A FRAMEWORK FOR THE SYSTEM DESIGN PROCESS1

Much discussion and writing about “systems” is often superficial, glib, and of a non-operational nature. This paper presents a cohesive framework for the process of system design which is felt to be of operational value in the design and management of systems. The framework's central tenet is that all systems are made up of entities and the relationships among the attributes of those entities; and that in designing systems, two processes are used, inclusion and structuring. Inclusion is concerned with what entities to include in a system and structuring with how their attributes are to be related. The system design process is directed or driven by a set (system) of criteria. Systems must be viewed with a time dimension: evolution will and should take place, both in the systems themselves and, more importantly, in the criteria that drive the design and evolution of those systems. In this framework, all problem solvers can usefully regard themselves as system designers. Presentation of the framework is followed by examples, discussion of the criteria set, system design tools, and some implications for teachers and practitioners.     

Global Public Social Science

Burawoy's classification of the complementary aspects of the discipline of sociology is used to describe an emergent global public social science that will assist transnational social movements in the building of a democratic and collectively rational global commonwealth.     

IDENTIFYING THE EFFECT OF OPEN ACCESS ON CITATIONS USING A PANEL OF SCIENCE JOURNALS

An open‐access journal allows free online access to its articles, obtaining revenue from fees charged to submitting authors or from institutional support. Using panel data on science journals, we are able to circumvent problems plaguing previous studies of the impact of open access on citations. In contrast to the huge effects found in these previous studies, we find a more modest effect: moving from paid to open access increases cites by 8% on average in our sample. The benefit is concentrated among top‐ranked journals. In fact, open access causes a statistically significant reduction in cites to the bottom‐ranked journals in our sample, leading us to conjecture that open access may intensify competition among articles for readers' attention, generating losers as well as winners. (JEL L17, O33)     

AN EQUILIBRIUM POLITICO-ECONOMIC MODEL

A politico-economic model is developed in which rationally formed forecasts are available to all traders. Systematic government policy is neutral, but a large majority of the electorate, those who adopt rationally formed forecasts but do not know the model, hold the government responsible for the economy's performance. Real and political shocks generate novel feedback effects due to anticipated regime changes. These feedback effects may amplify or dampen the initial shocks; this depends on whether the government follows a high or low monetary growth rate rule and whether inflation or unemployment is the main concern of the electorate.     

ICTs and Remembering the 200th Anniversary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade in Britain: An Occasion for Celebration or Remorse?

This paper will take the 2007 commemoration of the bicentenary of the abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade by the United Kingdom as a case study to explore some of the dynamics that are generated when Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are used to shape social memory. Halbwach's proposition that memory is the product of a social group poses a fascinating challenge to many of the individualistic assumptions of the Western philosophical tradition. ¹ One of the major weaknesses of this theory, however, is that it says little about how memories are passed on within the same social group or transmitted from one generation to another. ² Existing work on this process of communication is in fact quite limited and tends to emphasise the role of commemorative ceremonies and bodily practices (such as gestures and manners). ³ Even less attention has been paid to the role played by technological development.     

AN EXAMINATION OF THE INDIRECT PRODUCTIVITY GAINS FROM QUALITY IMPROVEMENT

Recent theoretical work suggests that quality-improvement activities can yield significant indirect effects through process improvements and reduced factory congestion and confusion, benefits that are overlooked or hidden in most management accounting or cost of quality systems. Using time series data from two consumer durables manufacturing plants, I estimate the indirect productivity gains from quality improvement. The evidence from the plants indicates that the indirect effects from improved quality are at least two to three times the direct benefits attributable to lower scrap, rework, and inventory holding costs. An important implication of these findings is that companies that justify investments and measure performance based only on the direct costs of poor quality will motivate managers to make suboptimal decisions regarding quality-improvement activities.     

AN EXPERIMENTAL EXAMINATION OF FISHERIES WITH CONCURRENT COMMON POOL AND INDIVIDUAL QUOTA MANAGEMENT

An emerging trend in fisheries management allows different groups of harvesters pursuing the same stock, even under the same management plan, to manage their effort using different rules, so long as each group remains within its “catch share” portion of mortality. Thus harvesters in a single fishery, with a single total allowable catch, concurrently must respond strategically to the behavior not only of those being managed as they are but also of those facing incentives of different management. In a novel quasi‐continuous time experimental environment with a contemporaneous price externality, we explore the effort timing behavior of harvesters managed under common pool (CP) management with that of subjects managed with individual quotas (IQ). Consistent with Nash equilibrium, CP‐managed subjects race‐to‐fish, exerting high levels of effort to secure landings but selling at correspondingly low prices. IQ‐managed subjects in the same fishery hold effort back until the CP fishery closes, and use their quota over the balance of the season at a lower weekly landings level, receiving higher prices. After experiencing both management systems, subjects choose to be in a group with IQ by a 3:1 margin. (JEL Q22, Q28, C73)     

Inverting the boomerang: examining the legitimacy of North–South–North campaigns in transnational advocacy

The boomerang model is typically used to describe campaigns in which international NGOs respond to requests from local activists, often from marginalized populations, for assistance in addressing local needs. Such campaigns are perceived to represent local interests and have some accountability to local actors. However, while the local–international–local pattern is often accurate, it does not capture the full spectrum of campaign development. This article theorizes an international–local–international or ‘inverse’ boomerang, in which international NGOs facing an international policy blockage initiate a transnational campaign, recruiting local activists to assist in the international advocacy effort. The article demonstrates the theory's plausibility using several cases of Northern‐initiated advocacy. It then examines the implications of the model for campaign legitimacy. It finds that inverse boomerang campaigns benefit from the same presumptions of legitimacy as traditional boomerang campaigns, but that representivity and accountability are substantially weaker, potentially disempowering the campaigns' claimed stakeholders.