IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/ormnsc/v17y1971i11p661-671.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Towards a System of Systems Concepts

Author

Listed:
  • Russell L. Ackoff

    (University of Pennsylvania)

Abstract

The concepts and terms commonly used to talk about systems have not themselves been organized into a system. An attempt to do so is made here. System and the most important types of system are defined so that differences and similarities are made explicit. Particular attention is given to that type of system of most interest to management scientists: organizations. The relationship between a system and its parts is considered and a proposition is put forward that all systems are either variety-increasing or variety-decreasing relative to the behavior of its parts.

Suggested Citation

  • Russell L. Ackoff, 1971. "Towards a System of Systems Concepts," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 17(11), pages 661-671, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:17:y:1971:i:11:p:661-671
    DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.17.11.661
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.17.11.661
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/mnsc.17.11.661?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bukowski, L., 2016. "System of systems dependability – Theoretical models and applications examples," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 76-92.
    2. Mingers, John, 2011. "Soft OR comes of age--but not everywhere!," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 39(6), pages 729-741, December.
    3. Wang, Yi & Shi, Si & Nevo, Saggi & Li, Shaorui & Chen, Yang, 2015. "The interaction effect of IT assets and IT management on firm performance: A systems perspective," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 35(5), pages 580-593.
    4. Polese, Francesco & Payne, Adrian & Frow, Pennie & Sarno, Debora & Nenonen, Suvi, 2021. "Emergence and phase transitions in service ecosystems," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 25-34.
    5. Aladwani, Adel M., 2016. "Corruption as a source of e-Government projects failure in developing countries: A theoretical exposition," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 105-112.
    6. Coccia, Mario, 2015. "General sources of general purpose technologies in complex societies: Theory of global leadership-driven innovation, warfare and human development," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 199-226.
    7. Granstrand, Ove & Holgersson, Marcus, 2020. "Innovation ecosystems: A conceptual review and a new definition," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 90.
    8. Zia, Hina & Devadas, V., 2007. "Energy management in Lucknow city," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(10), pages 4847-4868, October.
    9. Avgerou, Chrisanthi, 2000. "Information systems: what sort of science is it?," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 28(5), pages 567-579, October.
    10. Wu, Jen-Her & Kao, Hao-Yun & Sambamurthy, Vallabh, 2016. "The integration effort and E-health compatibility effect and the mediating role of E-health synergy on hospital performance," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 36(6), pages 1288-1300.
    11. Töhönen, Harri & Kauppinen, Marjo & Männistö, Tomi & Itälä, Timo, 2020. "A conceptual framework for valuing IT within a business system," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 36(C).
    12. Wieland, Andreas & Bals, Lydia & Mol, Michael J. & Handfield, Robert B., 2020. "Overcoming blind spots in global sourcing research: Exploiting the cross-sections between supply chain management and international business," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 26(1).
    13. Watson, Jim & Gross, Rob & Ketsopoulou, Ioanna & Winskel, Mark, 2015. "The impact of uncertainties on the UK's medium-term climate change targets," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 685-695.
    14. Jaradat, Ra’ed M. & Keating, Charles B., 2014. "Fragility of oil as a critical infrastructure problem," International Journal of Critical Infrastructure Protection, Elsevier, vol. 7(2), pages 86-99.
    15. Robertson, Lindsay J. & Michael, Katina & Munoz, Albert, 2017. "Assessing technology system contributions to urban dweller vulnerabilities," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 83-92.
    16. Gudas, S., 1991. "A framework for research of information processing hierarchy in enterprise," Mathematics and Computers in Simulation (MATCOM), Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 281-285.
    17. Gupta, Ranjit & Mejia, Cristian & Kajikawa, Yuya, 2019. "Business, innovation and digital ecosystems landscape survey and knowledge cross sharing," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 100-109.
    18. Guerrero de la Peña, Ana & Davendralingam, Navindran & Raz, Ali K. & DeLaurentis, Daniel & Shaver, Gregory & Sujan, Vivek & Jain, Neera, 2019. "Projecting line-haul truck technology adoption: How heterogeneity among fleets impacts system-wide adoption," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 108-127.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:17:y:1971:i:11:p:661-671. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.