Factors affecting the adoption of systems thinking

Abstract

Systems' thinking has received considerable attention over the last several decades; however, the adoption of systems thinking as an approach to creating competitive advantages is still lagging. The objective of this research is to test whether the adoption of systems thinking leads to an organization's competitive capabilities and the quality of the products produced. An investigative model linking the organizational factors of systems thinking (i.e., institutional efficacy, self‐efficacy, organizational and environmental evolution, and organizational culture and climate) to the organization's competitive capabilities and quality of the products is proposed. Structural equation modelling is used to test the model. Thirteen hypotheses are tested, of which seven are accepted. The sample consists of 130 organizations. Six constructs (i.e., institutional efficacy, self‐efficacy, organizational and environmental evolution, organizational culture and climate, competitive capabilities, and the quality off products) are tested, providing important lessons for managers and researchers in systems thinking.

A pathological analysis of challenges related to systems thinking studies in Iran

“…To ensure that interviews are transcribed in full, the transcription of each interview was sent to the respective interviewee and was used in the research once it was confirmed by the interviewees. (Ackoff, 2006;Masys, 2016;Shukla, 2018;Siriram, 2020) (c) Application and implementation of research (Masys, 2016;Shukla, 2018;Siriram, 2020) 3. What are your suggestions for improving studies based on systems thinking?…”

“…This question was asked in order to reduce the identified challenges and improve the situation (Ackoff, 2006;Siriram, 2020) 4 | FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION…”

“…Many factors are considered to be enablers of systems thinking adoption in organizations: institutional efficacy (institutionalization of systems thinking in organization), self-efficacy of individuals (to make individuals more confident for the use of systems thinking), organizational culture and climate and organizational and environmental evolution. Lack or deficiency of these factors will create different challenges (Siriram, 2020).…”

“…Over the last decades, systems thinking has received great attention; however, taking systems thinking as an approach to create competitive advantage is not well considered in organizations yet (Siriram, 2020). Many researchers (e.g.…”

“…Checkland, 1999Checkland, , 2000Chen, 2016;Jackson, 2006Jackson, , 2010Ormerod, 2016) focused on the theory of systems thinking, whereas other researchers (e.g. Galanakis, 2006;Haynes et al, 2020;Pazicni & Flynn, 2019;Siriram, 2020) focused more on the application of systems thinking. These few examples indicate the contribution of systems thinking in both theory formulation and practice.…”