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The purpose of this paper is to introduce the necessary background information and literature in order to make this special issue self‐contained.

The paper comprises: an Introduction; Section 2 outlines the origin of the yoyo structure by presenting a brief historical account and the concept of whole evolution of systems; Section 3 introduces the literature on applications of the systemic yoyo model in areas of natural science, social science, epistemology, and practical disastrous weather forecasts; and Section 4 outlines what is contained in this special issue.

A personal account of aspects of a career in systems research and description of a personal ambition to introduce laws for social science and laws that make both natural and social sciences exact at the same time.

With regard to the systemic yoyo model, this paper presents an introduction to what has been accomplished by using this model and what will be presented in this special issue in order to provide all interested colleagues with an overall picture in terms of where the paper stands in the relevant research activities.

The paper aims to show the existence of the systemic yoyo structure in human thoughts so that the human way of thinking is proven to have the same structure as that of the material world.

Parallel comparison is used to reveal the underlying structure existing in human thoughts.

After highlighting all the relevant ideas and concepts, which are behind each and every crisis in the foundations of mathematics, it becomes clear that some difficulties in the authors' understanding of nature are originated from confusing actual infinities with potential infinities, and vice versa. By pointing out the similarities and differences between these two kinds of infinities, then some hidden contradictions existing in the system of modern mathematics are handily picked out. Then, theoretically, using the authors' yoyo model, it is predicted that the fourth crisis in the foundations of mathematics has appeared. And, a plan of resolution of this new crisis is provided.

This paper shows the first time in history that human thought, the material world, and each economic entity, share a common structure – the systemic yoyo structure. And it proves the arrival of the fourth crisis in mathematics by using systems modeling and listing several; contradictions hidden deeply in the foundations of mathematics.

The purpose of this paper is to present the use of artificial immune systems (AISs) to solve constrained design optimization problems for active magnetic bearings (AMBs).

This research applies the AIS approach, more specifically, a representative clonal selection-based AIS called CLONALG, to the single-objective structural design optimization of AMBs. In addition, when compared with a genetic algorithm (GA) developed in the previous work, the CLONALG fails to produce best solutions when a nearly zero feasible ratio occurs in an AMB design problem. Therefore, an AIS called ARISCO (AIS for constrained optimization) is proposed to address the above issue.

A total of six AMB design cases are solved by the GA, CLONALG, and ARISCO. Based on the simulation results, in terms of solution quality, the ARISCO is shown to have better overall performance than the CLONALG and GA. In particular, when solving a problem with a nearly zero feasible ratio, the ARISCO and GA perform equally and both outperform the CLONALG.

In summary, the contributions of this paper include: this research applies the AIS approach, more precisely, the CLONALG, to the single-objective structural design optimization of AMBs; the ARISCO overall produces better AMB designs than the CLONALG and a GA developed in the previous work; in situations where a nearly zero feasible ratio occurs, the ARISCO and GA perform equally, and they both outperform the CLONALG.

The purpose of this paper is to explain the difference of national intellectual capital from the perspective of national culture and to illustrate how national leaders or policy-makers increase their country’s national intellectual capital.

The study conducts a descriptive analysis combining the research outcome of Lin and Edvinsson’s (2011) national intellectual capital with Hofstede’s (2001) national culture. The research findings and results of these two studies were compared before running a t-test to determine whether countries with relatively high national intellectual capital have a higher level of certain national culture.

Based on the matching data of 26 countries, the study proposed that countries with certain national culture possess lower intellectual capital. Countries with high intellectual capital tend to exhibit a common culture of low power distance, weak uncertainty avoidance, and individualism.

The study suggests that for a country to enhance its overall intellectual capital, it should strive for a culture of equality, freedom and safety, and an active competitive environment, while avoiding social class distance in order to eliminate insecurity. The study proposes some suggestions to advance the countries’ national intellectual capital. In addition to admit the weakness of their intellectual capital due to cultural reasons, these countries could go a step further to increase their own national intellectual capital by increasing or enhancing certain national cultures if possible.

The study compares national intellectual capital and national culture and finds the relationship between these two sets of constructs. This study proves that national culture not only influences the strategies or behaviors of business level but also the competitiveness of national levels.

This study aims to address policy, implementation and management, the three stages of inclusive open space. It compares both the level of design and implementation of open space in Beijing, Hong Kong and Taipei by following the inclusive guidelines. It also identifies recommendations for policy, implementation and management of inclusive open space and its facilities.

Field observations were conducted in 27 parks within three cities. In-depth interviews were conducted with a variety of participants, including visually impaired persons, government officers, representatives of non-governmental organisations, local communities and experts.

Most of the so-called inclusive environments and facilities have not been user-friendly in actual practice. The findings suggest that policies are an essential precondition; however, implementation and management must not be ignored because they ensure the effectiveness of inclusive design.

Comprehensive and continuous studies on the proposed framework are recommended throughout the policy, implementation and management processes.

The findings serve as a reference and direction for taking a holistic approach to inclusive design of open space in densely populated cities.

This study examines the levels of inclusive open space and illustrates how to provide barrier-free environments that can be used by the widest spectrum of people.

This study evaluates policy, implementation and management in the three cities based on 29 guidelines generated from seven principles of inclusive design. A research framework is proposed for researchers and policymakers to consider how to achieve effective inclusive open spaces.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the customer- and firm-focused driving factors, relationship quality (RQ), and identification on customer citizenship behaviors (CCB) on corporate social networking sites (SNS), as well as the impact of service attribute in such relationship.

A survey was conducted among the Facebook members of 7-Eleven (318) and Starbucks (316) in Taiwan to test the proposed framework. A structural equation modeling was used to test the validity of the research model and hypotheses.

The results reveal that SNS RQ and SNS identification are key factors affecting CCB, whereas financial bond (firm-focused) and consumer-company identification (customer-focused) are critical initiators. The findings reveal contingencies across service attributes for such effects. Experienced service firms can better encourage CCB by intimating SNS relationships with followers. Search firms should secure online identification to enable customers to perform CCB. The results also confirm the mediating effects of SNS RQ and SNS identification.

This study contributes to the literature by simultaneously examining the firm (external)- and individual (internal)-level of incentives, and to further reveal the main drivers encouraging CCB on corporate SNS. This study also belongs to the limited studies that discuss consumer voluntary behaviors on the corporate SNS. The results shed light on the existence of a contingency role for service attribute on SNS, and further suggest how firms with distinct attributes can effectively allocate their limited resources when encouraging CCB on SNS.

This study aims to explore the information needs of Chinese parents of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and how these needs evolve as their children develop.

This study collated 17,122 questions regarding raising children with ASD via the Yi Lin website until November 2021.

The information needs of parents of children with ASD were classified into two categories: 1) Cognition-motivation: related to children with ASD; and 2) Affection-motivation: related to their parents. Child development causes the adaptation of information needs of these parents. Within the first three years, nine different topics of these parents' information needs were identified. Major information needs at this stage are as follows: intervention content, intervention methods and pre-diagnosis questions. During the ages of three to six years, there were 13 topics of information needs for parents, focusing on three areas: intervention content, intervention methods and diagnosis and examination. There are eight topics of information needs post six years. Parents are more concerned with the three topics of intervention content, life planning and intervention methods.

This novel study indicates the complex and changing information needs of parents of children with ASD in China. It may enhance the understanding of the information needs of these parents at theoretical and practical levels, provide support for them to understand their own information needs and provide a reference for relevant government and social organisations to provide targeted information services for them.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-04-2022-0247

The purpose of this paper is to build a new transformational leadership typology by demonstrating high/low degrees of group- and individual-focused transformational leader behaviors – authentic type (high-high), group-oriented type (high-low) and individual-oriented type (low-high) – and to predict that the three types relate differently to follower responses (intention to sacrifice, cognitive trust of supervisor and affective liking).

This study uses an experimental scenario to generate the maximum levels of between-group variance among the three types. A total of 182 mainland Chinese full-time employees participated in the experiment.

Followers’ intention to sacrifice is equally high under the authentic, group-oriented and individual-oriented types of leadership. In addition, followers’ cognitive trust of supervisor is equally high under the authentic and group-oriented types and the lowest under the individual-oriented type. Finally, followers’ affective liking is equally high under the authentic and individual-oriented types and the lowest for the group-oriented type.

A new transformational leadership typology that combines high and low degrees of group- and individual-focused behaviors is established. Based on this typology, this study shows how the three types distinctively affect followers’ reactions, including intention to sacrifice, cognitive trust of supervisor and affective liking.

The purpose of this paper is to reveal the mechanism underlying three fascinating problems that have been investigated by many first class scholars in sociology throughout history.

The thinking logic and figurative method of the general systemic yoyo model, combined with laboratory experiments, are collectively employed to present a brand new methodology for the study of three unsettled problems in the research of civilizations.

The paper provides novel explanations for such fascinating but unsettled problems as: what factors determine whether a civilization is to live or die? What brings prosperity to a specific geographic region? How does a new emerging or reviving civilization adopt elements of existing or other civilizations to build or reconstruct its own organizational structure?

This paper presents how laws and conclusions developed in systems science in general and the systemic yoyo model in particular can bring forward tangible results in social science with solid scientific merits. Considering the importance of the conclusions drawn in this paper, it is expected that this paper will produce results that can be truly useful for policy makers at national and international levels.

The purpose of this paper is to reveal the mechanism underlying many inexplicable phenomena observed in social organizations and human history by using the general systemic yoyo model.

Such traditional tools as laboratory experiments, calculus‐based methods, quantitative reasoning of microeconomics, and set‐theoretical logic are collectively employed to present a brand new method for the study of many unsettled problems in the research of civilizations.

Among a whole series of open problems, novel explanations are provided for important questions like: how do civilizations or cultures form? Why did Western democracy not originate in Eastern Asian or other parts of the world? Why does each blown‐up that it bridges a transition between organizational expansion and contraction represents a weakest link in the evolution of a social entity? Why are there nation states within a civilization? Why is the Western civilization having multiple centers or core states, while the Sinic civilization has one core state and the Islamic civilization does not seem to have any core states? How can policy makers separate civilizations from each other?

This work presents how systems science in general and the systemic yoyo model in particular can bring forward tangible results in social science with solid scientific merits. Owing to the novelty of reasoning and sound conclusions derived on solid scientific foundations, it is expected that this work will produce such results that can be truly useful for policy makers at national and international levels.