This book demonstrates the theoretical value and practical significance of systems science and its logic of thinking by presenting a rigorously developed foundationa tool for intuitive reasoning, which is supported by both theory and empirical evidence, as well as practical applications in business decision making. Following a foundation of general systems theory, the book presents an applied method to intuitively learn system-sciences fundamentals. The third and final part examines applications of the yoyo model and the theoretical results developed earlier within the context of problems facing business decision makers by organically combining methods of traditional science, the first dimension of science, with those of systems science, the second dimension, as argued by George Klir in the 1990s. This text would benefit graduate students, researchers, or practitioners in the areas of mathematics, systems science or engineering, economics, and business decision science.

Includes the most important developments made since the year 2000 in the relevant areas of research Provides insightful and thought-provoking applications in economics and business decision making Develops a general theory of systems through a constructive interpretation of the yoyo model in the framework of the general system theory approach

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Professor Sifeng Liu, Ph.D., distinguished professor of NUAA. Dr Liu has selected into the long-term project of national major talent programs of China, honorary fellow of WOSC, and advanced fellow of MC Fellowships of the EU. He is serving as the founding director of IGSS at NUAA, the founding president of IAGSUA, the founding editor of GS, and the editor-in-chief of JGS and two book series on Grey Systems one in English (Springer-Nature) and the other one in Chinese (Science Press). His literatures have been cited more than 40 thousands. He has listed in top 2% scientists of the world by Stanford University and ranking first in the list of the highly cited authors in the field of system science, with H-index of 91 by Baidu Scholar. On the 7th of September, 2019, Angela Dorothea Merkel, then German Chancellor, praised grey system theory in her speech at Huazhong University of Science and Technology. She said that the work of Professor Julong Deng and Professor Sifeng Liu,both graduated from HUST, "have made a profound impact on the world." Prof. Yingjie Yang is currently a full professor in Computational Intelligence at Institute of Artificial Intelligence of DMU, UK. He received two Ph.D. degrees both in engineering from Northeastern University, China, in 1994, and in computer science at Loughborough University, UK, in 2008, respectively. He has coordinated a number of international research projects in related fields supported by EU and UK research funding and published over 200 papers on grey systems, fuzzy sets, rough sets, neural networks, and their applications. Dr Yang is the executive president of IAGSUA. He is serving as associate editors in 5 international academic journals, including GS and JGS. Dr Jeffrey Yi-Lin Forrest, also known as Yi-Lin, Ph.D., professor of mathematics and research coach for the School of Business at Slippery Rock University, Pennsylvania, and the president of the International Institute for General Systems Studies, Inc., Pennsylvania. He serves either currently or in the past on the editorial boards of thirteen professional journals, including "Kybernetes" "Journal of Systems Science and Complexity," "International Journal of General Systems," "The Journal of Grey Systems," etc. and the editor-in-chief of three book series by CRC Press. Some of Dr Forrest's research was funded by United Nations, State of Pennsylvania, National Science Foundation of China, and German National Research Center for Information Architecture and Software Technology. He has published well over 500 research works, including over 50 monographs and special topic volumes. Over the years, Dr Forrest's scientific achievements have been recognized by various professional organizations and academic publishers. In 2001, he was inducted into the honorary fellowship of WOSC.

Inhalt
Chapter 1: Introduction.- Part 1: The Foundation.- Chapter 2: The Concept of General Systems.- Chapter 3: Mappings and Constructions of Systems.- Chapter 4: Connectedness.- Chapter 5: Hierarchies Construction of Large-Scale Systems.- Chapter 6: Controllabilities.- Chapter 7: Limit Systems.- Chapter 8: Systems of Single Relations.- Chapter 9: The Feedback Mechanism.- Chapter 10: Properties Invariant under Feedback.- Chapter 11: Decoupling of Single-Relation Systems.- Chapter 12: Decomposability Conditions.- Part 2: The Systemic Intuition.- Chapter 13: How Systems Could Be Intuitively Seen.- Chapter 14: Whole Evolutions, Where Systemic Yoyos Come From.- Chapter 15: Some Empirical Justifications.- Part 3: Applications in Business Decision Making.- Chapter 16: Economic Events and Processes.- Chapter 17: Issues of Competition.- Chapter 18: Some Issues of the Family.- Chapter 19: Some Remarks on Organizational Efficiencies.- Chapter 20: Dealing with Indecisive Customers through Pricing.- Chapter 21: An Idea on How to Heighten the Competitive Spirits of Sales Associates.