Inclusive and sustainable economic growth supports the transformation of society towards a better quality of life and well-being. Therefore, it is crucial to diagnose the binding factors to growth. However, existing frameworks of growth diagnostics and inclusive growth analytics, which are widely used to analyse growth problems, mainly focused on a snapshot of growth constraints of a selected location at a particular point of time. Applications of these frameworks are not fully capable of addressing the dynamic nature of growth. Moreover, most existing applications of growth frameworks are mainly predictive studies, thus they do not fully support the effort of identifying the root cause of growth problem. This calls for a more comprehensive approach to diagnosing growth problems. Building upon the existing growth diagnostics and inclusive growth analytics frameworks, as well as on cybernetics and systems-based approach, we develop a cybernetics approach to analysing inclusive growth constraints. This approach enables analysis of the dynamic nature of growth, which supports the identification of growth constraint variables and mapping of their relationships, based on data gathered about the location.

Business incubation is one of the means that promotes the overall business and economic growth of a particular location. However, to date, the role of business incubation as a social innovation, which has the aim to achieve concurrent development of firms, the economy and the society, is not yet understood. Using the systemic approach, specifically the viable system model (VSM) as the framework, the objective of this study is to diagnose the operation of an incubation programme that focuses on supporting business development for social purpose. This study utilized the qualitative methodology and selected an incubator, known as Kompleks Industri Makanan MARA (KIMAR), as the system-in-focus. KIMAR is a halal food industry complex established and operated by Majlis Amanah Rakyat (MARA); the latter a Malaysian government agency that aims to promote the socio-economic empowerment of the indigenous people of Malaysia including the Malays. Data for the diagnosis was collected through interviews with the executives responsible for the incubator operation, as well as the managers or entrepreneurs of the businesses located within it. Our analysis found cohesions among the functions of the incubator and their functionality to manage certain varieties in the environment, although more requisite varieties are needed to manage the high complexity of global halal business development. In managing these varieties, the incubation process receives financial sponsorship and other support from its social-based parent organization. The use of systems perspective highlights operational values of responsibility, long-term perspective as well as effective management of resources that drive the impact of a social incubator, thus enriches the concept of social innovation that typically focuses on the social impact of the outcome.

Halal tourism, which arises from the growth in the number of Muslim travellers world-wide and the rapid development of halal industry, is defined as the engagement of any object or action by Muslim travellers that conforms to the Islamic teachings and facilitates the practice of the religion. As such, the application of halal concept in tourism, including in its development and marketing, must be guided by the Islamic principles. With the purpose to understand the current state of knowledge and practice, we reviewed the literature on halal tourism that has been published in high-tier academic journals. Based on the review, we identified the emergent themes and the knowledge gaps for future research. Among others, we found that the industry is booming with increased participations from Muslim-minority countries. However, there seems to be variations in the practice, perhaps due to the complexity of the market needs. The implementation of halal tourism by Muslim-minority countries is the most pressing issue due to the need to ensure that the process and the service offered strictly comply with the requirements of Islamic teachings, while at the same time, to ensure that the countries are able to develop their halal sectors into competitive industries. Understanding the implementation of halal tourism is an important agenda for future research to ensure that the service provided addresses the fundamental issue of Muslims' obligations to adhere to the Islamic teachings in all aspects of their lives including while travelling.

Extant literature on technology adoption in the workplace generally analyses a single technology, thereby preventing us from a comprehensive understanding about the use of multiple technologies at work. As the usage of mobile devices becomes ubiquitous, knowing how the use of multiple technologies influence individual and group-related tasks is becoming more critical. Therefore, the objective of this study is to understand how managers perform their duties and functions and what technologies are utilized. This study adopts a qualitative study design by conducting in-depth interviews with eight managers employed in the public sector. We found four categories of convergence of mobile and fixed technologies in the workplace: supplementary, complementary, high-degree of integration, and full integration. The technology convergence is mainly influenced by the nature of the managerial work. Most importantly, mobile device is yet a disruptive innovation in the workplace, although its full integration with the fixed technology can be promoted.

Mobile technologies have long been adopted in pure science research. However, their use in social science research has been largely ignored. The objective of this study is to understand how mobile devices support social science research. To achieve this purpose, we adopted observation as a methodology to determine actual usage of mobile devices by ten individuals involved in research works, including research administrators, researchers, and research assistants. Our findings indicate that social science researchers use mobile devices to support the task of reviewing literature and gathering data. The use of mobile devices also broadens the researchers' abilities to capture and store multimedia research data and facilitates data access and analysis. Researchers also utilise mobile devices to support the management of their research projects, including communicating with other researchers and coordinating activities amongst them. They also optimize mobile devices in planning, organizing, leading and controlling their research process. In conclusion, mobile devices have become increasingly useful as multitask tools for researchers, and h

Based on the viable system model (VSM), a system viability refers to the capability of a system to exist and maintain its sustainability within an environment. In this framework, monitoring function supports the gathering of relevant information directly from the operating units and feeding them into the formal control function. In turn, the control function uses the information to produce reports for the higher level functions of intelligence and policymaking, which later utilise these information for their decision making. Given its role, monitoring function supports the viability of a system, especially in large-scale policy-based system. However, studies on the functions of a system monitoring are generally lacking, leading to the lack of understanding on how to conduct monitoring in a viable system implementation. The objectives of this study are a) to discuss the role of monitoring in a viable system framework, and b) to conceptualize the function of monitoring within a policy-based system that is enabled by technologies. To achieve these objectives, this study reviews the literature on monitoring (in relation to VSM framework), on research process in general, as well as on technology adoption. This conceptual exploration generates an emergent viable system model that can guide future researchers in conducting an action research of monitoring function implementation.