Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

All Outputs (13)

Designing interagency responses to wicked problems: A viable system model board game (2023)
Journal Article
Sydelko, P., Espinosa, A., & Midgley, G. (2024). Designing interagency responses to wicked problems: A viable system model board game. European journal of operational research, 312(2), 746-764. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2023.06.040

Government agencies struggle to address wicked problems because they are open-ended, highly interdependent issues that cross agency, stakeholder, jurisdictional, and geopolitical boundaries. While both quantitative modelling and qualitative problem s... Read More about Designing interagency responses to wicked problems: A viable system model board game.

Designing interagency responses to wicked problems: Creating a common, cross-agency understanding (2020)
Journal Article
Sydelko, P., Midgley, G., & Espinosa, A. (2021). Designing interagency responses to wicked problems: Creating a common, cross-agency understanding. European journal of operational research, 24(1), 250-263. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2020.11.045

Wicked problems are open-ended, highly interdependent issues that cross agency, stakeholder, jurisdictional, and geopolitical boundaries. In response, there has been advocacy for interagency working. However, this confounds conventional approaches to... Read More about Designing interagency responses to wicked problems: Creating a common, cross-agency understanding.

A systemic integration approach to designing interagency responses to wicked problems (2017)
Conference Proceeding
Sydelko, P., Midgley, G., & Espinosa, A. (2017). A systemic integration approach to designing interagency responses to wicked problems. In Proceedings of the 61st Meeting of the International Society for the Systems Sciences (23-54)

Wicked problems are open-ended, highly interdependent issues that cross agency, stakeholder, jurisdictional, political and geopolitical boundaries. This confounds governments because policies and budgets tend to be aligned within these boundaries an... Read More about A systemic integration approach to designing interagency responses to wicked problems.

Complexity management and multi-scale governance : a case study in an Amazonian indigenous association (2017)
Journal Article
Espinosa, A., & Duque, C. (2018). Complexity management and multi-scale governance : a case study in an Amazonian indigenous association. European journal of operational research, 268(3), 1006-1020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2017.07.049

Even if Community Operational Research provides methodologies and tools to support community development, there are no published works illustrating how we can support an assessment of self-governance in an indigenous community using COR tools. In thi... Read More about Complexity management and multi-scale governance : a case study in an Amazonian indigenous association.

Sustainability management : insights from the viable system model (2015)
Journal Article
Panagiotakopoulos, P. D., Espinosa Salazar, A. M., & Walker, J. (2016). Sustainability management : insights from the viable system model. Journal of cleaner production, 113, 792-806. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.11.035

A review of current literature on sustainability standards reveals a significant gap between their adoption and the implementation of sustainability into every level of the organisation. In this paper, it is argued that in order to overcome this chal... Read More about Sustainability management : insights from the viable system model.

Integrated sustainability management for organizations (2015)
Journal Article
Panagiotakopoulos, P., Espinosa, A., & Walker, J. (2015). Integrated sustainability management for organizations. Kybernetes, 44(6/7), 984-1004. https://doi.org/10.1108/K-12-2014-0291

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose the Viable System Model (VSM) as an effective model to base the analysis of organizational sustainability (long-term viability). It is specifically proposed as a model to integrate the various sustai... Read More about Integrated sustainability management for organizations.

Governance for sustainability: learning from VSM practice (2015)
Journal Article
Espinosa, A. (2015). Governance for sustainability: learning from VSM practice. Kybernetes, 44(6-7), 955-969. https://doi.org/10.1108/K-02-2015-0043

Purpose – While there is some agreement on the usefulness of systems and complexity approaches to tackle the sustainability challenges facing the organisations and governments in the twenty-first century, less is clear regarding the way such approach... Read More about Governance for sustainability: learning from VSM practice.

Complexity management in practice : a Viable System Model intervention in an Irish eco-community (2012)
Journal Article
Espinosa, A., & Walker, J. (2013). Complexity management in practice : a Viable System Model intervention in an Irish eco-community. European journal of operational research, 225(1), 118-129. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2012.09.015

While soft OR tools offer specific solutions to manage complexity in organisations, little is known concerning soft OR tools to deal with self-organisation in communities. This paper describes an action research project where the authors facilitated... Read More about Complexity management in practice : a Viable System Model intervention in an Irish eco-community.

Management science methodologies in environmental management and sustainability: discourses and applications (2011)
Journal Article
Paucar-Caceres, A., & Espinosa, A. (2011). Management science methodologies in environmental management and sustainability: discourses and applications. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 62(9), 1601-1620. https://doi.org/10.1057/jors.2010.110

This paper investigates and discusses the use of systemic methodologies (SMs) developed in management science/operational research (MS/OR), in particular, those SM that have been informing the complexity inherent in environmental management and susta... Read More about Management science methodologies in environmental management and sustainability: discourses and applications.

Towards an Holistic Framework for Environmental Change: The Role of Normative Behaviour and Informal Networking to Enhance Sustainable Business Practices (2009)
Journal Article
Espinosa, A. (2009). Towards an Holistic Framework for Environmental Change: The Role of Normative Behaviour and Informal Networking to Enhance Sustainable Business Practices. Systemic practice and action research, 22(4), 275 - 291. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11213-009-9123-2

The term 'Sustainable Development' is brandished by modern businesses as a marketing ploy used to suggest evidence of ethical conduct, innovative thinking and moral superiority. However, when analysing an organisations' adoption of sustainable practi... Read More about Towards an Holistic Framework for Environmental Change: The Role of Normative Behaviour and Informal Networking to Enhance Sustainable Business Practices.

A complexity approach to sustainability - Stafford Beer revisited (2008)
Journal Article
Espinosa, A., Hamden, R., & Walker, J. (2008). A complexity approach to sustainability - Stafford Beer revisited. European journal of operational research, 187(2), 636-651. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2007.03.023

There is wide acceptance of the need for a more holistic approach to sustainability. However, practical solutions remain elusive and tend to exhibit underlying conflicts between different paradigms and their associated methodologies. This paper argue... Read More about A complexity approach to sustainability - Stafford Beer revisited.