Page 77 - Complexity Perspective_Neat

● A system is a goal-directed, entity with an inherent hierarchy
comprised of individuals that takes inputs of energy from the
context across a permeable boundary and transform them into
outputs (and waste).

● A context is an unbounded space filled with agents, agents being
individuals and business systems (firms: being simply bounded
agglomerations of individual agents focused on a goal). The
context has multiple levels of integration within which business
systems are embedded and to which they must conform under the
pressure of downward causation. The context is not goal-directed,
it merely exists in a state of continuous change as the interests of

its constituent agents shift.

● All agents are part of a latent network of linkages that connects all
with all though some strongly and others through weak
relationships. Information flows across the network linkages that
are constantly activating and deactivating as the emotional,

personal, and economic interests of the linked agents shift.

● All agents in the context can spontaneously interact across the
network and, following their own interests, can reach back to the
contributions of prior agents and create synergies with current
agents to develop new/emergent functionalities that become the
starting point for future agents.

● Emergent functionalities diffuse through the context across the
embedded network with agents adopting the idea/offering in a
sequence based on susceptibility to novelty. Favorable opinion
feedback loops drive acceptance of an idea and thereby growth in
adoption. Unfavorable opinion feedback loops slow growth or

outright kill the idea so that it does not diffuse.

● Agents with an interest in the emergent property may seek to
influence the diffusion process and take actions that change the
context thereby forcing other agents to react to the changes in the
contexts. This process is known as co-evolving. With active agents
spontaneously acting on and reacting to shifts in the context.
There is no overarching guidance and no end goal, just personal

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©Business Games Works 2018 (V1 Beta)