Advancing Organisational Management and Innovation Through Systems Science

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue will explore how systems models and the systems sciences that underpin them can illuminate, diagnose, and improve the socio‑technical complexity of contemporary organisations. We invite contributions that make systemic structures and mechanisms explicit, including interdependencies, feedback loops, non‑linear behaviours, emergence, boundary choices, recursion, and viability. Submissions should demonstrate how systems modelling enhances decision‑making, organisational design, strategy development, innovation performance, and resilience across private, public, and third‑sector contexts.

We particularly welcome research that (i) advances or integrates systems theories (e.g., system dynamics, viable system models, sociotechnical and complex adaptive systems perspectives, etc.), (ii) develops or applies modelling methodologies (e.g., Soft Systems Methodology, causal‑loop and stock–flow modelling, agent‑based models, network and multiscale system models, mixed‑methods designs, etc.), (iii) provides empirical, simulation‑based, or design‑science evidence of improved organisational outcomes, or (iv) offers translational artefacts such as reusable models, architectures, datasets, formal specifications, modelling workflows, or diagnostic tools that support practitioner adoption.

Illustrative themes include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Systemically informed strategy, governance, and organisational redesign; and viability, agility, and adaptive capacity under uncertainty.
• Innovation systems, portfolios, and ecosystems; ambidexterity; and system‑level drivers of diffusion and adoption.
• AI‑ and data‑enabled management as socio‑technical systems (human–AI teaming, assurance, interpretability, and organisational safety).
• Operations, supply‑network and service‑system dynamics; digital twins; and systemic risk propagation and mitigation.
• Learning, capabilities, and culture as feedback‑rich organisational systems; and continuous improvement architectures.
• Sustainability, circularity, and responsibility, understood as system properties spanning environmental, economic, and social domains.

Dr. Dennis Pepple
Dr. Aliyu Sambo
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-anonymized 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.

• systems science
• systems thinking
• systems modelling
• system dynamics
• viable system model
• complex adaptive systems
• sociotechnical systems
• organisational systems
• innovation systems
• modelling and simulation
• AI‑enabled socio‑technical systems
• governance, assurance and ethics
• organisational resilience and viability
• digital transformation
• learning and capability systems
• sustainability and circularity