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The main purpose of this work is to overcome the difficulty to manage large, dynamic business processes formed from the complicated interplay of business processes of distinct organizations, which take part of strategic alliances of organizations (joint ventures and mergers and acquisitions) and have their software systems as part of complex, large software-intensive systems called Systems of Systems (SoS). Hence, the authors introduce the novel concept of Processes-of-Business Processes (PoP), deepening on their characteristics and related key terms.

Based on the systematically retrieved and analyzed literature and on the authors’ experience from research/industrial projects, the authors defined PoP and have applied them in the Brazilian public health SoS, which involve several organizations and their business processes and their independent software systems as well.

Provided by PoP, a new understanding of the large, dynamic business processes of alliances of organizations is fundamental to advance both the state of the art and the state of the practice on business process management.

The adoption of PoP in other real-world scenarios is still required to get quantitative evidence.

The adoption of PoP can certainly contribute to the success of new businesses and even promoting sustainability and longevity of SoS, which are in fact deeply impacted by business processes.

The concept of PoP can change the mindset of the research community and practitioners about how large, dynamic business processes should be seen and further managed.

Signs of Safety (SoS) is a strengths-based approach to child protection casework that has been widely adopted in countries across the world. The purpose of this paper is to report on a study that aimed to synthesise the many evaluations of SoS that have been conducted to assess their strengths and limitations. The intention is to identify the aspects which should be explored further and those that remain unexamined to inform future evaluations.

The study collated and then examined many of the evaluations that are in the public domain as well as some of those that were conducted within agencies and have not been made publicly available.

At the present time (early 2019), the evidence base for SoS is limited. Independent, robust research needs to be undertaken over time to build on the studies that have been conducted. New research must be designed to fill gaps and be capable of producing the evidence required and it must address its own limitations.

This study is the most comprehensive contemporary review of the evaluations of SoS that have been conducted to the best of the authors’ knowledge.

Forecasting of stock indices is a challenging issue because stock data are dynamic, non-linear and uncertain in nature. Selection of an accurate forecasting model is very much essential to predict the next-day closing prices of the stock indices. The purpose of this paper is to develop an efficient and accurate forecasting model to predict the next-day closing prices of seven stock indices.

A novel strategy called quasi-oppositional symbiotic organisms search-based extreme learning machine (QSOS-ELM) is proposed to forecast the next-day closing prices effectively. Accuracy in the prediction of closing price depends on output weights which are dependent on input weights and biases. This paper mainly deals with the optimal design of input weights and biases of the ELM prediction model using QSOS and SOS optimization algorithms.

Simulation is carried out on seven stock indices, and performance analysis of QSOS-ELM and SOS-ELM prediction models is done by taking various statistical measures such as mean square error, mean absolute percentage error, accuracy and paired sample t-test. Comparative performance analysis reveals that the QSOS-ELM model outperforms the SOS-ELM model in predicting the next-day closing prices more accurately for all the seven stock indices under study.

The QSOS-ELM prediction model and SOS-ELM are developed for the first time to predict the next-day closing prices of various stock indices. The paired t-test is also carried out for the first time in literature to hypothetically prove that there is a zero mean difference between the predicted and actual closing prices.

This paper presents M-PoP, a method to model large, complex, and dynamic business processes. These processes have sometimes resulted from alliances of organizations (i.e. joint ventures and mergers and acquisitions) and are referred to as Processes-of-Business Processes (PoP). Due to the difficulty of modeling these dynamic processes, alliances of organizations have often lost opportunities, competitiveness, and profitability, so requiring suitable modeling methods.

The authors proposed M-PoP that can model PoP through three views in different abstraction levels and using well-known techniques in industry and academia, mainly those from Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN). For this, M-PoP presents three main steps: identification of PoP elements, modeling of PoP, and verification of PoP models. To evaluate M-PoP, we applied it in a real-world business process in the health domain.

The evaluation results point out the capability and viability of M-PoP to deal with dynamic business processes.

M-PoP still needs to be applied in various real-world scenarios to gather evidence of its productivity, efficiency, and scalability.

This novel method could change the way organizations model their business processes and, as a consequence, it could leverage strategic business opportunities.

M-PoP is the first method that makes it possible to model large and complex business processes and, most importantly, dynamic processes.

This chapter elaborates on the usefulness of embracing complexity theory, modeling outcomes rather than directionality, and modeling complex rather than simple outcomes in strategic management. Complexity theory includes the tenet that most antecedent conditions are neither sufficient nor necessary for the occurrence of a specific outcome. Identifying a firm by individual antecedents (i.e., noninnovative vs. highly innovative, small vs. large size in sales or number of employees, or serving local vs. international markets) provides shallow information in modeling specific outcomes (e.g., high sales growth or high profitability) – even if directional analyses (e.g., regression analysis, including structural equation modeling) indicate that the independent (main) effects of the individual antecedents relate to outcomes directionally – because firm (case) anomalies almost always occur to main effects. Examples: a number of highly innovative firms have low sales while others have high sales and a number of noninnovative firms have low sales while others have high sales. Breaking-away from the current dominant logic of directionality testing – null hypothesis significance testing (NHST) – to embrace somewhat precise outcome testing (SPOT) is necessary for extracting highly useful information about the causes of anomalies – associations opposite to expected and “statistically significant” main effects. The study of anomalies extends to identifying the occurrences of four-corner strategy outcomes: firms doing well in favorable circumstances, firms doing badly in favorable circumstances, firms doing well in unfavorable circumstances, and firms doing badly in unfavorable circumstances. Models of four-corner strategy outcomes advance strategic management beyond the current dominant logic of directional modeling of single outcomes.

Relational approaches have become fashionable in a variety of areas from organisational to clinical interventions, however the practical implications of such approaches are still misunderstood. This paper aims to define what we mean by “relational” and explores how understanding and practising a specific type of relational approach is necessary to truly promote social inclusion and recovery. Design/methodology/approach – A hypothetical case study is described giving a practical illustration of how a relational approach would be used in the context of the provision of socially inclusive mental health services.

The paper makes the case for a relational and socially inclusive approach to change. A three‐pronged “SOS” model calling attention to the exploration of Self, Other and Situation is outlined. Most importantly, the model attempts to balance the complex and varying needs of clients, others and the wider situation/community/organisation, as opposed to primarily focussing on individual “fault/lack”.

The paper relies on self‐report methods from a relatively small number of individuals.

The paper challenges a still predominant individualistic paradigm to change. Instead it suggests the need to redirect attention to clients’ existing relational supports to effect quicker and more sustainable change.

The aim of this paper is to identify a way by which the concepts of effects‐based operations (EBO), an approach to problem solving derived from military thought, might be applied usefully to a law enforcement problem, namely methamphetamine in New Zealand.

The study involved analysis of relevant literature in the fields of EBO and systems thinking to identify the core principles for the modelling stage, followed by a series of semi‐structured discussions with subject matter experts to populate the model with relevant and accurate data.

The methamphetamine ecosystem in New Zealand can be modelled using a system‐of‐systems approach, which is the first stage in a broader EBO approach. The model is complex, involves a broad range of processes, actors, and workflows, and can be constantly enhanced as new information comes to light. Follow‐up stages are required to identify potential targeting opportunities, and will be the subject of later articles.

This study is the first, or one of the first, to attempt to use the concept of EBO to attack police problems. It is thus highly original, and could be extremely useful to other analysts seeking new ways to conceptualise problems.

Based on stakeholder and upper echelons theory, this study aims to analyze whether the link between environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance and financial performance is moderated by chief executive officer (CEO) power.

Listed corporations with reference to the German two-tier system (HDAX and SDAX) for the business years 2010-2018 (775 firm-year observations) have been included. Fixed effects panel regression analysis was conducted to analyze the link between ESG performance (in total and its three pillars) and financial performance (ROA), with special reference to the interaction of a CEO power index.

While ESG performance has a positive impact on financial performance, the link is more pronounced by CEO power. Thus, in line with prior research on the one-tier system, CEO incentives can positively contribute to the CSR-business case in the German two-tier system. The results remain constant after conducting several robustness checks.

A key contribution to the empirical CSR literature can be stated, as the moderating role of CEO power in the ESG–financial performance link is rather neglected in prior studies. Thus, corporate governance and sustainability should be classified as interactive aspects for the business case of a successful stakeholder management.

This study aims to focus on environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance as a whole and individually in its three pillars and their influence on earnings management.

Companies listed on the German Prime Standard (DAX30, TecDAX and MDAX) for the business years 2011-2017 (548 firm-year observations) are included in the empirical quantitative study. A correlation and regression analysis is conducted to analyze the impact of ESG performance as determined by the Asset4 database of Thomson Reuters on accruals-based earnings management (AEM) and real earnings management (REM).

ESG performance has a negative influence on AEM but not on REM. Moreover, by dividing the three different factors of ESG performance, governance performance has the strongest negative impact on AEM in comparison to environmental and social performance. This study also suggests a bidirectional relationship between ESG performance and earnings management.

The analysis makes a key contribution to research as the link between ESG performance and their three components and earnings management are analyzed for the German two-tier system for the first time. Corporate practice, regulators and researchers should recognize that ESG performance and financial reporting should be discussed together.

The present study sheds light on the role of strategic orientations (SOs) in explaining business growth. The purpose of this paper is to examine how different SOs, namely learning orientation, entrepreneurial orientation, market orientation and brand orientation simultaneously affect business performance measured with brand performance, market performance and business growth in SME context and whether these effects vary across countries.

An extensive data set of 1,120 effective responses is collected from two European countries, namely Hungary, representing a post socialist rapidly growing market, and Finland with a stable, highly developed and competitive economy. A multigroup moderation analysis is conducted. Confirmatory factor analysis is used in testing measurement invariance, subsequently followed by structural equation modeling procedure used in testing research hypotheses developed on the basis of a literature review.

The results show that entrepreneurial orientation, market orientation and brand orientation have a positive effect on business growth in SMEs in both Hungary and Finland through brand and market performance. With regard to learning orientation, a positive yet somewhat weak effect on growth is found only in the Hungarian sample. The moderation analysis reveals that country moderates several of the hypothesized paths from SOs to business performance.

Prior studies on SOs have mainly focussed on single orientations at any given time. However, researchers increasingly argue that many firms are better off if they build their strategies on multiple SOs. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first empirical studies to address multiple (four) SOs in the same research model. Furthermore, little is known about if and how the performance effects of different SOs vary across countries.