Systems Thinking for Business Strategic Management: Innovation and Resilience
A special issue of Systems (ISSN 2079-8954). This special issue belongs to the section "Systems Practice in Social Science".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2026 | Viewed by 3182
Special Issue Editors
Interests: business process management; structural equation modelling
Interests: systems thinking; strategic management
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
This Special Issue welcomes research that applies systems thinking to strategic management to help organizations innovate and remain resilient amid uncertainty, turbulence, technological disruption, and sustainability pressures. We seek contributions that treat organizations as complex, adaptive socio-technical systems embedded in broader ecosystems (customers, suppliers, platforms, regulators, and communities), where feedback loops, delays, nonlinearity, and emergent behavior shape strategic outcomes.
We welcome theoretical, methodological, and empirical papers that integrate systems concepts with strategy topics such as dynamic capabilities, platform orchestration, open innovation, digital transformation, sustainability transitions, and risk governance. Contributions may leverage system dynamics and complex systems modeling, agent-based and network models, hybrid modeling (e.g., combining simulation with machine learning or digital twins), multi-criteria decision analysis, operations research, scenario planning, simulation optimization, data-driven analytics, and participatory or design-science approaches that reveal structure–behavior links and translate systemic insights into action.
We particularly encourage work that bridges systems theory with contemporary strategic challenges such as digital transformation, AI-driven decision-making, sustainability transitions, and resilience under uncertainty. Of special interest are studies that explore how systems perspectives can illuminate the next generation of strategy and management challenges, particularly through data-rich systems strategy (e.g., integrating big data, machine learning, and causal inference with system dynamics and network models to uncover hidden structures and predict system evolution), AI-driven strategic management (e.g., examining how generative AI, digital twins, and autonomous decision systems reshape strategic learning, foresight, and organizational adaptation), and Human–AI teaming and decision augmentation (investigating how hybrid human–AI systems enhance or disrupt decision quality, resilience, and performance in complex adaptive organizations).
We especially welcome cross-sector and cross-level work (e.g., supply-chain resilience, innovation ecosystems, public–private collaborations), research in emerging markets, and design-oriented studies that produce actionable interventions (policies, decision-support tools, dashboards). Submissions should clarify mechanisms (feedbacks, trade-offs, tipping points) and demonstrate measurable impact on innovation, sustainability, or organizational resilience.
Dr. Darko Etinger
Dr. Katarina Kostelić
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Systems is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- systems thinking
- strategic management
- innovation ecosystems
- organizational resilience
- digital transformation
- dynamic capabilities
- scenario planning and risk governance
- AI-driven strategic management
- data-rich systems strategy
- human-AI teaming
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