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The purpose of this paper is to bring the concept of a “hierarchy of action”, as it is currently being used in other fields, into library and information science (LIS).

Hierarchy theory is adopted to describe three hierarchies of action, which include the human processes of semantic and social innovation, as well as a system of biological interpretence, from which human processes are thought to have evolved as a development of biosemiosis in nature. By way of example, it is argued that a text is a complex achievement, and hierarchy theory shows how to account for this complexity; the everyday definition of “text” is augmented with accounts from different levels of observation.

The concept of a hierarchy of action enables a person to account for a text as a meaning/symbolic product; include in that account the processes whereby texts are produced and used; and say why these processes are important to the health of the biosphere that is called home.

“Hierarchy of action” has been developed as a concept in biology and ecology; it belongs to a way of thinking whereby human reality, like nature, is construed as dynamical processes operating in symbiotic relationship with each other; it has not yet been adopted in LIS with reference to hierarchy theory and its potential is yet to be explored.

Based on a typology of contextualized multiple thinking, this paper aims to elaborate how the levels of thinking (data, information, knowledge, and intelligence), and the types of thinking as a whole, can be used to profile the characteristics of multiple thinking in organizational learning, re‐conceptualize the nature of creativity in organizational action and thinking, and provide a new systematic framework to broaden the possibilities and approaches to developing multiple thinking and creativity in organizational action and learning in education and other sectors.

The paper presents a theoretical framework of multiple thinking and creativity in organizational learning.

Based on the typology of contextualized multiple thinking, a new theoretical framework can be proposed to facilitate understanding and development of multiple thinking and creativity in organizational learning and to enhance the effectiveness of action of individuals and organizations in education and other sectors in a complicated context.

The theoretical framework provides a new direction and new strategies for conceptualizing research, development and practice, designed to promote thinking, creativity and effectiveness in organizational action and learning in education and other sectors in a new era of globalization and great transformation.

Green supply chain management (GSCM) has received growing attention in the last few years. Almost all industries including mining industries are hit by green fever. In this context, this study aims to identify various challenges faced by the Indian mining industries during GSCM implementation and practices and to represent in a hierarchical manner.

Various barriers and contextual relationships among them have been identified. Classification of barriers has been carried out based upon dependence and driving power (DP) with the help of MICMAC analysis. In addition to this, a structural model of the barriers to GSCM practices in Indian mining industries has been put forward using interpretive structural modelling (ISM) technique.

In the present work, 11 numbers of relevant barriers have been identified from literature and subsequent discussions with experts from academia and industry. Lack of environmental awareness, poor legislation and inadequate pressure from societies positioned at the bottom of the hierarchy are found to be the key barriers. These barriers have high DP and less dependence.

A model of these barriers has been developed based upon expert's opinions and literature survey. This model is not statistically validated. This model also does not quantify the adverse effect of each of the variables on GSCM practices in Indian mining industries.

The development of a hierarchy helps in the classification and categorization of the barriers, and thereby formulates their respective strategies and policies while providing clarity of thought. Also this hierarchy facilitates the allocation of resources in a rational manner at the time of scarcity of resources and to achieve the maximum benefits of the available resources.

The structured model developed will help to understand interdependence of the barriers. Using ISM, this paper has developed a hierarchy of these barriers which is useful to identify the hierarchy of actions to be taken for handling different barriers.

Operating procedure synthesis (OPS) has been used to generate plant operating procedures for chemical plants. However, the application of AI planning to this domain has been rarely considered, and when it has the scope of the system used has limited it to solving “toy” problems. This paper describes the application of state‐of‐the‐art AI planning techniques to the generation of operating procedures for chemical plant as part of the INT‐OP project at the Universities of Salford and Loughborough. The CEP planner is outlined and its application to a double effect evaporator test rig is discussed in detail. Particular attention is paid to the issues involved in domain modelling, requiring the description of the domain, development of AI planning operators, the definition of safety restrictions, and the definition of the problem. There is then a presentation of the results, lessons learned and problems still remaining.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the institutional context of the entrepreneurial discovery of blockchain applications.

This paper draws on institutional and entrepreneurial theory to introduce the economic problem entrepreneurship in the early stages of new technologies, examines the diversity of self-governed hybrid solutions to coordinating entrepreneurial information and draws policy implications.

To perceive a valuable and actionable market opportunity, entrepreneurs must coordinate distributed non-price information under uncertainty with others. One potential class of transaction cost economising solution to this problem is private self-governance of information coordination within hybrids. This paper explores a diverse range of entrepreneurial hybrids coalescing around blockchain technology, with implications for innovation policy.

This paper points to the problem of how the defining of the innovation problem as either choice-theoretic or contract-theoretic changes the remit of innovation policy. Innovation policy and blockchain policy should extend beyond correcting sub-optimal investments or removing barriers to action, to incorporate how polices impact entrepreneurial choices over governance structures to coordinate information.

The Institute for the Future (IFTF) has collaborated with the Rockefeller Foundation and its Searchlight function to create a framework for broad engagement in strategic thinking about ways to catalyze change in the lives of poor or vulnerable communities. This paper seeks to focus on this broad‐based approach.

Starting from the top‐down horizon scan of the foundation's Searchlight partners – a network of horizon scanning organizations – IFTF created a public database of signals of innovation and disruption in the domain of poverty and social change. This signals database was used to build a visual map of catalysts for change, creating a simple hierarchy of four catalyst types, each containing four action zones and a pivotal challenge. This map provided the language and framework for engaging a global community in a serious game to extend the vision of the Searchlight function and capture novel ideas for innovations that could improve the lives of those in marginalized communities.

With an estimated global reach of 160,000 views and 1,600 game players from 79 countries, the game produced more than 18,000 ideas about catalysts for change.

This framework of foresight (the signals database) to insight (the visual map of catalysts for change) to action (global strategic game) demonstrates a way to integrate top‐down expert foresight with bottom‐up strategic ideation on a global scale.

This paper aims to better understand how accountability for sustainability takes shape within organisations and specifically, what makes employees act in a Swedish local authority. This aim moves beyond the prevalent external face of accountability in social and environmental accounting research by observing how employees understand and act upon their multiple accountability demands.

This paper adopts a single case study approach within a Swedish local authority, drawing from qualitative data including semi-structured interviews, site visits and governing documents.

Sustainable action is not only the product of hierarchically enforced structural accountabilities and procedures but often must be reconciled with the personal perspectives of the public sector employees involved as part of an accountability dynamic. Additionally, the findings reveal that hierarchical accountability, rather than serving to individualise and isolate employees, acts as a prompt for the more practical and personal reconciliations of accountability with the ethics and experiences of the individual involved.

Greater consideration to employee socialisation processes in public sector organisations should be given to reinforce organisational governance systems and controls, and thus help ensure sustainable behaviour in practice.

Employee socialisation processes are important for the development of sustainable practices both within and beyond organisational boundaries.

This study considers the interrelatedness of hierarchical and socialising accountability measures and contributes towards the understanding of the relationship between these two accountability forms, contrary to previous understandings that emphasise their contrasting nature and incompatibility.

Today the role of industry 4.0 plays a very important role in enhancing any supply chain network, as the industry 4.0 supply chain uses Big Data and advanced analytics to inform the complete visibility. Latest data are available to bring clarity and support real-time decision-making in the entire supply chain that’s why adopting optimization techniques such as lean manufacturing and lean supply chain concept for enhancing the supply chain network of the organizations is a good idea and would benefit them in increasing their cost efficiency and productivity. The purpose of this work is to develop a technique, which may be useful for future researchers and managers to identify and classification of the significant lean supply chain enablers.

In this paper, the authors considered hybrid analytical hierarchy process to find the ranking of the identified lean supply chain enablers by calculating their weightage. Interpretive structural modeling (ISM) is applied to develop the structural interrelationship among various lean supply chain management enablers. Considering the results obtained from ISM the Matrices d'Impacts Croises Multiplication Appliqué a un Classement (MICMAC) analysis is done to identify the driving and dependence power of Lean Supply Chain Management Enablers (LSCMEs).

Further, the best results applying these methodologies could be used to analyze their inter-relationships for successful Lean supply chain management implementation in an organization. The authors developed an integrated model after the identification of 20 key LSCMEs, which is very helpful to identify and classify the important enablers by ISM methodology and explore the direct and indirect effects of each enabler by MICMAC analysis on the LSCM implementation. This will help organizations optimize their supply chain by selective control of lean enablers.

For lean manufacturing practitioners, the result of the study can be beneficial where the manufacturer is required to increase efficiency and reduce cost and wastage of resources in the lean manufacturing process, as well as in enhancing the supply chain.

This paper is the first research paper that considered firstly deep literature review of identified lean supply chain enablers and second developed structured modeling of various lean enablers of supply chain with the help of various methodologies.

The purpose of this article is to consider the meaning of “reductionism” within the context of renewed efforts to make library and information science philosophy.

This article argues that the question of reductionism, as discussed in other traditions of thought, is relevant to the conversation about development of new library and information science (LIS) philosophy. Based on the viewpoint that one can be opposed to philosophical reductionism yet still be in favour of science, some forms of reductionism are described and links are drawn to library and information science by way of examples.

How reductionism is defined and understood should be addressed in the efforts to make new LIS philosophy.

Being “non‐reductionist” can be a stance in its own right, as evidenced by broader transdisciplinary conversations, but this is yet to be considered at any depth in LIS.