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The purpose of this conceptual article is to examine the role of villainification and heroification in social studies through critically analyzing the author’s place-based encounters with three civil war narratives.

The article describes the author’s critical reflections on three narratives involving confederate figures and examines theoretical and pedagogical implications.

The article introduces a spectrum of ethical judgments which plots villainification and heroification on opposing ends. The author advocates for more nuanced ethical judgments that contextualize decisions as understandable or defensible based on evidence. The term understandable reflects a concept of being able to explain (i.e. demonstrate understanding) why a curricular figure made certain choices without agreeing with or supporting those choices. The term defensible denotes the existence of evidence that provides a rationale for a choice such that the person making the ethical judgment would feel comfortable making (i.e. defending) the same choice.

The article introduces a theory of nuanced ethical judgments in social studies that maps onto existing literature on heroification, villainification and place-based education. Pedagogical implications for social studies education are also identified.

The aim of this paper is to improve the understanding of strategies for how established companies can respond to disruptive innovation, handle increasing complexity, facilitate entrepreneurial culture and processes and successfully manage organizational ambidexterity.

A qualitative multiple-case study was conducted to explore successful practices of innovation ambidexterity (IA) and their organizational design, entrepreneurial culture and mindset, processes and leadership. Two internationally established firms that have launched and established IA programs provided deep insight, revealing their strategy and learning on the path toward effective IA.

The findings show that accepting and managing the inherent complexity increases within an ambidextrous organization strategy is a decisive factor in achieving effective IA. As a result, segmenting small organizational units and granting them extensive autonomy is proposed for managing the complexity of an organization while increasing its effectiveness. Furthermore, it is shown that this helps foster entrepreneurial culture, mindsets and processes as additional mediators for achieving effective IA. Coaching, empowerment and trust were identified as key factors of ambidextrous leadership values that encourage entrepreneurial behavior and decision-making.

To the best of the authors knowledge the first study connecting the research fields of complexity management, organizational ambidexterity theory and entrepreneurial culture while applying the fundamentals of systems theory to propose a practical management framework for successfully responding to disruptive innovation.

The purpose of this study is to investigate if a firm's exchange complexity profile (that is, the linkages between the firm and its environment) influences investor behavior at the negotiation table where a firm valuation is derived.

The authors utilize Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). Specifically, the authors utilize fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), a QCA variant that allows the researcher to assign graduated membership in sets.

When the authors dichotomize their positions as either higher stakes that favor the seller (high capital, low equity, high valuation) or lower stakes that favor the buyer (low capital, high equity, low valuation), and when the authors focus primarily on the equity outcome, the authors find that investors adopt a reductionist stance that adheres to a transaction cost economics logic under conditions of lower stakes and higher complexity as well as higher stakes and lower complexity conditions. The authors interpret this to mean that equity serves as a counter-balancing lever for a firm's exchange complexity configuration.

On a theoretical level, the authors showcase the exchange complexity framework and differentiate its position within the extant frameworks that address a firm's competitive advantage. More generally, the authors note that this framework brings the discipline of micro-economics and the field of strategic management closer together, providing scholars with a new tool enabling research across industries for the portfolio level of analysis.

Service organizations operate in an increasingly complex and uncertain context that makes decision-making challenging. Despite well-recognized changes in the operational context of government as service organization, service literature has given surprisingly limited attention to what these changes imply for organizational decision-making. This study aims to face with the lack of fit of decision-making theorizing with the reality, within which most service practitioners operate, in order to foster the relevance of decision-making in service research and properly approach the false assumptions and misguided instructions for action.

To rectify the situation, the purpose of this paper is to advance a more holistic understanding of decision-making in government as service organization. The authors do so by reviewing the sparse, though insightful, prior literature on decision-making in service research and identifying four foundational assumptions of decision-making in the service context, that radically differ from the traditional assumptions of decision-making within the wider management literature.

The authors contribute to service research by further advancing the emerging dynamic understanding of decision-making by developing eight systems thinking-informed research propositions and a connected research agenda. In doing so, the paper offers the essential ground work that can revitalize the field of service management and equip it for facing the challenges that government as service organization is encountering in the 21st century.

The formulated eight research propositions demonstrate that decision-making in a government as service organization occurs within complex adaptive systems composed of multiple subsystems and is characterized by a high degree of unpredictability. It is a process influenced by multiple actors part of the system and subsystems, through multiple feedback loops, where the implications of prior decisions inform the future decisions.

How can managers reduce information asymmetry in dyadic manager-external stakeholder relationships in a complex and evolving environment? Addressing this question has significant implications for firm survival, growth, and competitive advantage.

We have adopted a multiparadigm approach to theory building, known as metatriangulation. We integrate the dynamic capabilities, sensemaking, and evolutionary theory literatures to theorize how managers can relate to stakeholders in a complex and evolving environment.

We propose, via a conceptual framework and three propositions, “evolutionary sensemaking” as the managerial metacognitive dynamic capability that helps managers hone their understanding based on the evolutionary changes in the stakeholder’s interpretations of information quality preferences. The framework unfolds across three evolutionary stages: sensing preferences' variation of the stakeholder, seizing preferences, and transforming for complexity alignment and retention. The propositions focus on managing complexity in stakeholder information quality preference, employing cognitive capabilities to simplify, interpret, and align interpretations for effective information asymmetry reduction.

To develop the metacognitive dynamic capability of evolutionary sensemaking, managers need to train for and foster the underlying complex cognitive capabilities by enhancing their (1) perception and attention skills, (2) problem-solving and reasoning skills, and (3) language, communication, and social cognition skills, focusing specifically on reducing the complexity embedded in stakeholder cognition and diverse stakeholder preferences for information quality. Contrary to the current advice to “keep things simple” and provide “more” information to the stakeholders for opportunism reduction, trust-building, and superior governance, our framework suggests that managers hone their cognitive capabilities by learning to deal with the underlying complexity.

The proposed framework and propositions address research gaps in reducing information asymmetry. It enriches the dynamic capabilities literature by recognizing complexity (as opposed to opportunism) as an alternative source of information asymmetry, which needs to be addressed in this stream of research. It extends the sensemaking literature by identifying the complexity sources – i.e. stakeholder preferences for diverse information quality attributes and the associated cognitive preference interpretation processes. The article enhances evolutionary theory by delving into microprocesses related to information asymmetry reduction, which the existing literature does not thoroughly investigate.

Based on the reception of the principle of self-organization, the core of Heinz von Foerster's operational theories, I hypothesize how Heinz von Foerster's theory can be an orientation model for the epistemological problem of complexity. I have chosen this study to demonstrate complexity as an epistemological problem. This is because the question of how order arises - the core problem of complexity - is an epistemological question for which Heinz von Foerster developed an epistemology of self-organization. I do not present new research because HvF already had the complex organization of systems in mind. Rather, I build a critical approach to complexity on the research and work on operational epistemology in HvF.

This article aims to provide an orientation for a philosophical and epistemological understanding of complexity through a reading of Heinz von Foerster's operational theory. The article attempts to establish complexity as an epistemological phenomenon through the following method: (1) a conceptual description of the science of complexity based on the turn to thermodynamic time, (2) a genealogy of complexity going back to the systemic method, and (3) Heinz von Foerster's cybernetic approach to self-organization.

Based on the reception of the principle of self-organization, the core of Heinz von Foerster's operational theories, the conclusion is drawn that complexity as a description is based on language games.

The results present complexity not as an object of science, but as a description that stands for the understanding of complex description.

The hypothesis that complexity is a question of description or observation, i.e. of description for what language serves, has enormous social implications, in that the description of complexes and the recognition of their orders (patterns) cannot be left to algorithmic governmentality, but must be carried out by a social agency.

HvF's operational epistemology can serve as an epistemological model for critical complexity theory.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of risk culture on employee performance by exploring the mediating roles of employee satisfaction and employee engagement in the relationship between risk culture and employee performance.

The study employed partial least squares-based structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to assess both the direct effects and mediation effects, using a sample of 311 employees from the banking and insurance sectors. In contrast to PLS-SEM, a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) technique was also applied to discern the causal configurations that lead to improved employee performance.

The findings revealed a significant direct effect of risk culture on employee performance, employee satisfaction and employee engagement. The findings also revealed that employee satisfaction significantly mediated the relationship between risk culture and employee performance, whereas the mediating role of employee engagement is partially significant. The fsQCA findings illustrated that a diverse combination of risk culture dimensions, employee satisfaction and employee engagement can result in enhanced employee performance.

This study provides important implications for the banking and insurance industries, suggesting that organizations should prioritize the development of a strong risk culture to improve employee-related outcomes such as performance, satisfaction and engagement, which are key factors for achieving optimal organizational success.

The paper specifically highlights the importance of integrating risk culture into human resource management, providing valuable insights for organizations seeking to enhance their risk management practices and culture.

The purpose of this paper is to perform a thorough analysis of the literature on the parameters of sustainability of the micro-enterprises. It seeks to provide an organizing framework to identify research gaps and future directions. Using data from Web of Science and Scopus, the study offers insights into key trends, authorship and thematic shifts, informing future research design and positioning.

Researchers used a systematic review methodology, gathering data from Web of Science and Scopus databases. R Studio software facilitated bibliometric analysis. This study scrutinized research papers to construct an organizing framework and identify thematic trends in sustainability parameters for micro-enterprises.

The review presents a comprehensive overview of sustainability parameters in micro-enterprises, revealing significant research trends, key authors, countries and journals. It identifies gaps and suggests future research directions, aiding in the design and positioning of forthcoming studies in this domain.

Limitations may include the scope of databases accessed and potential biases in the selected literature. Future studies could explore additional databases or incorporate qualitative analyses for deeper insights into sustainability parameters in micro-enterprises.

This study offers practical insights for policymakers, practitioners and researchers by highlighting key sustainability parameters in micro-enterprises. It informs decision-making processes concerning resource allocation, policy formulation and support mechanisms for sustainable development.

Understanding sustainability parameters in micro-enterprises has significant social implications, particularly for vulnerable groups like craftsmen, women and young entrepreneurs. By addressing these parameters, interventions can enhance livelihoods and contribute to broader socio-economic development.

By providing a thorough analysis of sustainability factors in micro-enterprises and applying bibliometric analysis to shed light on research trends, this paper adds to the body of literature. Its organized framework identifies gaps and guides future research, offering value to scholars, policymakers and practitioners invested in sustainable development at the grassroots level.

The COVID-19 pandemic started a new era in understanding the topic of resilience and adaptability. The human society has not faced such a widespread global challenge until now. This paper aims to address a context change influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, using a case study in high education. While the character of the issues emerging is the same as in any other domain, in high education, the principles and consequences can be more directly studied and analyzed.

This paper describes a framework to evaluate how the context of the tertiary education service has been disrupted and the influence on the adherence of the students to the educational process, via primary quantitative data collection. This paper tackles the problem of distinguishing the change in context and context change and the possibility of system reconfiguration.

To properly face the evolving conditions induced by the pandemic, the education service system must be aligned to the imposed emergency situations, trying to “find” where the changes have emerged, i.e. what kind of reconfiguration is, whether it appears in the goals or in the service system itself. Furthermore, this study discusses how the findings can be valuable and applied to situations beyond the pandemic, in other cases of context disruption to highlight how general the service activities are within our reconfiguration approach.

From a theoretical point of view, this work is in line with main assumptions of system thinking, by confirming several insights of service systems’ behavior, even in a logic of B2B interactions (from the offer side); first in terms of openness and adaptation, in addition to readiness to change and – when and how – this change can occur. From a practical point of view, this paper’s contribution is directed toward achieving the more successful change management process, as reached together by motivated partners working hard for a common final goal. Realizing that the pandemic has brought a completely new context of education, managers should focus now on monitoring all aspects of the education business, not only directly affected projects and processes.