Global supply chains feature multi-tier systems encompassing many geographically dispersed and sequential partners operating across diversified product chains. This research attempts to examine the different mechanisms that reinforce the management of sustainability throughout complex multi-tier supply chain. Using a multi-case study of a sample of eight firms and relying on the foundations of complexity theory, this research recognises the complex operating environment of global multi-tier supply chains and reveals various mechanisms to effectively manage and facilitate the relationships with first- and lower-tier suppliers. Although institutional controls are important to manage the sustainability of first-tier suppliers, the findings posit that due to the inherent complexities of global multi-tier supply chains, duplicating institutional controls to lower-tier suppliers might not be effective. Therefore, firms should attempt to foster modest mechanisms that reinforce adaptation and self-organisation, for example, collaboration and guiding mechanisms, to effectively manage the sustainability of lower-tier suppliers. The research contributes to multi-tier sustainable supply chain management literature by exploring the different mechanisms to manage multi-tier supply chains and the inherent complexities that may impact on firms’ endeavours in achieving their sustainability goals. Managers can utilise different contingent mechanisms to effectively manage the relationships with suppliers that are beyond their immediate visibility.

This work investigates the self-organizing representation of temporal data in prototype-based neural networks. Extensions of the supervised learning vector quantization (LVQ) and the unsupervised self-organizing map (SOM) are considered in detail. The principle of Hebbian learning through prototypes yields compact data models that can be easily interpreted by similarity reasoning. In order to obtain a robust prototype dynamic, LVQ is extended by neighborhood cooperation between neurons to prevent a strong dependence on the initial prototype locations. Additionally, implementations of more general, adaptive metrics are studied with a particular focus on the built-in detection of data attributes involved for a given classifcation task. For unsupervised sequence processing, two modifcations of SOM are pursued: the SOM for structured data (SOMSD) realizing an efficient back-reference to the previous best matching neuron in a triangular low-dimensional neural lattice, and the merge SOM (MSOM) expressing the temporal context as a fractal combination of the previously most active neuron and its context. The first SOMSD extension tackles data dimension reduction and planar visualization, the second MSOM is designed for obtaining higher quantization accuracy. The supplied experiments underline the data modeling quality of the presented methods.

Self-organization is a management concept that has been implemented in different forms since the XIXth century. However, it seems that this particular model of management rediscovers increasing popularity. Indeed, various companies across the globe have transformed their systems to weaken the hierarchy and empower their workers. I explore the subject of consensus decision process in decentralized systems, and more precisely the context in which such a decision process takes place. To analyze the context of decision making-process in self-organizing teams, I suggest a model composed of three theories: the polycentric governance of Ostrom, the specific capital of Bourdieu, and the communicative action of Habermas. These three theories are gathered in a model composed of three levels of analysis. The integrative level uses the polycentric governance theory to analyze the overarching structure of rules that backbones a system. The distributive level studies the distribution of power and influence among the workers of the system. And the interactive level studies the characteristics of the discussion which ends on consensus with the help of the communicative action theory. Then, the model is composed of three levels that are studied through the analysis of 9 patterns highlighted in the literature review. The model is tested on a case study. I carry out interviews to analyze the decision-making context of the company Menlo Innovation, which has implemented a non-hierarchical management model. The analysis of the company shows that the model is useful to study context of decision-making. However, another level of analysis empirically came up. Patterns that did not fall in any of the existing levels of analysis have been empirically highlighted, and form together a new level of analysis: the cultural policy. Given the appearance of this new level, the model has been adapted to form a new framework composed of 4 areas interconnected that are studied through the analysis of 12 patterns. The thesis contributes to the existing knowledge in several ways. First, it provides a promising model of analysis for context of consensus decision making in selforganizing systems. Second, it brings a new understanding of the centrality of the specific capital distribution in nonhierarchical organizations. Finally, it highlights a new dimension of analysis for self-organization.

The thermal springs along the Middle Fork of the Boise River (MFBR) within the Atlanta lobe of the Idaho batholith discharge in discrete locations that appear to be part of self-organizing flow systems. Infiltrating water flows through Basin and Range fractures to depth where it is heated and ultimately discharged at the intersection of trans-Challis oriented faults along the MFBR. Isotopic compositions of the thermal waters have a linear trend with elevation suggesting that the recharge locations are near each thermal spring and the hydrothermal system is not one large interconnected system, but rather multiple individual hydrothermal systems. Water chemically evolves along the hydrothermal flow paths dissolving feldspars and precipitating secondary minerals. PHREEQC inverse modeling of the chemical evolution based on identified minerals within the system predicts positive volume changes in the pore space within the hydrothermal flow systems can occur. Precipitation of secondary minerals is likely to occur in the cooler, subsidiary, less-efficient fractures of the hydrothermal system. Flow areas calculated using heat flow, exponential decay, and a combination of the two, show that the topographic watershed is inadequate to accommodate the water supporting the thermal springs indicating that water is being captured from outside the watershed. The positive volume changes coupled with the water capture is evidence of positive feedback loops are active within the hydrothermal system providing a mechanism for self-organization to occur in the hydrothermal systems of granite.

Объектом исследования являлась самоорганизация студентов 1-го курса Уральского федерального университета, обучающихся на направлениях «Менеджмент» и «Международные отношения». Предметом исследования стали различия в уровне самоорганизации и характере ее взаимосвязи с мотивацией и личностными свойствами студентов разных направлений подготовки в условии самоизоляции и дистанционного обучения. Магистерская диссертация состоит из введения, двух глав, выводов по главам, заключения, списка использованной литературы (66 источников) и приложений, которые включают в себя бланки использованных методик, а также таблицы статистической обработки данных. Объем магистерской диссертации 78 страниц, на которых размещены 15 таблиц и 5 рисунков. Во введении раскрывается актуальность проблемы исследования, разработанность проблематики, ставится цель и задачи исследования, определяются объект и предмет исследования, формулируется гипотеза, указываются методики исследования, эмпирическая база и методы статистической обработки результатов, научная новизна и практическая значимость исследования. Первая глава включает в себя обзор отечественной и иностранной литературы по теме самоорганизации и связанных с ней личностных качеств. Представлены разделы, посвященные исследованию структуры самоорганизации, подходов к ее изучению. Выводы по первой главе представляют собой итоги по изучению теоретического материала. Вторая глава посвящена эмпирической части исследования. В ней представлено описание выборки (всего участие приняли 150 студентов, из них 81 студент с направления подготовки «Менеджмент», 69 студентов с направления подготовки «Международные отношения»), организации и методов проведенного исследования и результатов, полученных по всем использованным методикам: анкетирование; Пятифакторный личностный опросник, опросник Самоорганизации деятельности; опросник Шкалы академической мотивации, опросник Краткая шкала самоконтроля Дж.Тангни. Также в главе представлен статистический анализ результатов с помощью следующих методов: описательная статистика, критерий Колмогорова-Смирнова, критерий Манна-Уитни, коэффициент корреляции Спирмена. Выводы по главе 2 включают в себя основные результаты эмпирического исследования. В заключении в обобщенном виде изложены результаты теоретической и эмпирической частей работы, а также выводы по выдвинутым гипотезам, обоснована практическая значимость исследования и описаны возможные перспективы дальнейшей разработки данной проблематики. / The object of the study was the self-organization of 1st year students of the Ural Federal University studying in the areas of "Management" and "International Relations". The subject of the study was the differences in the level of self-organization and the nature of its relationship with the motivation and personal properties of students from different areas of training in the condition of self-isolation and distance learning. The master's thesis consists of an introduction, two chapters, conclusions by chapters, a conclusion, a list of references (66 sources) and applications, which include forms of the methods used, as well as tables of statistical data processing. The volume of the master's thesis is 78 pages, which contain 15 tables and 5 figures. The introduction reveals the relevance of the research problem, the development of the problematics, sets the goal and objectives of the research, defines the object and subject of research, formulates a hypothesis, indicates research methods, empirical base and methods of statistical processing of results, scientific novelty and practical significance of the research. The first chapter includes a review of domestic and foreign literature on the topic of self-organization and related personal qualities. Sections devoted to the study of the structure of self-organization, approaches to its study are presented. The conclusions on the first chapter are the results of the study of theoretical material. The second chapter is devoted to the empirical part of the study. It presents a description of the sample (a total of 150 students took part, of which 81 students from the direction of preparation "Management", 69 students from the direction of preparation "International Relations"), the organization and methods of the study and the results obtained by all the methods used: questioning; Five-factor personality questionnaire, questionnaire of self-organization of activity; the questionnaire of the Scale of academic motivation, the questionnaire of the Short scale of self-control J.Tangni. The chapter also presents a statistical analysis of the results using the following methods: descriptive statistics, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, Mann-Whitney test, Spearman correlation coefficient. Chapter 2's conclusions include the main findings of the empirical study. In the conclusion, the results of the theoretical and empirical parts of the work are summarized, as well as conclusions on the hypotheses put forward, the practical significance of the study is substantiated, and possible prospects for further development of this issue are described.

In einer zunehmend digitalen und sich rasant verändernden Arbeitswelt, wird lebenslanges Lernen immer wichtiger für den beruflichen Erfolg (OECD, 2021). Technologische Entwicklungen und der Trend zum digitalen Lernen und Arbeiten, schaffen neue Möglichkeiten für die berufsbegleitende Weiterbildung.... Learning Companions (LCs), also digitale, natürlich-sprachige Agenten (Chatbots oder sprachbasierte Assistenten), die eine freundschaftsähnliche Beziehung zu ihrem menschlichen Nutzer aufbauen, stellen einen innovativen Lösungsansatz dar, um Menschen vielfältig, individualisiert sowie zeit- und ortsunabhängig beim Lernen zu unterstützen (Khosrawi-Rad et al., 2022). Da eine hohe Motivation einen positiven Effekt auf den Lernerfolg und dessen Nachhaltigkeit hat (Hawlitschek & Merkt, 2018), jedoch gleichzeitig, insbesondere im digitalen Raum ein großes Problemfeld darstellt (Limarutti et al., 2021), forcieren wir den Einsatz eines LCs in seiner Rolle als Motivator. [Aus Einleitung]

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[pt] A auto-organização possui conceitos amplamente utilizados em diversos domínios que vão desde a biologia até aplicações em sistemas distribuí- dos. Além disso, os seus princípios servem como base e inspiração para a modelagem e desenvolvimento de tecnologias contemporâneas, como os drones e os sistemas autônomos. Nos últimos anos, os sistemas autônomos de direção e suas aplicações têm gerado um grande interesse na sociedade, principalmente pelo potencial de melhorar a segurança e a eficiência dos fluxos rodoviários. Neste trabalho, investigamos os principais aspectos de auto-organização presentes na formação de comboios veiculares dinâmicos. Ademais, modelamos e desenvolvemos um protocolo de gerenciamento de comboios baseado em fundamentos de auto-organização. Finalmente, demonstramos que o protocolo preserva a segurança e estabilidade do comboio em um cenário onde há redução de faixas no ambiente rodoviário. / [en] Self-organization has concepts widely used in many fields ranging from biology to applications in distributed systems. Besides, its principles serve as the basis and inspiration for the modeling and the development of contemporary technologies, such as drones and autonomous systems. In recent years, autonomous driving systems and their applications have instigated a great interest in society, primarily due to the potential of improving the safety and efficiency of road traffic. In this work, we investigate the main aspects of self-organization present in dynamic vehicle platoons. Also, we model and develop a platoon management protocol based on self-organizing principles. Finally, we demonstrate that the protocol maintains the safety and stability of the platoon in a lane reduction scenario in the road environment.

許多新概念或新技術的擴散通常不僅耗時甚長、擴散範圍十分廣泛，再加上社會網路在其中扮演了重要的角色，使得創新擴散本質上就屬於一種動態、非線性的複雜現象，事實上，近來研究發現，創新擴散的諸多特徵，包括「動態、非線性的複雜行為」，「正向回饋的自我組織現象」，以及「對初始狀態一些微小因素的敏感度」等，都與複雜理論中所強調「複雜系統」中的諸多特徵不謀而合。 另一方面，近來創新擴散研究逐漸將擴散視為一個創新者與採用者雙向互動的傳播過程，在擴散過程中，創新的演化與成員間的動態互動成為主要焦點。過去的擴散研究較少討論個體與總體層次間的結構化過程，亦即成員如何互動而產生系統層次的創新秩序，而系統層次的創新結果又如何進一步影響成員的互動，而複雜理論正好可以提供跨層次架構來回應此一理論缺口。 因此，本論文的研究問題包括以下兩者：一、由複雜理論觀點來看，概念型創新擴散的動態過程為何？二、由複雜觀點來看，在概念型創新的擴散過程中，相關因素如何影響創新擴散的動態過程？這些因素間存在何種互動與回饋關係？承上所述，本研究的範圍界定為「概念型創新」，在此「概念型創新」指的是近似於典範的一種具有複雜多元內涵的創新。 在研究方法上，本論文採用序列性多元方法的研究設計。利用歷史法、實驗法與個案法三種研究方法，針對相同的兩項問題，總共進行三項實證性研究，透過「質性方法--量化方法--質性方法」三種研究方法的截長補短，提高本研究的理論效度。 研究一利用歷史研究法對蒙特梭利教學法的擴散過程進行研究，將蒙特梭利教學法的擴散分為三階段，透過三階段成功、失敗與成功三種不同結果，發現不同的初始狀態變數情況，主要是再創造可能性與體制開放與自由度，將導致創新擴散的不同結果。研究二新概念擴散實驗進行兩階段實驗設計，操弄五項自變數進行重複多因子實驗，共取得二十八個實驗數據；比較不同變數情境與採用結果，除了驗證初始狀態變數對創新擴散的影響外，也發現自變數間存在明顯的交互關係。研究三進行蝴蝶蘭產業創新擴散個案研究，比較台糖進入蝴蝶蘭產業前後的創新擴散過程，以及蝴蝶蘭、嘉德利雅蘭，以及國蘭三種蘭屬的發展過程。隨著三項實證研究的進行，變數內涵逐漸豐富化，證據力也進一步強化。在研究三結束後得到修正後的觀念性架構，成為本論文的結論。 在結論部分，本研究有三大主張。首先，系統的初始狀態，包括創新導入者的網路位置、體制自由與開放性、再創造可能性、創新內涵豐富性、擴散誘因與採用人數等六項因素，將影響創新擴散成功的可能性。其次，創新擴散過程中包含許多的演化與正向回饋機制。最後，創新擴散是一個自我組織的過程，系統秩序從低一層次成員之間的互動自然突現，而非走向無序；但在自我組織過程中，秩序的出現有賴於中央協調機制（標準版本）；同時系統需要不斷輸入的能源，使其維持在自我組織行為出現的臨界點之上，這些能源通常來自於新採用者所帶來的量與質的效果。 / This dissertation applies a new perspective, complexity theory, to discuss the diffusion of “conceptual innovation”. Here conceptual innovation indicates a paradigm-like innovation with various content. By using “metaphor”, I treat diffusion as a self-organization process, and adopted important concepts from complexity theory, such as initial conditions, positive feedback, and self-organization, and then develop a dynamic process model of innovation diffusion. In this dissertation, a multi-method research design is adopted. To draw on the strength of each and offset the weakness of the others, three empirical studies were conducted. First study, the pilot study of this dissertation, is concerning the diffusion process of Montessori method, in which the different result of three diffusion stages was compared. Second, a laboratory experimental study simulating diffusion process of a new concept has been conducted. In each experiment, a new concept was announced and counted the number of adopters. Each experiment has different scenario design that is one specific combination of all variables, and then the number of adopters was compared. Third, the diffusion process of Phalaenopsis (Moth Orchid) industrial innovations was studied, in which the development process of early/late stage and three category orchids was compared. This dissertation concludes with the following findings. First, innovation diffusion is a dynamic, nonlinear complex process; factors in initial conditions will influence the result of innovation diffusion. Secondly, evolution and positive feedback effects work continuously all through the diffusion process. Finally, diffusion of conceptual innovation is a self-organization process, which depends on energy injecting into the system continuously and the existence of central coordination mechanism in the system.

Living beings, robotic and software artefacts can all be seen as agents acting and perceiving within an environment. When observed under that perspective, a new concept is accessible: information in the sense of Shannon. It has long been known that information and control are interrelated concepts. However it is only recently that this perspective has been better understood and used in order to study cognition. In this thesis, we build upon such an information-theoretic perspective and add some biologically motivated assumptions. They introduce various constraints on the capture, the processing, or the storage of information by an agent. Using such constraints it is possible to understand some limits on the control abilities of agents, and to derive algorithms that optimize these abilities. More specifically this thesis uses the recently introduced concept of empowerment, i.e. the ability to act upon the environment and perceive back the changes through the sensors. Maximizing this quantity leads to a wide range of cognitively interesting properties. This work studies some of these properties. One of them, the ability to capture information that is relevant for the perception-action loop of the agent, is deeply investigated and algorithms for exploiting this ability are presented. The second part of the thesis deals with the use of the information-theoretic framework when multiple agents are interacting with each other. Empowerment maximization in this context leads to two phenomena: the generation of complex structures, and the emergence of synchronised and potentially cooperative interactions. In this thesis, the first phenomenon is empirically investigated through various spatial scenarios in order to understand the kind of structures that are generated and under which conditions they appear. Connections are made between the second phenomenon and the concept of the multiple-access channel. Using recent developments of this information-theoretic model, it is possible to precisely study the kind of interactions that can occur, and the situations that lead to synchronised or cooperative behaviour. The general aim of this work is to give a comprehensive picture of the information-theoretic framework for studying the perception-action loop, bringing both single and multi-agents aspects together. The concepts presented in this thesis allows one to study some fundamental aspects of cognition, to engineer self-motivated robotic systems, or to drive self-organization in multi-agents systems.