This paper develops a theory of invention by drawing on complex adaptive systems theory. We see invention as a process of recombinant search over technology landscapes. This framing suggests that inventors might face a ‘complexity catastrophe’ when they attempt to combine highly interdependent technologies. Our empirical analysis of patent citation rates supports this expectation. Our results a...

Innovation — a new idea, practice, or object — is necessary if we want to provide an adequate answer to the ever-increasing complexity of care. Although many of these innovations demonstrate promising results within the study context, health care providers and the public, are increasingly aware promising research results do not easily translate into improved daily health care practice. The fact...

We explore heterogeneity in the use of an organization-wide information technology (IT) by both individuals and groups in a professional organization. We study electronic medical record use by physicians and clinic work groups in two medical practices operating within one multi-specialty health care clinic. Data collection methods include interviews, non-participant observations, and questionna...

The paper proposes an open approach to modeling to cater for the emerging trend to complex adaptive systems. Such systems are seen as collections of people, programs, computers and other physical objects that must coexist and work towards a vision in a continually changing environment. The information system here is perceived as a network of physical, knowledge and other kinds of entities conne...

Community Informatics has declared that the global is a federation of locals. James Quilligan has written an essay to the effect that applying such a definition of global requires a world institution of democratic governance. Some members of the community of community informatics researchers have come to a similar conclusion. This essay outlines an alternative interpretation based on complex ad...

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate the role of information as a source of resilience in organizations. It presents both a theory based construct of information filters of the environment scanning and a pragmatic tool for managing the process. Design/methodology/approach – The filter construct was tested in three qualitative case studies where the filter setting was changed in order to ide...

Upon completion of this interactive seminar, the participant should be able to: 1. Understand the need to treat each clinic as a unique complex adaptive system 2. Exploit the organizational safety memory of her/his clinic(s) by eliciting all the team members’ perceptions of error frequency and severity 3. Create self-empowered teams to identify, prioritize, and address the unique system vulnera...

Affiliations: School of Physics and Complex and Adaptive Systems Laboratory, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland; Center for BioNano Interactions, School of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, University College Dublin, Belfield, Ireland, School of Mathematics and Physics and Institute for Molecular Bioscience, Division of Cell Biology and Molecular Medicine, The University of Queensland, St...