results show that blockchain implementation has a positive impact on shareholder value, and this impact will be moderated by business diversification, SC concentration and environmental complexity. In addition, environmental complexity exerts a moderating effect on SC concentration. In the post hoc analysis, the authors further explore the impact of blockchain implementation on long-term operational performance.

This is the first research empirically examining the effect of blockchain implementation on shareholder value varying from internal and external complexity from the CASs perspective. This paper provides evidence of the different effects of blockchain implementation on short- and long-term performance. It adds to the interdisciplinary research of information systems (IS) and operations management (OM).

With features of both “family” and “business,” family businesses must seek a balance between the emotional aspect of “family” and the economic aspect of “business” in its organizational and decision-making processes to ensure the sustainability of the family’s entrepreneurship. This study aims to focus on how internal institutional complexity combined evolves alongside the growth of the family business.

The research looks, from the perspective of institutional logic, into the Charoen Pokphand Group, which is an epitome of overseas Chinese family businesses and proceeds to build a model of family business growth in the context of institutional complexity.

The research finds that as a family business grows, institutional complexity inside the organization would change from aligned period to sustaining period and then to dominant period. Then further elucidates the process of proactive response in different stages of the development of a family business. Attaching equal importance to the cultivation of entrepreneurship and to the continuation of family values and culture is the crucial mechanism by which Chinese family businesses seek a balance between family logic and business logic.

This paper unveils the change of institutional complexity in the evolution of family businesses and the process of action of its agency as an organization, and simultaneously partly reveals the features of entrepreneurship that overseas Chinese family businesses have as they grew, which is of positive significance for exploring and building a path of growth unique to Chinese family businesses.

The purpose of our study is to investigate how a manufacturing plant’s internal operations along with its network of connections (upstream and downstream) can have an impact on its recovery time from a disruption. The authors also examine the inverse-U impact of complexity. Finally, the authors test the moderating role that business continuity management plans (BCP) at the plant level have on recovery time.

To test our hypotheses, the authors partnered with Resilinc Corporation, a Silicon Valley-based provider of supply chain risk management solutions to identify focal firms’ suppliers, customers and plant-level data including information on parts, manufacturing activities, bill of materials, alternate sites and formal business continuity plans. The authors employed censored data regression technique (Tobit).

Several important findings reveal that the plant’s internal operations and network connections impact recovery time. Specifically, the number of parts manufactured at the plant as well as the number of internal plant processes significantly increase disruption recovery time. In addition, the number of supply chains (upstream and downstream) involving the plant as well as the echelon distance of the plant from its original equipment manufacturer significantly increase recovery time. The authors also find that there exists an inverted-U relationship between complexity and recovery time. Finally, the authors find partial support that BCP will have a negative moderating effect between complexity and recovery time.

This research highlights gaps in the literature related to supply chain disruption and recovery. There is a need for more accurate methods to measure recovery time, more research on recovery at the supply chain site level and further analysis of the impact of supply chain complexity on recovery time.

The purpose of this paper is to understand how business process configurations influence motivation among process participants.

An experiment was conducted in which business process rules complexity, work backlog, and case distribution method were manipulated. Participant motivation and its antecedents were measured using a survey.

The study finds that business process configurations influence the motivation of process participants through their effect on perceived competence. Increasing business process rules complexity reduces competence. The effect of case distribution method on competence depends on backlog. Sequential distribution undermines competence in the presence of backlog, and enhances competence when backlog is absent. However, batch distribution results in higher competence in the presence of backlog than in its absence.

The study confirms the applicability of self-determination theory for analyzing the effect of work settings, including business process configurations, on employee motivation. The study further demonstrates the applicability of the task technology fit model in the context of business process automation.

The study suggests that reducing process complexity through the use of information technology can benefit process participant motivation. Additionally, the study highlights the importance of case distribution method on performance expectations.

While much of the extant research has considered the enhancement of business processes at the organizational level, this study examines how business process design can be used to preserve and potentially enhance the motivation of human process participants.

The purpose of this study is to propose a methodological approach for modeling catastrophic consequences caused by black swan events, based on complexity science, and framed on Feyerabend’s anarchistic theory of knowledge. An empirical application is presented to illustrate the proposed approach.

Thom’s nonlinear differential equations of morphogenesis are used to develop a theoretical model of the impact of catastrophes on international business (IB). The model is then estimated using real-world data on the performance of multinational airlines during the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic.

The catastrophe model exhibits a remarkable capability to simultaneously capture complex linear and nonlinear relationships. Through empirical estimations and simulations, this approach enables the analysis of IB phenomena under normal conditions, as well as during black swan events.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is the first attempt to estimate the impact of black swan events in IB using a catastrophe model grounded in complexity theory. The proposed model successfully integrates the abrupt and profound effects of catastrophes on multinational corporations, offering a critical perspective on the theoretical and practical use of complexity science in IB.

This study aims to draw the attention of business process management (BPM) research and practice to the textual data generated in the processes and the potential of meaningful insights extraction. The authors apply standard natural language processing (NLP) approaches to gain valuable knowledge in the form of business process (BP) complexity concept suggested in the study. It is built on the objective, subjective and meta-knowledge extracted from the BP textual data and encompassing semantics, syntax and stylistics. As a result, the authors aim to create awareness about cognitive, attention and reading efforts forming the textual data-based BP complexity. The concept serves as a basis for the development of various decision-support solutions for BP workers.

The starting point is an investigation of the complexity concept in the BPM literature to develop an understanding of the related complexity research and to put the textual data-based BP complexity in its context. Afterward, utilizing the linguistic foundations and the theory of situation awareness (SA), the concept is empirically developed and evaluated in a real-world application case using qualitative interview-based and quantitative data-based methods.

In the practical, real-world application, the authors confirmed that BP textual data could be used to predict BP complexity from the semantic, syntactic and stylistic viewpoints. The authors were able to prove the value of this knowledge about the BP complexity formed based on the (1) professional contextual experience of the BP worker enriched by the awareness of cognitive efforts required for BP execution (objective knowledge), (2) business emotions enriched by attention efforts (subjective knowledge) and (3) quality of the text, i.e. professionalism, expertise and stress level of the text author, enriched by reading efforts (meta-knowledge). In particular, the BP complexity concept has been applied to an industrial example of Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) change management (CHM) Information Technology (IT) ticket processing. The authors used IT ticket texts from two samples of 28,157 and 4,625 tickets as the basis for the analysis. The authors evaluated the concept with the help of manually labeled tickets and a rule-based approach using historical ticket execution data. Having a recommendation character, the results showed to be useful in creating awareness regarding cognitive, attention and reading efforts for ITIL CHM BP workers coordinating the IT ticket processing.

While aiming to draw attention to those valuable insights inherent in BP textual data, the authors propose an unconventional approach to BP complexity definition through the lens of textual data. Hereby, the authors address the challenges specified by BPM researchers, i.e. focus on semantics in the development of vocabularies and organization- and sector-specific adaptation of standard NLP techniques.