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Contemporary literature reveals that, to date, the poultry livestock sector has not received sufficient research attention. This particular industry suffers from unstructured supply chain practices, lack of awareness of the implications of the sustainability concept and failure to recycle poultry wastes. The current research thus attempts to develop an integrated supply chain model in the context of poultry industry in Bangladesh. The study considers both sustainability and supply chain issues in order to incorporate them in the poultry supply chain. By placing the forward and reverse supply chains in a single framework, existing problems can be resolved to gain economic, social and environmental benefits, which will be more sustainable than the present practices.

The theoretical underpinning of this research is ‘sustainability’ and the ‘supply chain processes’ in order to examine possible improvements in the poultry production process along with waste management. The research adopts the positivist paradigm and ‘design science’ methods with the support of system dynamics (SD) and the case study methods. Initially, a mental model is developed followed by the causal loop diagram based on in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and observation techniques. The causal model helps to understand the linkages between the associated variables for each issue. Finally, the causal loop diagram is transformed into a stock and flow (quantitative) model, which is a prerequisite for SD-based simulation modelling. A decision support system (DSS) is then developed to analyse the complex decision-making process along the supply chains.

The findings reveal that integration of the supply chain can bring economic, social and environmental sustainability along with a structured production process. It is also observed that the poultry industry can apply the model outcomes in the real-life practices with minor adjustments. This present research has both theoretical and practical implications. The proposed model’s unique characteristics in mitigating the existing problems are supported by the sustainability and supply chain theories. As for practical implications, the poultry industry in Bangladesh can follow the proposed supply chain structure (as par the research model) and test various policies via simulation prior to its application. Positive outcomes of the simulation study may provide enough confidence to implement the desired changes within the industry and their supply chain networks.

This paper aims to propose a method to assist organisations to develop their causal models, as well as to understand them, and to propose systems thinking as a method to achieve these objectives.

The paper starts with a review of the literature related to the concerns existing with respect to strategy maps and the interrelationships between measures. Then it explains the benefits of systems thinking and causal loop diagrams. Finally, the paper presents the results obtained from a group of 32 students who took a course in strategic control systems and used systems thinking to design a performance measurement system for their businesses.

The number of concepts included in students' causal loop diagrams averages 16, which are in line with the number of measures suggested in the Balanced Scorecard literature, but only 48 per cent of concepts were related to the four perspectives suggested in the Balanced Scorecard methodology. Few students acknowledged the existence of time delays in the interrelationships.

While the sample is statistically significant, it represents the results of one course.

The use of systems thinking and causal loops diagrams simplifies the design of a Balanced Scorecard and improves the alignment of the organisation with the performance measurement system.

While scholars have criticised the interrelationships between measures in the Balanced Scorecard, few have suggested solutions to this issue. The paper presents the application of a well‐known tool to improve the processes of designing and understanding the interrelationships between measures in the Balanced Scorecard.

Empirical evidence suggests that many triggers influence poor cost performance in highway projects, whereas previous studies about the cost overrun triggers stem from a positivist standpoint supported by conventional statistical techniques, thus disregarding the sophisticated interactions and overall dynamics of the triggers. This study contends for a paradigm shift in investigating and understanding cost overrun triggers by adopting a holistic perspective through the lens of system thinking. This study aims to contend for a paradigm shift in investigating and understanding cost overrun triggers by adopting a holistic perspective through the lens of system thinking.

Semi-structured interviews with industry stakeholders in Nigeria were conducted buttressed by textual data from literature sources and project documents. Data analysis based on a developed data compatible coding framework and causal relations from textual data sources was used to develop a causal loop diagram depicting the interactions of the triggers which were validated by experts.

The analysis of the causal loop diagrams (CLDs) allowed identification of action points used to suggest changes for improved cost-effective highway project delivery. Among the suggested interventions are ensuring the provision of adequate funding prior to contract award will result in timely delivery of projects and indeed delivering key projects at the contractual agreed budget. This can be achieved through ensuring strict adherence to the provisions of Section 4 (2) (b) of the Nigerian Public Procurement Act, 2007 which stipulates that no contract should be awarded if funds are not available from the onset.

The study was limited to only highway infrastructure projects in Nigeria and as such caution must be taken before using the outcome of the study to other context within Nigeria and beyond.

From a practical point of view, the causal model demonstrates that this study is capable of being used to make pragmatic decisions regarding policy leverages about improving cost performance in highway projects provision in the Nigerian highway infrastructure sector of the construction industry. Moreover, it will aid a clear understanding of the key influencing triggers of cost overrun by the relevant stakeholders within the highway sector of the industry.

The hybrid-based approach applied in the development of CLDs in this study is expected to provide new insight into understanding the linkages, interactions, feedbacks and processes among the key cost overrun triggers and suggesting leverages for cost performance improvement within the philosophy of system thinking.

Interventions to support gender equality in organisations are often unsuccessful. Stakeholders disagree about the causes and problem definition of gender equality or pay lip service to the principle of gender equality, but fail to implement gender equality in practice. The purpose of this paper is to examine participatory modelling as an intervention method to support stakeholders in: reaching a shared problem definition and analysis of gender inequality; and identifying and implementing policies to tackle gender inequality.

The authors apply participatory modelling in case studies on impediments to women’s careers in two Dutch universities.

This study shows that participatory modelling supported stakeholders’ identification of the self-reinforcing feedback processes of masculinity of norms, visibility of women and networking of women and the interrelatedness between these processes. Causal loop diagrams visualise how the feedback processes are interrelated and can stabilise or reinforce themselves. Moreover, they allow for the identification of possible interventions.

Further testing of the causal loop diagrams by quantifying the stocks and the flows would validate the feedback processes and the estimated effects of possible interventions.

The integration of the knowledge of researchers and stakeholders in a causal loop diagram supported learning about the issue of gender inequality, hereby contributing to transformative change on gender equality.

The originality of the paper lies in the application of participatory modelling in interventions to support gender equality.

This paper aims to identify the interaction of different intervention strategies implemented in Malaysia towards flattening the curve of COVID-19 cases. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, many approaches were adopted and implemented by the Malaysian government. Some strategies gained quick wins but with negative unintended consequences after execution, whereas other strategies were slow to take effect. Learning from the previous strategies is pivotal to avoid repeating mistakes.

This paper presents the cause, effect of and connection among the implemented COVID-19 intervention strategies using systems thinking through the development of a causal loop diagram. It enables the visualisation of how each implemented strategy interacted with each other and collectively decreased or increased the spread of COVID-19.

The results of this study suggested that it is not only essential to control the spread of COVID-19, but also to prevent the transmission of the virus. The Malaysian experience has demonstrated that both control and preventive strategies need to be in a state of equilibrium. Focusing only on one spectrum will throw off the balance, leaving COVID-19 infection to escalate rapidly.

The developed feedback loops provided policy makers with the understanding of the merits, pitfalls and dynamics of prior implemented intervention strategies before devising other effective intervention strategies to defuse the spread of COVID-19 and prepare the nation for recovery.

The authors developed a pedagogical framework called the game-based structural debriefing (GBSD) to leverage the affordances of video games for teaching systems thinking. By integrating system dynamics visualization tools within a set of debriefing activities, GBSD helps teachers make systems thinking an explicit goal of the gameplay and learning when they use available educational games in the classroom.

This study uses a design-based research methodology with the goals of validating GBSD and investigating the utility of GBSD across different contexts as a design source to develop game-based curriculum. Over the course of 12 months, the authors conducted one focus group interview and three design workshops with participating teachers and master teachers. Between the workshops, the team rapidly iterated the framework, as well as curricular materials, in collaboration with the teachers.

The authors developed a curriculum unit that integrates systems dynamics visualization tools and a video game for middle school life science ecosystem curriculum. The unit was implemented by the three teachers who participated in the co-design. The implementations confirmed the flexibility of the unit because teachers created additional instructional materials that supplemented the GBSD protocol and addressed the unique limitations and needs of their classrooms.

GBSD builds on system dynamics, which is a distinct academic discipline and methodology, and it uses its visualization tools, which are not widely used in the systems thinking educational literature. GBSD is also unique, in that it applies these tools within the debriefing activities developed for an off-the-shelf educational game. This paper illustrates how a design framework can be used to support teachers’ thoughtful integration of games in curriculum development.

Crowdfunding (CF) is a digital-financial innovation that, bypassing credit crisis, bank system rigidities and constraints of the capital market, is allowing new ventures and established companies to get the needed funds to support innovations. After one decade of research, mainly focused on relations between variables and outcomes of the CF campaign, the literature shows methodological lacks about the study of its overall behavior. These reflect into a weak theoretical understanding and inconsistent managerial guidance, leading to a 27% success ratio of campaigns. To bridge this gap, this paper embraces a “complex system” perspective of the CF campaign, able to explore the system's behavior of a campaign over time, in light of its causal loop structure.

By adopting and following the document model building (DMB) methodology, a set of 26 variables and mutual causal relations modeled the system “Crowdfunding campaign” and a data set based on them and crafted to model the “Crowdfunding campaign” with a causal loop diagram. Finally, system archetypes have been used to link the causal loop structure with qualitative trends of CF's behavior (i.e. the raised capital over time).

The research brought to 26 variables making the system a “Crowdfunding campaign.” The variables influence each other, thus showing a set of feedback loops, whose structure determines the behavior of the CF campaign. The causal loop structure is traced back to three system archetypes, presiding the behavior in three stages of the campaign.

The value of this paper is both methodological and theoretical. First, the DMB methodology has been expanded and reinforced concerning previous applications; second, we carried out a causation analysis, unlike the common correlation analysis; further, we created a theoretical model of a “Crowdfunding Campaign” unlike the common empirical models built on CF platform's data.

The purpose of this paper is to shed light on improving value creation from intellectual capital (IC) through reducing causal ambiguity and finding effective IC interventions.

First, several guiding rules demonstrating the contribution of system dynamics (SD) to the field of IC management are introduced. Second, evidence for modelling resource dynamics is provided across a knowledge-based industry, insurance. Third, a management problem of an insurance company is modelled and then simulated using SD tools to monitor and improve the alignment of key resources with the firm’s market growth strategy.

The modelling and further simulation practice demonstrated the advantages of applying SD for analysing resource management problems to identify the critical IC components, intervention points and decision rules that may stimulate value-creating loops. Specifically for the case of an insurance company’s failure in market growth, it led to recognising the critical role of agency sales productivity as a key component of company’s relational capital and the intellectual liabilities that can lead to value destruction.

Reducing causal ambiguity in IC value creation through modelling and simulating firm resource dynamics is the main contribution of this paper. It enables finding the best intervention points for developing IC-based initiatives to stimulate value-creation mechanisms, as well identifying possible points of value destruction.

Though there has been steady growth in the automobile sector in India, India is still a player of little consequence in global auto production. Despite total quality management (TQM) playing an increasingly important role in the survival and growth of companies in the automobile sector, the dynamic interactions among its subsystems have not received due attention in the literature. Based on the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award model, this paper develops causal relationships among the different variables that represent “enablers” and “results” – operating within 44 identified feedback loops. Of these loops, 33 are positive and 11 are negative. The resulting causal loop diagram provides an insight into understanding the dynamic interactions among TQM subsystems which helps identify proactive action in implementing the TQM philosophy.