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Communicating dynamic insights to a wide audience constitutes a long‐standing challenge among system dynamics modelers. We propose that telling stories is a compelling way of introducing feedback insights, as well as an understanding of how our individual decisions are linked to social behaviors in our day‐to‐day living. These decisions often involve moral and ethical trade‐offs. In this article, we use examples and heuristics to illustrate how the process of building a system dynamics model can drive a storytelling project. In a complimentary manner, the process of storytelling supports and enriches a model building project by exploring new dynamic hypotheses. © 2024 The Authors. System Dynamics Review published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of System Dynamics Society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Motivation: Neither state planning nor economic liberalization has allowed developing economies to escape from the middle‐income trap, owing mainly to institutional voids and hindering institutions. We need another explanation for development and the emergence of new institutions. Purpose: How have biopharmaceutical enterprises emerged in Iran, despite the obstacles faced? Can the collaborative agency of small groups of actors who know each other create new institutions and hence the conditions for biopharmaceutical firms to emerge? If so, who participates in such small groups, and how do they operate? Methods and approach: We interviewed 29 key participants and stakeholders in the Iranian bio‐pharma industry. We used grounded theory to identify key themes. Findings Bio‐pharma emerged owing to the efforts of a small group who successfully worked together to master the technology, to overcome institutional obstacles and widespread scepticism within Iran, and thereby to create new firms manufacturing biopharmaceuticals. The group succeeded because it was morally committed to creating the industry; it proceeded pragmatically, experimenting and learning; and leadership was shared and collective. Policy implications: In this case, we see the inverse of a top‐down process where government acts as principal and firms act as agents. Instead, strategic collaboration across government, university and firms, in a process of trial and error, has been able to make great progress to overcome obstacles to technical innovation that seem daunting for a middle‐income country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes in business environment are leading firms to adopt a new production model called agile manufacturing. This term moves away from the traditional mass production paradigm and focuses on manufacturing highly customised products when customers require them. In this paper, we present an initial approach to agile organisation based on case studies in an Iranian industrial organisation. An agile organisation conceptual model has been drawn up, based on the conclusions of the case study. The study presented here is of an exploratory factor analysis and the conclusions are drawn through path analysis, propose possible routes for future research in the field of agile organisation. By the definition of effective factor on organisation agility, as independent variables required information were compiled through questionnaires which are about an Iranian industrial organisation, and then direct and in-direct effects of the variables on organisation agility were surveyed as a depended variable by the path analysis method. Interior variables which directly affect on organisation agility are distinguished from exterior variables which indirectly affect on it due to t-value indicator and final model of path analysis which were defined for researched organisation. By this method, with partial standardised regression coefficient, the priority and grade of every independent variable could be defined based on effecting depended variable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental degradation due to economic activities is a key challenge facing sustainable development. The fossil fuel production sector is a very polluting industry. In this research, the future trends of pollution accumulation in the region due to direct/indirect oily discharge into the semi-enclosed area of the Persian Gulf are studied. The purpose of the study was not only to alert policy-makers about potential future threats in the region but also to conduct a trial to develop potential solutions to these problems. Four different environmental cases were studied via the principle of system dynamic modeling simulation. The cases consisted of three situations: relaxed, simple policy, and restricted policies. The results show that a rational environmental policy imposing penalties on producing firms is very effective in mitigating environmental pollution. However, while these penalties are not powerful enough to discourage or reduce the highly profitable oil production in the region, they may prevent the disposal of pollutants harmful to the marine environment to some degree. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Cost overruns in Chinese highway construction projects arise both from poor construction quality and delays in completion. As a result of the lack of an effective control mechanism linking project initiation with funding availability, new projects are initiated without sufficient budget to support completion as planned. Project managers are forced by the budget constraints either to sacrifice construction quality or to slow down the pace of construction. This paper develops a system dynamics model to understand the cost overrun problem in Chinese highway construction projects. Three policy options, (1) introduction of feasibility studies, (2) loan financing of the cash-strapped projects, and (3) the raising of user charges, are evaluated using this model. The introduction of feasibility studies has the potential to be an effective policy, yet it is impossible to implement because of organizational constraints. Loan financing leads to dependence on loans rather than sustaining service delivery. The raising of user charges is found to be the most effective policy, although it is politically not very attractive. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]