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Human reactions to conservation interventions can trigger unintended feedbacks resulting in poor conservation outcomes. Understanding unintended feedbacks is a necessary first step toward the diagnosis and solution of environmental problems, but existing anecdotal evidence cannot support decision‐making. Using conservation examples, we present a conceptual framework and typology of unintended feedbacks based on a social‐ecological systems (SES) approach. Three types of causal mechanisms for unintended feedbacks are distinguished: (1) flow unintended feedbacks when pre‐existing feedbacks are enhanced or dampened; (2) deletion unintended feedbacks; and (3) addition unintended feedbacks when interventions, respectively, remove or add actors or links to the SES structure. Application of this typology can improve conservation outcomes by enabling the inclusion of complex relationships into planning and evaluation. We show how widely used tools for conservation planning could produce misleading recommendations, and discuss future work to mitigate the effect of unintended feedbacks in conservation practice. There is an urgent need to collect evidence in a structured way in order to understand the mechanisms by which human decision‐making feeds through to conservation outcomes at different scales, thereby minimizing negative unintended feedbacks. The framework presented in this article can support the development of this evidence‐base.

In past couple of years, management scholars have developed significant literature on the impact of Covid pandemic across various business and organizations formats. Although, the extant literature studied various aspects of SMEs, but they did not explore the pandemic impact to SMEs from the lenses of the systems approach. We examined how SMEs navigated through the Covid pandemic from the systems theory. We engaged narrative inquiry method and captured narrations from CEOs/board members of thirty SMEs in India. The grounded theory approach was adopted to analyse the data. The study found that SMEs’ navigation through the pandemic was a complex and dynamic system encompassing input factors, immediate output, systemic output, navigating strategy, and policy environment. At the end, the study developed system-theoretic ecosystem framework of Covid impact on SMEs.

This paper presents a current, accessible, and overarching view of work system theory. WST is the core of an integrated body of theory that emerged from a long-term research project to develop a systems analysis and design method for business professionals called the work system method (WSM). After discussing WST's basic premises and its two central frameworks, this paper summarizes the relationship between WST and WSM. If shows how experience with early versions of WSM led to three extensions of WST that addressed limitations-in- use in one of the central frameworks in WST. After comparisons with related theories, this paper closes with an evaluation of progress to date, new directions for research related to WST, and implications for the IS discipline. The two appendices summarize the long term research from which WST emerged and use a positioning map to show how WST is related to other topics in the IS discipline. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

The theory of social-ecological systems (SESs) provides an ideal tool for understanding complex human-nature systems in protected areas. We adopt Ostrom’s SESs framework to analyze the complex interactions within Qilian Mountain National Park (QMNP), an essential ecological security barrier in China. Through qualitative and quantitative analyses of action situations, we identify the interactions among the resource system, resource units, governance system, and actors. The results show that applying the SESF in protected areas is feasible and operable; the development level of ecosystems in QMNP is better than that of the social systems; and the coupling coordination among the four subsystems is at primary coordination (0.6–0.7), indicating that the interaction between four subsystems needs to be strengthened. Moreover, the comprehensive evaluation index and the interactions between subsystems differ among townships, indicating the necessity for tailored management strategies. We emphasize integrating social components into protected areas management to achieve sustainable development and resilience in SESs.

The framework for analyzing sustainability of social-ecological systems (SES) framework of Elinor Ostrom is a multitier collection of concepts and variables that have proven to be relevant for understanding outcomes in diverse SES. The first tier of this framework includes the concepts resource system (RS) and resource units (RU), which are then further characterized through lower tier variables such as clarity of system boundaries and mobility. The long-term goal of framework development is to derive conclusions about which combinations of variables explain outcomes across diverse types of SES. This will only be possible if the concepts and variables of the framework can be made operational unambiguously for the different types of SES, which, however, remains a challenge. Reasons for this are that case studies examine other types of RS than those for which the framework has been developed or consider RS for which different actors obtain different kinds of RU. We explore these difficulties and relate them to antecedent work on common-pool resources and public goods. We propose a diagnostic procedure which resolves some of these difficulties by establishing a sequence of questions that facilitate the step-wise and unambiguous application of the SES framework to a given case. The questions relate to the actors benefiting from the SES, the collective goods involved in the generation of those benefits, and the action situations in which the collective goods are provided and appropriated. We illustrate the diagnostic procedure for four case studies in the context of irrigated agriculture in New Mexico, common property meadows in the Swiss Alps, recreational fishery in Germany, and energy regions in Austria. We conclude that the current SES framework has limitations when applied to complex, multiuse SES, because it does not sufficiently capture the actor interdependencies introduced through RS and RU characteristics and dynamics.

Biodiversity losses can lead to global environmental crisis. Humans utilize biodiversity for a variety of ecosystem services. However, what drives biodiversity losses have become a critical question during the 21st century. Lately, the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region in Asia, one of the world’s pristine habitats with the origin of majestic river systems including Brahmaputra, Indus, Mekong, and Yangtze, has witnessed rapid climatic warming. The unprecedented rates of climate warming in HKH has threatened biodiversity losses, ecosystem functioning and ecosystem services, and consequently the existence of mankind in the region. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Intergovernmental Science and Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) highlight the risks to humanity arising from unsustainable use of natural resources and loss of biodiversity worldwide under rapid climate warming condition. In addition, the growing economic transformation in HKH can have high environmental costs and biodiversity losses. By realizing this fact, the Convention on Biological Diversity addresses the key issues of biodiversity and ecosystem services in the HKH by liaising with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Paris Agreement, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Hence, the challenges of biodiversity losses, poor ecosystem functioning followed by reduced ecosystem services posed by climate warming and anthropogenic impacts needs to be addressed urgently by countries and multilateral agencies in HKH by identifying threatened ecosystem services and by providing better sustainability solutions. Here, I have outlined the current state of Himalayan biodiversity and ecosystem function and developed a framework for resilience management with an integrated approach of science and society to advance knowledge through learning. The resilience framework offers practical solutions comprising a robust and harmonized monitoring of climatic data, the use of multi-indicator approaches and modelling, and to make collaborated efforts among policy makers, implementers, and analysts to tackle evolving losses of biological diversity and reduction in ecosystem services in the HKH region.

The Ostrom social-ecological system (SES) framework offers an interdisciplinary tool for studies of linked human-natural systems. However, its origin in the social sciences belies the effectiveness of its interdisciplinary ambitions and undermines its ability to cope with ecological complexity. To narrow the gap between inherently dynamic ecological systems and the SES framework, we need to explicitly recognize that SES outcomes are coproduced by social systems in which choices are made, as well as an ecological system with a diverse assortment of dynamic natural processes that mediate the effect of those choices. We illustrate the need for more explicit incorporation of ecological attributes into the SES framework by presenting a case study of a community-managed forest in Indiana, USA. A preliminary set of ecological attributes are also proposed for inclusion in the SES framework with the aim of spurring interest in further development of a truly interdisciplinary framework for the study of SESs.

In this paper, we present a comprehensive and distilled model that can help researchers to 1) enter the e-government field, 2) understand what the field mainly studies in a distilled way, and 3) reflect on further research in the field. Departing from Steven Alter’s (2013) work systems theory and particularly his work systems framework (WSF), we introduce a framework for understanding e-government work systems (i.e., the eGovWSF). We distil the basic core of e-government work systems through an interpretative and hermeneutic approach by building on previous research and theorizations made in information systems and e-government research. We unpack the eGovWSF into 12 main elements; discuss their role as internal, semi-external, and external to e-government work systems; and reflect on the connections between these elements. Thus, contributions include a conceptual discussion on e-government’s core subject matter, the framework’s applicability, and future research needs.

Much is known about collective action in the commons but little is known about the effects of migration as an exogenous shock. We study the case of China where at least 280 million people have migrated from the rural areas to the cities over the last four decades. We apply the social-ecological system (SES) framework along with the theory of collective action using survey data from 1985 households in 20 provinces throughout China. Data was analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis, ordered probit regression with instrumental variables, structural equation modeling, and interaction effects analysis. We find that migration exerts a significant negative effect on collective action in the commons and its effect is mediated by four mechanisms: resource dependence, leadership, social capital, and sense of community. Of these, resource dependence and leadership account for about two-thirds of the total effect. The SES framework has been shown to be a useful tool for empirically studying complex, multi-variable, nonlinear, cross-scale, and dynamic social-ecological systems.

The Islamic revolution of 1979 in Iran emphasized social justice as a pillar for development. The fundamental steps towards universal equitable access to high-quality healthcare services began with the creation of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education (MoHME) and the nationwide establishment of primary healthcare (PHC) network in 1985. Now, in the 40th anniversary of the Islamic revolution, the history of health system development in Iran is characterized by constant policy changes; i.e. structural and procedural transformations. Ever since and despite the imposed 8-year war with Iraq and continuous unfair sanctions against the country, noticeable progress has been achieved in the health system that has led to better population health including among others: self-sufficiency in training health workforce; advances in public health and medical sciences; establishment and expansion of health facilities within the hard-to-reach areas aiming to enhance equity in access to needed healthcare services; domestic production of most medicines and medical equipment; and meaningful expansion of health insurance coverage. These have led to admirable improvement in public health indicators; i.e. maternal mortality, child mortality, life expectancy, and vaccination coverage. Despite achievements, there still remain challenges in health financing, protecting the public against high expenditure of medical care, establishment of referral system and rationalization of service utilization, provision of high quality healthcare services to all in need, and conflict of interest in health policy making, all of which may hinder the goal to reach “universal health coverage”, identified as the main goal of the health system in Iran by 2025. Recently, the MoHME began structural and functional reforms to boost societal efforts and enhance intersectoral collaboration to address social determinants of health, improve actions for prevention and control of non-communicable diseases and other social health problems. Drawing upon the World Health Organization (WHO)’s “six building blocks” model, this article presents an analytical description of the main health policy reforms during the last four decades after the Islamic revolution in Iran, divided by each decade. Learning from the historical reforms will create, we envisage, a better understanding of health system developments, its advances and challenges, which might in turn contribute to better evidence-informed policy making and sustainable health development in the country, and perhaps beyond.