Causal Complexity Research Articles

Causal computational complexity of distributed processes

This article studies the complexity of π-calculus processes with respect to the quantity of transitions caused by an incoming message. First, we propose a typing system for integrating Bellantoni and Cook's characterisation of polytime computable functions into Deng and Sangiorgi's typing system for termination. We then define computational complexity of distributed messages based on Degano and Priami's causal semantics, which identifies the dependency between interleaved transitions. Next, we apply a necessary syntactic flow analysis to typable processes to ensure a computational bound on the number of distributed messages. We prove that our analysis is decidable; sound in the sense that it guarantees that the total number of messages causally dependent of an input request received from the outside is bounded by a polynomial of the content of this request; and complete, meaning that each polynomial recursive function can be computed by a typable process.

How does top management team diversity influence firm performance? A causal complexity analysis

This research investigates the correlation between the diversity background of top management team (TMT) and firm performance. We target gender diversity and cultural diversity and also explore the interplay between TMT diversity attributes and other TMT conventional compositions and their effects on organization performance. Incorporating four dimensions into this analysis under TMT conventional compositions such as TMT tenure, TMT network, TMT scale, and TMT age, this paper utilizes the OSIRIS database to obtain a dataset of 442 U.S.-listed companies in the information technology field. The research adopts multiple regression analysis to examine the proposed hypotheses and applies fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to figure out the optimal combinations between top management team diversities and conventional compositions in order to achieve better firm performance.

A configurational perspective of boards' attention structures

AbstractResearch Question/IssueWhat combinations of board attributes and contextual factors explain boards' selective distribution of attention between their dual role of resource provisioning and monitoring? At the board level, we consider board structure and breadth of knowledge, while the context in which boards operate is captured by the degree of external scrutiny, operational complexity, performance, and ownership structure.Research Findings/InsightsOur study demonstrates that there are multiple ways board attributes bundle and combine with important elements of the context to promote similar board attention structures. Our findings provide evidence of the causal complexity underlying this phenomenon and corroborate the notions of equifinality and asymmetric causality among board‐, firm‐, and institution‐level conditions conducive to boards allocating more attention to either their resource provisioning or monitoring roles.Theoretical/Academic ImplicationsOur findings support the attention‐based view (ABV), suggesting that boards' selective distribution of attention is regulated by the combination of skills and knowledge directors bring to the firm and the stimuli provided by contextual factors. In doing so, we underscore the need for an extended theory on board effectiveness, as resource dependence‐ and agency‐based prescriptions about boards' behavior may be incomplete, since there is limited consideration by these theories of the bounded rationality of directors and the complex relationships between the factors that can frame boards' selective distribution of attention.Practitioner/Policy ImplicationsOur study informs efforts to disentangle the conditions under which different attributes combine and regulate boards' distribution of attention, which has implications for nomination committees and powerful actors who have influence on board appointments. Because our results reveal several causal paths that can promote similar board attention structures, decision makers may wish to recruit directors with specific attributes that will be the best fit for the firm's contextual conditions.

Research on Green Total Factor Productivity Enhancement Path from the Configurational Perspective—Based on the TOE Theoretical Framework

Increasing Green Total Factor Productivity (GTFP) is the strategy to overcome resource and environmental limitations and achieve green and sustainable regional economic development. This study introduces the Technology–Organization–Environment (TOE) theoretical framework and the Fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) method into the study of GTFP. We use the fsQCA method to empirically explore the linkage matching patterns of multiple conditions such as technology, organization, and environment in the TOE framework for influencing GTFP from a configurational perspective using 30 Chinese provinces and cities as case studies. This study provides new concepts and methodologies for GTFP-related research. The study’s findings indicate that: (1) There are two paths to generating high GTFP: the type of organizational management and the type of technical support. The two paths produce non-high GTFP, namely, a type of organizational management deficit and environmental support deficiency and a type of organizational management imbalance and technological support deficiency, respectively. This research verifies the existence of causal asymmetry in the GTFP phenomena. (2) In addition, there are substitutes between combinations of organizational conditions and technical conditions and between technical conditions and environmental conditions under specific circumstances. This discovery broadens the scope of how the TOE framework can be used to explain “causal complexity” and, in some ways, resolves the theoretical conundrum it now faces. (3) According to the sub-regional study, GTFP improvement tactics have substantial spatial distribution characteristics, with China’s eastern and central regions achieving them through organizational management and technical support strategies. Only the organizational management type is prevalent in the western region. This study is useful for the local planning of GTFP enhancement paths in each Chinese province to achieve a win–win situation between economic development and environmental conservation, as well as to provide empirical evidence for nations in a similar situation to China.

What Drives the Influence of Health Science Communication Accounts on TikTok? A Fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis.

Medical institutions face a variety of challenges as they seek to enhance their reputation and increase the influence of their social media accounts. Becoming a social media influencer in the health field in today's complex online environment requires integrated social and technical systems. However, rather than holistically investigating the mechanism of account influence, studies have focused on a narrow subset of social and technical conditions that drive online influence. We attribute this to the mismatch between complex causality problems and traditional symmetric regression methods. In this study, we adopted an asymmetric configurational perspective that allowed us to test a causally complex model of the conditions that create strong and not-strong account influence. We used fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to detect the effects of varying configurations of three social system characteristics (i.e., an oncology-related attribute, a public attribute, and comment interaction) and two technical system characteristics (i.e., telepresence and video collection) on the TikTok accounts of 63 elderly Chinese doctors (60 to 92 years old). Our results revealed two pathways associated with distinct sociotechnical configurations to strong account influence and three pathways associated with distinct sociotechnical configurations to not-strong account influence. Furthermore, the results confirmed that a single antecedent condition cannot, on its own, produce an outcome, i.e., account influence. Multiple inter-related conditions are required to produce an influential account. These results offer a more holistic picture of how health science communication accounts operate and reconcile the scattered results in the literature. We also demonstrate how configurational theory and methods can be used to analyze the complexities of social media platforms.

Configuration Analysis of Factors Influencing Port Competitiveness of Hinterland Cities under TOE Framework: Evidence from China

Attention is increasingly being paid to the influence of hinterland cities on port competitiveness, but in-depth research is lacking on the formation conditions and mechanism of hinterland cities’ influence on port competitiveness. Based on the technology–organization–environment (TOE) framework and the characteristics of Chinese government organizational behavior, in this study, we used fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to conduct a condition configuration analysis of 21 coastal ports and their hinterland cities in China. The findings showed the following: (1) The technology, organization, and environment conditions of hinterland cities cannot provide the necessary conditions for high or low port competitiveness alone: different combinations of these conditions have produced three high and four low port competitiveness configurations. (2) The three configurations of high port competitiveness are the organization–environment, economy–balance, and finance–balance types. Adequate government financial supply, high tertiary industry proportion, good economic development, and market openness are the core conditions required for achieving high port competitiveness. (3) The four configurations of low port competitiveness are finance–facilities–environment, capability–finance–environment, technology–finance–economy, and capability–industry–economy restrictions. Here, low-level innovation capability, inadequate government financial supply, and low tertiary industry proportion are the core conditions leading to low port competitiveness. We revealed the concurrent synergistic effect of the three conditions of technology, organization, and environment in hinterland cities and demonstrated the causal complexity and asymmetry of the impact of hinterland cities on port competitiveness. Our conclusions provide empirical evidence that will aid hinterland cities in formulating differentiated port competitiveness promotion policies according to their own conditions and endowments.

Causal bias in measures of inequality of opportunity

In recent decades, economists have developed methods for measuring the country-wide level of inequality of opportunity. The most popular method, called the ex-ante method, uses data on the distribution of outcomes stratified by groups of individuals with the same circumstances, in order to estimate the part of outcome inequality that is due to these circumstances. I argue that these methods are potentially biased, both upwards and downwards, and that the unknown size of this bias could be large. To argue that the methods are biased, I show that they ought to measure causal or counterfactual quantities, while the methods are only capable of identifying correlational information. To argue that the bias is potentially large, I illustrate how the causal complexity of the real world leads to numerous non-causal correlations between circumstances and outcomes and respond to objections claiming that such correlations are nonetheless indicators of unfair disadvantage, that is, inequality of opportunity.

Modeling for external stakeholder risk assessment of project portfolios

PurposeExternal stakeholder risks (ESRs) caused by unfavorable behaviors hinder the success of project portfolios (PPs). However, due to complex project dependency and numerous risk causality in PPs, assessing ESRs is difficult. This research aims to solve this problem by developing an ESR-PP two-layer fuzzy Bayesian network (FBN) model.Design/methodology/approachA two-layer FBN model for evaluating ESRs with risk causality and project dependency is proposed. The directed acyclic graph (DAG) of an ESR-PP network is first constructed, and the conditional probability tables (CPTs) of the two-layer network are further presented. Next, based on the fuzzy Bayesian network, key variables and the impact of ESRs are assessed and analyzed by using GeNIe2.3. Finally, a numerical example is used to demonstrate and verify the application of the proposed model.FindingsThe proposed model is a useable and effective approach for ESR assessment while considering risk causality and project dependency in PPs. The impact of ESRs on PP can be calculated to determine whether to control risk, and the most critical and heavily contributing risks and project(s) in the developed model are identified based on this.Originality/valueThis study extends prior research on PP risk in terms of stakeholders. ESRs that have received limited attention in the past are explored from an interaction perspective in the PP domain. A new two-layer FBN model considering risk causality and project dependency is proposed, which can synthesize different dependencies between projects.

Causal Complexity of Perinatal and Late Neonatal Mortality in the Department of Cauca, Colombia from the Perspective of Systems Thinking

Description of Background: Causes of perinatal and neonatal death are complex due to the multiple groups of factors, including clinical (biomedical), demographic, social, economic, and even political factors, as well as the interactions among them. The specific combination and interaction of those factors faced by one individual makes it more or less likely to have access to healthcare; in particular, they condition the effectiveness of key interventions to prevent perinatal and neonatal death such as accurate prenatal care. A holistic analysis of this variables and factors and interactions among them for subnational areas that lag in infant mortality is necessary to identify entry points to accelerate progress on mortality reduction results. Methods: Systemic and dynamic thinking methodology was applied to construct a causal loops diagram through brainstorming process among experts and executors and adapted to the Department of Cauca in Colombia, following the techniques of Williams B and Sturmber JP. Results: Many more reinforcing loops were found than balancing loops, while specific regional barriers were identified, facilitating the location of points for effective preventive interventions in the dynamic system that would allow the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDG,2030). The causal loops diagram and referrals were validated through surveys of a group of first- and second-line experts in maternal and childcare, who provided feedback. Conclusions: The causal loops diagram adapted to regional particularities improves the Colombian path of compliance with the United Nations sustainable development goals and equity at the departments and subregions level. Relevance: In the Colombian case, because the main barrier in the Cauca Department, as others in the country, is the diversity in perinatal and late neonatal deaths by subregions when the whole Department average is acceptable in relation with UN-ODS, 2030.

Causal complexity of environmental pollution in China: a province-level fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis.

Environmental problems are endowed with the causal complexity of multiple factors. Traditional quantitative research on the influencing mechanism of environmental pollution has tended to focus on the marginal effects of specific influencing factors but generally neglected the multiple interaction effects between factors (especially three or more). Based on the panel data of 30 Chinese provinces between 2011 and 2020, this study employs fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) - which can provide a fine-grained insight into the causal complexity of environmental issues - to shed light on the influencing mechanism of environmental pollution. The results show that there are several different configurations of pollution drivers which lead to high pollution or low pollution in provinces, confirming the multiple causality, causal asymmetry, and equifinality of environmental pollution. Furthermore, the combination effect of advanced industrial structure, small population size, and technological advance is significant in achieving a state of green environment compared to environmental regulation factors. In addition, spatiotemporal analysis of the configurations indicates that strong path dependencies and spatial agglomeration exist in current local environmental governance patterns. Finally, according to our findings, targeted policy recommendations are provided.

Assessing the relevance of governmental characteristics to address wicked problems in turbulent times

ABSTRACT Governments have long faced traditional bureaucratic problems and developed a set of mechanisms to handle them, but few studies have examined the government’s underlying characteristics in addressing such problems. Wicked problems – those with unclear definitions, causal complexity and conflicting goals – are increasingly emerging and are frequently observed in highly turbulent environments – those where variables behave in unpredictable ways. We study the relevance of a range of governmental characteristics during the COVID-19 pandemic and find that, while all government characteristics are sometimes relevant, no single characteristic is always relevant and so they are best treated as a portfolio.

Digital and intelligent empowerment: Can big data capability drive green process innovation of manufacturing enterprises?

This research takes manufacturing enterprises with big data capability as the research object, based on organizational decision-making theory and planned behavior theory, the mediation effect model of “capability-intention-behavior” is constructed. It uses econometric models to explore the impact and conduction process of big data capability on green process innovation. The results show that big data capability have an obvious direct effect on green process innovation. By examining the mediation effect test, we find that green innovation intention partially mediates the relationship between big data capability and green process innovation. Then a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fs QCA) is used in this paper to analyze the causal complexity between big data capability and green process innovation, and to identify six effective configuration paths. According to the results, the synergy of big data acquisition capability, big data analysis capability and big data insight capability is crucial for high green process innovation, where big data insight capability plays a central role and big data acquisition capability or analysis capability and green innovation intention play a marginal role. According to the heterogeneity test, it is found that big data capability has stronger roles in the eastern region in China; green innovation intention has a stronger impact in the central and western regions in China. As enterprise-scale increases, the impact of big data capability on green process innovation increases and then declines, while the impact of green innovation intention on green process innovation continues to decline.

Multi-channel wireless hybrid active noise control with fixed-adaptive control selection

Active noise control (ANC) is now a must-have feature in various headphones to attenuate unwanted external noise leaked into the headphones. The conventional ANC headphone typically uses an earcup-mounted reference microphone to pick up the reference signal and send it to the chip’s control filter, which generates anti-noise inside the earcup to destructively interfere with the leaky noise signal. Previously, a novel type of wireless feedforward ANC structure was devised to achieve greater noise reduction by acquiring a higher reference-to-interference ratio. To further reduce computational complexity and relax causality constraints over traditional ANC algorithms, a modification to this structure is proposed that employs a hybrid feedforward–feedback structure in conjunction with a fixed-adaptive control selection (FAS). Furthermore, numerical simulations and real-time experiments are performed in this paper to validate the effectiveness of the wireless hybrid ANC with the FAS technique.

Smart cities and sustainable development

ABSTRACT The last two decades have witnessed a surge in interest in the smart–sustainable city, but it remains unclear how smart cities can achieve the multifaceted goals of sustainable development, such as ecological performance, human development and sustainability efficiency. This study performs a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) of 35 Chinese large smart cities through configurational theorizing of the smart–sustainable city nexus. The findings not only reveal the causal complexity of constructing smart cities to achieve urban sustainability, but also develop a taxonomy of smart city configurations leading to ecological performance or human development, namely, duplex-centric, eco-centric, human-centric and double-bind modes.

Einfluss der Junghennenqualität auf das Auftreten von Gefiederschäden, Hautverletzungen und die Mortalität in der Legeperiode kommerzieller Legehennenhaltungen

Abstract Laying hen farmers increasingly optimize relevant causal complexes to reduce severe feather pecking. Previous studies demonstrated the relevance of the rearing period on plumage condition during the laying period. Therefore, we examined the effects of pullet quality at the time of housing in the laying stable on plumage condition, skin condition, performance, and animal losses in the laying period under field conditions in a total of 28 laying flocks (9 white-egg layer flock and 19 brown-egg layer flocks) in floor (n = 21) or free-range housing systems (n = 7) with an average flock size of 12,357 hens (median). Pullet quality (PQ) was determined at post-housing examination based on plumage condition, flock uniformity, and target body mass. This resulted in a classification in flocks with high (n = 7), moderate (n = 14), and low PQ (n = 7). Over the subsequent laying period, plumage and skin scoring at seven time points and a continuous documentation of performance data and animal losses were performed.

Causal complexity analysis for fintech adoption at the country level

Financial technology (fintech) covers many innovative technology-enabled financial services. This research thus explores the causal relationships for fintech adoption to assist countries in promoting its usage. Following literature, this study uses technology, economic development, entrepreneurship, and innovation of an economy as the antecedents and fintech adoption as the outcome and then applies fuzzy set/Qualitative Comparative Analysis to analyze causal complexity. The data span the years 2020 and 2021 with 30 countries in 2020 and 28 countries in 2021. This study finds that the combination of high values of innovation, technology, entrepreneurship, and economic development leads to high fintech adoption in both 2020 and 2021. Fintech adoption is popular in developed countries. The combination of low values of innovation, technology, and economic development leads to low fintech adoption consistently in 2020 and 2021. The combination of low values of innovation, entrepreneurship, and economic development leads to low fintech adoption in 2021.

Soundtrapped? Socio-material perspectives on collaborative teaching within the music classroom

This article draws on a classroom project to explore the complexities of collaborative teaching within the music classroom, where a professional team collaborated to facilitate digital music-making at a lower secondary school in Norway during a student teacher practicum placement. The collaborative team, including in-service and pre-service teachers, researchers, and a professional musician, facilitated a composing project by means of the digital audio workstation (DAW) Soundtrap. The purpose was to shed light on the complexity and emergence of the collaborative music project; how material, structural, and educational conditions impacted the process; and the pre-service music teachers’ ways of handling a complex situation. The study was theoretically guided by a socio-material perspective, more specifically by complexity theory, and an abductive analysis was performed. In keeping with the nonlinearity and complex causality of socio-materialism and complexity theory, the researchers created three reflexive viewpoints: emergence, enabling constraints, and entanglements. The results show that technological and technical issues permeated the classroom work, making it difficult to separate social and material aspects of the project. Awareness of the entanglement of social, institutional, historical, and material dimensions of education thus can provide a useful framework for emerging music teachers’ professional development. In this way, our findings support the claim that music teacher education should aim at helping pre-service teachers prepare for encounters with complex and versatile educational situations.

Effective policy mixes in entrepreneurial ecosystems: a configurational analysis in China

Policy-makers are seeking to build vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs) to promote innovative entrepreneurship. However, the role of government policy in EEs, especially in the emerging economy context, is poorly understood, lacking a systematic concept of policy and theoretical framework, clear policy classification, and empirical research considering distinctive characteristics of policy mixes in EEs. This paper introduces the concept of EE policy mixes and classifies them into seven policy instruments. Using data from 21 national high-tech zones (NHZs) in China, fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) is applied to identify effective configurations of EE policy mixes that support early-stage and late-stage technology start-ups to produce high entrepreneurial performance. The configurational analysis shows that EE policy mixes present causal complexity and stage differences. Based on interpreting multiple policy interactions, we reveal the differentiated support mechanisms of EE policy mixes in NHZs and draw out their implications for research, policy, and practice. This study contributes to the EE literature by adopting a policy-mix perspective to examine the role of policy, exploring the specific emerging economy context of China, suggesting further extensions of the research to other contexts, and applying a methodology that reveals causal mechanisms. It also supports better-informed EE policy and governance.

Coincidence Analysis: A Novel Approach to Modeling Nurses' Workplace Experience.

The purpose of this study is to identify combinations of workplace conditions that uniquely differentiate high, medium, and low registered nurse (RN) ratings of appropriateness of patient assignment during daytime intensive care unit (ICU) work shifts. A collective case study design and coincidence analysis were employed to identify combinations of workplace conditions that link directly to high, medium, and low RN perception of appropriateness of patient assignment at a mid-shift time point. RN members of the study team hypothesized a set of 55 workplace conditions as potential difference makers through the application of theoretical and empirical knowledge. Conditions were derived from data exported from electronic systems commonly used in nursing care. Analysis of 64 cases (25 high, 24 medium, and 15 low) produced three models, one for each level of the outcome. Each model contained multiple pathways to the same outcome. The model for "high" appropriateness was the simplest model with two paths to the outcome and a shared condition across pathways. The first path comprised of the absence of overtime and a before-noon patient discharge or transfer, and the second path comprised of the absence of overtime and RN assignment to a single ICU patient. Specific combinations of workplace conditions uniquely distinguish RN perception of appropriateness of patient assignment at a mid-shift time point, and these difference-making conditions provide a foundation for enhanced observability of nurses' work experience during hospital work shifts. This study illuminates the complexity of assessing nursing work system status by revealing that multiple paths, comprised of multiple conditions, can lead to the same outcome. Operational decision support tools may best reflect the complex adaptive nature of the work systems they intend to support by utilizing methods that accommodate both causal complexity and equifinality.

In Search of Scholarly Impact

In Search of Scholarly Impact