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This paper sought to validate a proposed e-service use model that takes into account system's environment and user factors as plausible determinants of an information system's (IS) use that are not accounted for by previous IS use models. The aim is to establish the applicability of the model for e-services and IS design, implementation and use.

This study adopts a quantitative approach to data collection and analysis. Using a systematic multi-stage random sampling, data were collected from 400 university e-library users and analysed using regression analysis to test the hypothesised relationships.

Internal system factors (particularly service quality), user satisfaction, e-service environment factors and user factors (gender, programme of study, level of study and computer/IT self-efficacy) predicted the use of e-services. These findings are partly similar to and partly different from those of the earlier studies, suggesting that more studies are needed to test the comprehensive model of e-services’ use.

This is a replicated study and as such made use of a similar population. These findings, therefore, cannot be generalised to other organisations with users of different demographic profiles.

First, the use of the services provided through an IS is predicted by factors other than user satisfaction, system, service and information qualities. Second, system administrators, designers, library administrators and managers must ensure that these factors are considered during the design, implementation and use of ISs.

The paper argues for the need to design e-services and ISs with consideration for user attributes that may lead to social exclusion if not considered. This is because the environment where an IS is hosted can be a driver of e-services use, especially if management provides the enabling environment in terms of optimal staffing, training, user support and periodic e-service evaluation.

This paper extends research effort in understanding the predictors of use of ISs beyond the traditional system's attributes (information, service and system qualities) to include system environment and user factors.

Viable system model (VSM) is a powerful tool mainly used to describe, solve and control systems’ complex problems autonomously. It enables systems to be flexible so that they can survive by rapidly responding and adapting their behaviors to any expected or even unexpected changes in the surrounding environment. This study aims to provide a literature review of the VSM as a conceptual framework for designing viable systems, and its applications in the field of higher education (HE).

The review is based on explaining “What is organizational cybernetics?”, clarifying the principles of the VSM as a rational model for designing viable organizations, discussing its drawbacks and the extended VSM, and then presenting a literature review of VSM applications in HE based on papers mainly published from 1993 to 2017.

Although there are many contributions provided by applying the VSM in HE, the previous developed models used Beer’s framework with its drawbacks without referring to some important factors neglected within it which are discussed in this review.

The study presents a summary of previous research on this topic and clarifies the essential issues needed to be addressed to design viable systems. Based on the gaps identified in the literature, some issues have been emphasized to be addressed in future research.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce ecotones to the service literature as a conceptual extension of the service ecosystem (SE) framework.

To synthesise the contribution, an illustrative empirical case study with research of nine organisations and their service systems is developed.

Boundaries connect systems with their environment. Ecotone, a concept from natural ecosystems, provides a useful concept representing the boundary zones between adjacent systems, supporting emergent phenomena. The authors find that a service ecotone emerges through the interactions occurring at the intersections of relational, technological and institutional boundaries of two unique SEs. The case demonstrates ecotone edge effects – the unique landscape and diversity of actors and their roles – which play a role in the co-evolution of the separate SEs.

The ecotone concept provides an understanding of SE boundaries, helping practitioners understand the complex environments they operate. Developing strategy in complex ecosystems requires a clear understanding of where the boundaries of dependence and interdependence lie. The ecotone concept helps practitioners to develop responsiveness and resilience to their environment and take advantage of resources that may be currently unrecognised.

The authors introduce the ecotone concept and integrate it with service theory. This paper develops service ecotones for understanding the relationship between different systems that influence their functioning and development. Thus, ecotones suggest new avenues for understanding the diversity and roles of actors, and how new structural properties, resources and practices come to be through the tensions and interactions created in these complex boundaries of SEs.

Students of organizations are beginning to recognize the importance of continuous learning in organizations, but to date the concept is not well understood, particularly in terms of how the learning of individuals is related to the learning that takes place in groups, which is related to the learning that occurs in organizations (and all other combinations). To further our understanding, we offer the idea of continuous learning in organizations from a living system's perspective. We view individuals, groups, and organizations as living systems nested in a hierarchy. We propose that living systems can learn in three ways: they can adapt, they can generate, and they can transform. Learning triggers from the environment spark learning, and this relationship is moderated by the system's readiness to learn. Readiness to learn is a function of the permeability of the system's boundaries, the system's stage of development, and the system's meta-systems perspective. Additional research questions are presented to explore learning flow between levels and to determine how the match between one system's pressure for change and another system's readiness to learn affects the emergence of adaptive, generative, and transformative learning. In addition, research questions are offered as a means to test these ideas and build grounded theory. Finally, using this model, the chapter presents three case studies and suggests diagnostic questions to analyze and facilitate continuous learning from a multi-level perspective.

This paper aims to argue that the current environment in which the Islamic banking system is situated is not ideal for the system’s pursuance of its socioeconomic ideals, thus necessitating the system’s shift from pursuing falah to maximizing profits.

The paper theorizes and conceptualizes this shift from falah to profit maximization using two complementary theories – systems theory and institutional theory – to prove that such a shift is not unexpected. The paper further adopts a dialectical analysis that is somewhat historical to analyse the shift.

The measure of the Islamic banks’ performance in terms of their social ideals is misplaced, as the environment in which they currently operate does not support such goals. Thus, stemming from the theoretical base, the Islamic banks’ pursuance of profit maximization instead of falah should not be unexpected. The paper concludes that despite the unfavorable environment, the social ideals of the Islamic banking system may still be met, to an extent, through investment in microfinance and awqaf.

The paper adopts document analysis for sourcing data majorly from prior studies. Hence, the authors do not conclude that the analysis herein is applicable to all Islamic banks. Secondly, as the authors could not get a complete historical account of the Islamic banking system’s development, some aspects of the dialectical analysis – contradiction and change – have been discussed in a general fashion.

The need for Islamic banks in the current environment, especially for the Muslim population, cannot be over emphasized; however, the achievement of falah given this current environment may be daunting.

The current analyses of the shift of Islamic banks from pursuing falah to pursuing profit maximization are not well-defined, as they lack a proper theorization of the challenges faced by Islamic banks. This paper fills this gap.

The intention of this article is to show possible contributions of the concept of autonomous cooperation to enable complex adaptive logistics systems (CALS) to cope with increasing complexity and dynamics and therefore to increase the systems' information-processing capacity by implementing autopoietic characteristics. In order to reach this target, the concepts of CALS and autopoietic systems will be introduced and connected. The underlying aim is to use the concept of self-organization as one of their essential similarities to lead over to the concept of autonomous cooperation as the most narrow view on self-organizing systems, which is discussed as a possible approach to enable systems to handle an increasing quantity of information. This will be analyzed from both a theoretical and an empirical point of view.

The paper considers model‐based management and, based on it, proposes a heuristic‐based management. This paper aims to assert that heuristic‐based management, for complex systems, a process of free variation, of pairs of models and actions – called organisational strategies, maximizes the chances of improving the system's performance in open environments.

A conception of complex systems are introduced and characterized as open and self‐organising systems. Then, the proposal to heuristically use pairs of models and actions, called organisational strategies, to manage social systems based on evolutionary thought is supported. Subsequently, a computational experiment is proposed to show that, even in a simple framework, variation processes are required.

The paper shows that two processes may be required to preserve self‐organising systems. This finding indicates that variation and selection processes, related to evolutionary thought, are necessary for managers to deal with complex systems interacting with complex environments. Finally, it is shown that, even in simple computational environments, variation may be required.

The paper is the first part of an ongoing research agenda on the subject of heuristic‐based management and only refers to variation processes.

The paper links complex systems theories to evolutionary thought. It also relates principles of cybernetics to those of game theory. The proposal has been formalized based on these relations, and has been called heuristic‐based management. Principles first developed in information theory, organisational cybernetics, and evolutionary thought are used so that a complex system can be effective when interacting with a complex environment.

Describes issues relevant to multilevel systems and, as a particular case, living systems analysed from the entities point of view. As attributes, behaviours, sub‐systems, etc., entities are primitive terms. For this reason, in examining issues such as the influences between entities, look indirectly at issues referring to different levels in the system. This notion was also extended in considering the environment system and analysing the different relationships between the system and the environment system.

With the wide spread of the ubiquitous environment, it is necessary to provide adequate multimedia communication services for various users under various networked environments. In such situations, it is essential to organize multimedia software components dynamically to provide necessary services for effective service provision based on the system's operational environment during the run time of the system. The purpose of this paper is to propose a new scheme for observing and controlling behavior of the QoS‐aware agent organization, which provides a flexible QoS control of multimedia service components.

Two models are proposed in this paper: a flexible distributed system (FDS) model and a behavioral characteristics model (BCM), which were applied to the design of network middleware constructed as a QoS‐aware agent organization. Experiments were performed using the middleware prototype system.

Results confirmed that the proposed models provide an effective scheme for designers of multimedia communication services.

This paper shows that using the FDS model, a multiagent system can be designed and constructed systematically. In addition, using BCM, a multiagent system with flexible QoS control capability can deal with changes of the system's operational situations and thereby maintain the required QoS as well as its behavioral characteristics.