CO-EVOLUTION PATH MODEL (CePM): SUSTAINING ENTERPRISES AS COMPLEX SYSTEMS ON THE EDGE OF CHAOS

The purpose of this study is primarily theoretical—to propose and detail a model for system evolution and show its derivation from the fields of enterprise architecture (EA), cybernetics, and systems theory. Cybernetic thinking is used to develop the coevolution path model (CePM) to explain how enterprises coevolve with their environments. The model reinterprets Ashby's law of requisite variety, Stafford Beer's viable system model, and Conant and Ashby's theorem of the “good regulator” to exemplify how various complexity management theories could be synthesized into a cybernetic theory of EA—informing management of mechanisms to maintain harmony between the evolution of the enterprise as a complex system and the evolution of its complex environment.

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