Soft Systems Dynamics Methodology: a Combined Systemic Approach in Entrepreneurship Researches

Document Type : علمی - پژوهشی

Authors

1 Professor at Business Creation Department, Entrepreneurship Faculty, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

2 Associated Professor at Business Creation Department, Entrepreneurship Faculty, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

3 PhD Candidate at Business Creation Department, Entrepreneurship Faculty, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Entrepreneurship is a complex and multilevel phenomenon, based on critical realism, complex phenomena such as entrepreneurship occur in open systems and act at different levels of reality; in order to study of the exact nature of such phenomenon, it is necessary to use the appropriate methodology. The core of entrepreneurship is new venture creation, which could be defined as a dynamic process and an open system; that phenomenon drived from interactions of individual, organizational, and environmental elements, and are affected by various factors. The purpose of this research is to introduce and present a combined systemic methodology for entrepreneurship researches and especially studies related to new venture creation, that done by narrative reviewing systemic methodologies in the field of business. Since entrepreneurship involves both mental aspects and visible and measurable aspects; therefore, to studying it, can not only use soft systems thinking and soft system methodology, or hard systems thinking and system dynamics. Thus in entrepreneurship researches, for the modeling of the entrepreneurship process in the form of a dynamic system, can use the soft systems dynamics methodology that has developed from the combination of the soft systems methodology and system dynamics in recent decades.

Keywords

References

1. Bhaskar, R., (2010), Contexts of interdisciplinarity: interdisciplinarity and climate change, In Interdisciplinarity and climate change (pp. 15-38), Routledge.
2. Borshchev, A., & Filippov, A., (2004, July), “From system dynamics and discrete event to practical agent based modeling: reasons, techniques, tools”, In Proceedings of the 22nd international conference of the system dynamics society, (Vol. 22), Oxford.
3. Boulding, K., E., (1956), “General systems theory—the skeleton of science”, Management science, 2(3), 197−208.
4. Checkland, P., B., (1980), “The systems movement and the “failure” of management science”, Cybernetics and Systems, 11(4), 317−324.
5. Checkland, P.,B., (1981), Systems Thinking, Systems Practice, Wiley, Chichester, UK.
6. Checkland, P., (1983), “OR and the systems movement: mappings and conflicts”, Journal of the Operational Research Society, 34(8), 661−675.‏
7. Checkland, P., (2000), “Soft systems methodology: a thirty year retrospective”, Systems research and behavioral science, 17(S1), S11−S58.
8. Checkland, P., & Poulter, J., (2006), Learning for action: a short definitive account of soft systems methodology and its use, for practitioners, teachers and students, John Wiley and Sons Ltd.
9. Checkland, P., & Poulter, J., (2010), “Soft Systems Methodology”, In Systems approaches to managing change: A practical guide (pp. 191−242), Springer, London.‏
10. Davidsson, P., & Gordon, S., R., (2012), “Panel studies of new venture creation: a methods-focused review and suggestions for future research”, Small Business Economics, 39(4), 853−876.
11. Dean, B., V., Nagel, B., I., & Osland, A., (2005, July), “Entrepreneurial system: application to silicon-valley nanotechnology companies”, In A Unifying Discipline for Melting the Boundaries Technology Management, (pp. 433−443), IEEE.
12. Davidsson, P. (2005), “Method issues in the study of venture start-up processes”, Entrepreneurship research in Europe: Outcomes and perspectives, 35−54.
13. Fairtlough, G., H., (1991), “Habermas' concept of “Lifeworld”, Systems practice, 4(6), 547−563.‏
14. Forrester, J., W., (1968), “Industrial dynamics—after the first decade”, Management Science, 14(7), 398−415.
15. Forrester, J., W., (1994), “System dynamics, systems thinking, and soft OR”, System dynamics review, 10(2‐3), 245−256.
16. Forrester, J., W., (2010), “System dynamics: the foundation under systems thinking”, Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Revised from a paper of June 8, 1999.
17. Gartner, W., B., (1985), “A conceptual framework for describing the phenomenon of new venture creation”, Academy of management review, 10(4), 696−706.
18. Gartner, W., B., (1988), “Who is an entrepreneur? is the wrong question”, American journal of small business, 12(4), 11−32.
19. Gartner, W., B., (1990), “What are we talking about when we talk about entrepreneurship?”Journal of Business venturing, 5(1), 15−28.
20. Gartner, W., B., Bird, B., J., & Starr, J., A., (1992), “Acting as if: Differentiating entrepreneurial from organizational behavior”, Entrepreneurship theory and practice, 16(3), 13−32.
21. Green, B., N., Johnson C., D., & Adams, A., (2006), “Writing Narrative Literature Reviews for Peer-Reviewed Journals: Secrets of the Trade”, Journal of Chiropractic Medicine, 5 (3), 101−117.
22. Hassard, J., (1991), “Multiple paradigms and organizational analysis: A case study”, Organization Studies, 12(2), 275−299.
23. Ireland, R., D., & Webb, J., W., (2007), “A cross-disciplinary exploration of entrepreneurship research”, Journal of management, 33(6), 891−927.
24. Jackson, M., C., (1982), “The nature of soft systems thinking: the work of Churchman, Ackoff, and Checkland”, Journal of applied systems analysis, 9, 17−29.
25. Jackson, M., C., & Keys, P., (1984), “Towards a system of systems methodologies”, Journal of the operational research society, 35(6), 473−486.
26. Jackson, M., C., (1991), “Creative problem solving: Total systems intervention”, In Systems methodology for the management sciences, (pp. 271−276), Springer, Boston, MA.‏
27. Jackson, M., C., (2003), Systems thinking: Creative holism for managers: Wiley, Chichester.
28. Jackson, M., C., (2006), “Creative holism: a critical systems approach to complex problem situations”, Systems Research and Behavioral Science: The Official Journal of the International Federation for Systems Research, 23(5), 647−657.
29. Landstrom, H., & Sexton, D., L., (Eds.)., (2000), The Blackwell handbook of entrepreneurship, Blackwell Business.
30. Lane, D., C., & Oliva, R., (1998), “The greater whole: Towards a synthesis of system dynamics and soft systems methodology”, European Journal of Operational Research, 107(1), 214−235.
31. Lin, C., H., Tung, C., M., & Huang, C., T., (2006), “Elucidating the industrial cluster effect from a system dynamics perspective”, Technovation, 26(4), 473−482.‏
32. Low, M., B., & MacMillan, I., C., (2007), Entrepreneurship: Past research and future challenges. In Entrepreneurship (pp. 131−154), Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
33. Mingers, J., (1997), “Multi-Paradigm Multimethodology”, In Mingers, John and Gill, Anthony, eds, Multimethodology: Theory and Practice of Combining Management Science Methodologies, Wiley, Chichester, pp. 1−20.
34. Mingers, J., (2006), Realising systems thinking: Knowledge and action in management science, Springer Science & Business Media.
35. Moroz, P., W., & Hindle, K., (2012), “Entrepreneurship as a process: Toward harmonizing multiple perspectives”, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 36(4), 781−818.
36. Paucar-Caceres, A., & Rodriguez-Ulloa, R., (2007), “An application of soft systems dynamics methodology (SSDM)”, Journal of the Operational Research Society, 58(6), 701−713.
37. Reynolds, M., & Holwell, S., (2010), “Introducing systems approaches”, In Systems approaches to managing change: A practical guide, (pp. 1−23), Springer, London.‏
38. Rodríguez-Ulloa, R., A., (1999), “Soft system dynamics methodology—SSDM: a tool for social systems analysis and design”, In 43rd international meeting of the International Society for the Systems Sciences, USA.
39. Rodriguez-Ulloa, R., & Paucar-Caceres, A., (2005), “Soft system dynamics methodology (SSDM): combining soft systems methodology (SSM) and system dynamics (SD)”, Systemic Practice and Action Research, 18(3), 303−334.
40. Rodríguez-Ulloa, R., A., Montbrun, A., & Martínez-Vicente, S., (2011), “Soft system dynamics methodology in action: A study of the problem of citizen insecurity in an Argentinean province”, Systemic Practice and Action Research, 24(4), 275−323.
41. Simon, H., A., (1967), “The business school a problem in organizational design”, Journal of management Studies, 4(1), 1−16.
42. Spilling, O., R., (1996), “The Entrepreneurial System: On Entrepreneurship in the Context of a Mega-Event”, Journal of Business Research, 36(1), 91−103.
43. Sterman, J., D., (2001), “System dynamics modeling: tools for learning in a complex world”, California management review, 43(4), 8−25.‏
44. Tranfield, D., Denyer, D., & Smart, P., (2003), “Towards a Methodology for Developing Evidence-informed Management Knowledge by Means of Systematic Review”, British Journal of Management, 14 (3), 207−22.
45. Van de Ven, H., (1993), “The development of an infrastructure for entrepreneurship”, Journal of Business venturing, 8(3), 211−230.
46. Ulloa, R., & Caceres, P., (2004, July), “Soft System Dynamics Methodology: A Combination of Soft Systems Methodology and System Dynamics”, In Proceedings of 2004 Conference of System Dynamics Society Held in Keble College, Oxford, England, (pp. 25−29).
47. Williams, B., & Hummelbrunner, R., (2010), Systems concepts in action: a practitioner's toolkit, Stanford University Press.‏
48. Woods, C., R., (2006), “Asking the entrepreneur: An enquiry into entrepreneurial behaviour”, Personal Construct Theory and Practice, 3(1), 1−11.‏
49. Yearworth, M., (2010, July), “Inductive modelling of an entrepreneurial system”, In Proceedings of the 28th International Conference of the System Dynamics Society, Seoul, Korea, (pp, 25−29).‏
50. Zexian, Y., & Xuhui, Y., (2010), “A revolution in the field of systems thinking—a review of Checkland's system thinking, Systems Research and Behavioral Science: The Official Journal of the International Federation for Systems Research, 27(2), 140−155.
51. Zolfagharian, M., Romme, G., & Walrave, B., (2016, January), “Combining system dynamics modeling with other methods: a systematic review”, In Proceedings of the 59th Annual Meeting of the ISSS−2015 Berlin, Germany, 1(1).
52. Zolfagharian, M., Romme, A., G., L., & Walrave, B., (2018), “Why, when, and how to combine system dynamics with other methods: Towards an evidence-based framework”, Journal of Simulation, 12(2), 98−114.

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics