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The concept of smart city has recently become more topical in academic and policy discussions. This idea is considered a complex, non-consensual subject since its definition has not yet been agreed upon by most authors in the relevant fields. The need to identify and measure smart city indicators has also given rise to many different evaluation procedures. However, the available frameworks have yet to overcome challenges in structuring and measuring all the evaluation parameters of the cities in question. Thus, methods still need to be developed and applied that can structure criteria used to assess smart city success.

This study sought to show cognitive mapping's tangible usefulness as an expedient tool for strategic analysis, using smart cities as a complex object of study. To this end, various cognitive maps were constructed and compared using the Strategic Options Development and Analysis (SODA) approach.

Cognitive mapping's advantages and limitations in the strategic visualization research context are analyzed and discussed.

The authors know of no prior work reporting comparative analysis of this methodological approach in the same research context.

The prosthodontics sector is facing major challenges because of scientific and technological advances that imply a clearer definition of lines of action and decision making processes. Measuring quality of service in this sector is a complex decision problem since the perceptions of three main players need to be considered: patients, dentists and dental technicians. This study sought to develop an artificial-intelligence-based (AI-based) method for assessing service quality in the dental prosthesis sector.

Using strategic options development and analysis (SODA), which is grounded on cognitive mapping, and the measuring attractiveness by a categorical based evaluation technique (MACBETH), a constructivist decision support system was designed to facilitate the assessment of service quality in the dental prosthesis sector. The system was tested, and the results were validated both by the members of an expert panel and by the vice-president of the Portuguese association of dental prosthesis technicians.

The methodological process developed in this study is extremely versatile and its practical application facilitated the development of an empirically robust evaluation model in this study context. Specifically, the profile analyses carried out in actual clinics allowed the cases in which improvements are needed to be identified.

Although already applied in the fields of AI and decision making, no prior work reporting the use of SODA and MACBETH for assessing service quality in the prosthodontics sector has been found.

The 2008 global financial crisis showed that the ability to innovate is a key management skill and that approaches to assessing the innovation capability of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) need to be as realistic as possible. This study aims to address the latter practical need through a sociotechnical approach.

Based on a combined use of cognitive mapping and the Decision EXpert (DEX) technique, and grounded on the insights generated by a panel of SME managers and entrepreneurs in two intensive group meetings, a knowledge-based assessment system for evaluating SMEs’ innovation capability was created, tested and validated.

The knowledge-based assessment system identified the most innovative SMEs in a sample of companies. The “plus-minus-1” and dominance analyses carried out provided further support for the results.

The proposed system is extremely versatile but process-oriented and idiosyncratic in nature, meaning that extrapolations to other contexts need to be done with due caution.

The panel of SME decision makers agreed that the system improves the current methods used to evaluate SMEs’ innovation capability, contributing to a more informed perspective on management issues. The panel members also noted that the proposed system functions as a learning mechanism, facilitating the development of well-focused suggestions for improvements SMEs can make.

The integrated use of cognitive maps and rule-base decisions contributes to a better understanding of how to assess SMEs’ innovation capability. No prior work reporting the integrated use of these two techniques in this study context has been found.

This paper reviews the underpinning principles and scientific trends of cybernetics and the viable system model (VSM). Therefore, this paper aims to guide authors and managers active in management cybernetics and to inform them about the past, current and future trends in this discipline.

This paper adopts both qualitative and quantitative methods. First, a descriptive and qualitative approach is used to review and analyze management cybernetics historical trends. Then, a frequency analysis (quantitative) is conducted on the 1,000 first publications in the field.

The cybernetics was emerged in the Josiah Macy conference in 1946. Then, Wiener introduced the field of cybernetics and Ashby, Von Foerster and McCulloch developed this concept as a discipline. The Management cybernetics field that was introduced by Beer is a combination of system, control and management sciences. Beer presented VSM as an operational model in this area. Analyzing the 1,000 top-ranked publications shows that the introduction of this field reached maturity and further development became relatively mature. Moreover, based on the analyzed trends, VSM model application can now be strongly attractive. In this paper, the main journals, authors and research trends are analyzed. The main application area of this model is in the IT field and large-scale organizations.

The present paper’s implication for practitioners and researchers is guiding authors and managers to most appropriate studies in the field, so that they can produce and use the most efficient studies in this field.

The fields of IT, Policy-Making, Production, Social Issues, Service industry, Software developers, etc., are some of this paper’s implications for industry and society.

In this paper, the steps of VSM development are investigated. Then, recent trends (classifications, authors, journals and topics analysis) are surveyed by analyzing the top 1,000 publications in this field. This paper would help researchers find more appropriate research fields. In addition, it helps practitioners find the optimum solutions based on management cybernetics for their problems among vast numbers of publications.

The purpose of this study is to formulate exploratory scenarios of Operations Research through the critical uncertainty approach and Soft Systems Methodology.

In this study, to formulate plausible scenarios, the discipline of operation research internal and external experts’ opinions of this field have been gathered through Delphi approach and uncertainty questionnaires. After use of the most important uncertainties, plausible scenarios of operations research have been mapped with the help of experts through co-thinking workshops.

Four scenarios are presented in this study. These scenarios include Solar System, Esfandiar's Eye, Rival’s Setraps and Legendary Simurgh. Naturally, the imagination of such a unitary future for all academic communities is an expectation far from reality, and given the conditions of each of these futures or any integration of them is imaginable.

Operations Research models have been faced with variously multiple changes since its emergence until now. Investigation into the future of operations research on the necessity for his planning has not received a reasonable notice in the literature. Sporadic activities that have been carried out are also lacking in the necessary methodology. Also, there has been no research about future study using the soft Operation Research tools (Soft Systems Methodology).

Action research (AR) is not without its critics, and those who reject some of the paradigmatic assumptions embodied in AR maintain that AR is little more than consultancy, that it is impossible to establish causal relationships, that it is difficult to generalize from AR studies, that there is a risk of researcher bias, and that generally speaking, it lacks some of the key qualities that are normally associated with rigorous research. The authors are sensitive to such criticisms, for although they are committed action researchers, they have elsewhere voiced their concerns about the quality of AR practice in the field of information systems. The authors argue that part of the issue concerns the way in which we currently conceptualize AR. In this article, the argument for a deeper and more reflective analysis of the meaning and full implications of AR is developed, culminating in a model of AR being developed that explicitly includes both a problem solving interest cycle and a research interest cycle. Important implications of this new model are articulated, with examples to illustrate these points being drawn from a real‐life AR study.

The purpose of this study is to observe Intellectual Capital (IC) dynamics “in practice” through a temporal lens by considering IC as an on-going process, and thus taking into consideration its life cycle and how it changes over time.

A longitudinal case study has been investigated by adopting a participant observation approach to understand how the dynamics of IC are understood in practice.

This study spotlights three main conceptions of IC dynamics (value creation, IC activities and organizational change) which, although generally proposed in literature as separable concepts, do co-exist and interact, in practice as is reflected in the related managerial tools.

The main limitations of this study are twofold. The first is related to the methodology adopted and in particular, to the participant observation approach. The second is related to the specifics of the case study undertaken. This paper contributes to the literature on “Intellectual Capital in action” and “Intellectual Capital in practice” by enriching the understanding of IC dynamics.

By comparison to the extant literature in which the IC dynamics concepts are considered separately, this study combines the three different concepts and examines them in vivo, adopting a longitudinal perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to study the mechanical response of polyurea, soda-lime glass (glass, for short), polyurea/glass/polyurea and glass/polyurea/glass sandwich structures under dynamic-loading conditions involving propagation of planar longitudinal shockwaves.

The problem of shockwave generation, propagation and interaction with material boundaries is investigated using non-equilibrium molecular dynamics. The results obtained are used to construct basic shock Hugoniot relationships associated with the propagation of shockwaves through a homogeneous material (polyurea or glass, in the present case). The fidelity of these relations is established by comparing them with their experimental counterparts, and the observed differences are rationalized in terms of the microstructural changes experienced by the shockwave-swept material. The relationships are subsequently used to predict the outcome of the interactions of shockwaves with polyurea/glass or glass/polyurea material boundaries. Molecular-level simulations are next used to directly analyze the same shockwave/material-boundary interactions.

The molecular-level simulations suggested, and the subsequent detailed microstructural analyses confirmed, the formation of topologically altered interfacial regions, i.e. polyurea/glass and glass/polyurea interphases.

To the authors’ knowledge, the present work is a first attempt to analyze, using molecular-level simulation methods, the interaction of shockwaves with material boundaries.

This study aims to question the conventional wisdom that brands compete for customers, especially in mature industries such as soft drinks. Rather than engaging in price wars or promotion wars, brands coexist in the markets by focusing on their own brand loyal customers.

Consumer panel data of carbonated beverages are examined using Markov chains to measure switching between two brands: Coke and Pepsi. Switching rates are conducted for all Coke households (n = 10,474) and Pepsi households (n = 7,227). This is further examined with respect to heavy half (upper median) consumers of each brand who make up approximately 86 per cent of volume purchases.

Households that made a majority of their purchase volume in either Coke or Pepsi products stayed with their preferred brands in subsequent quarters: 85 to 97 per cent of households. These findings are validated at all levels of the brand architecture (family brands, product brands and modified brands), even though both brands engage in similar marketing mix tactics (advertising, price cuts, distribution, product offerings). Loyalty was even higher among the heavy user households.

The research was conducted using two well-known brands in a mature industry. Services or non-mature markets may exhibit different loyalty patterns.

The study extends prior research on competition, loyalty and branded offerings to show that brand loyalty remains high despite marketing efforts to switch the brand buying behavior.

This descriptive case study applies economic concepts to an issue of public policy, and helps build students’ critical thinking, analytical and quantitative skills. The case addresses a variety of topics typically taught in microeconomics and public economics courses. Topics most prominently represented in the case include elasticity of demand and supply, tax policy, tax incidence and negative externalities. Theoretical basis for each topic is laid out in the discussion section of the instructors’ manual, along with insights from student responses. The core nature of the concepts covered in this case study allows it to be integrated with common economics textbooks.

This descriptive case is based on critical economic analysis of secondary sources.

This case study focuses on the imposition of the controversial “soda tax” on sweetened beverages in the City of Philadelphia in 2017 and considers the economic lessons that can be learned from Philadelphia’s experience with the tax. The tax was proposed as a way to raise the city’s revenue while reducing obesity. After the tax was enacted, the sales of sweetened beverages declined in the city, but increased outside the city’s borders. The receipts from the tax have been below projections.

Learning outcomes covered by the case are typical for a microeconomics, public economics or managerial economics course. The appropriate course levels range from the principles to the MBA level of the economics and business curriculum. Discussion questions may be selected to fit a specific course focus and level. The instructors’ manual outlines question sets suitable for various types of economics courses.