Time and Fractals

This research examines whether and how the dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) have changed over time among male and female entrepreneurs in countries with different incomes and how it will be predicted. This study relies primarily on secondary data, and the research data is collected from the annual individual data set of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM). Twenty countries continuously present in the GEM research from 2008 to 2018 were selected from each year’s collection, and the data were analyzed using the XGBoost regression algorithm. The findings show that the gap between women’s and men’s risk-taking has decreased and is moving toward equality (the slope of women’s risk tolerance is less than men’s). Proactiveness is more in middle-income countries. These two factors have a positive correlation, and the regression shows an increase. Women’s proactiveness has gone up and improved over time. However, in men, there is a constant trend.

Today, the leading concern in managing organizational behavior and human resources is to improve the individuals’ performance working in the organization with the aim of increasing their efficiency. The time dimension of the work has become more critical due to the expansion of global competition and the increased demand for urgent access to products and services. Because in desired time management, determining the goals and priorities, as well as monitoring time used, can provide the effectiveness of occupational processes, maintenance of occupational balance, and success in employee-organization relationships (EOR) by facilitating productivity and reducing stress. This chapter is presented with the aim of theoretical research to identify the effectiveness of time management in EOR dynamics. This research is conducted with a descriptive-analytical method by reviewing literature reviews and library studies. The findings explain and identify the commonalities between time management and EOR, such as manager clarification and foresight in strategic decision-making, manager futurology path, stress management, creativity and innovation, work-family flexibility, job satisfaction, and organizational performance improvement. These commonalities somehow integrate the two areas of employee-organization relationship and time management, and the realization of each can make us experience its synergistic effect in the improvement and dynamics of organizational relationships and the stability of time management.

Overruns are arguably the most pernicious and persistent plague on project management. Despite decades of scrutiny and extensive advances in management, technical remedies for overruns remain insufficient. We argue that managerial cognition in reaction to project information, not technological shortcomings, harbors critical explanations for overruns. The information that managers have when planning and executing a project is often ambiguous, that is, complex, confusing, and incomplete. This ambiguity provides an opening for the natural psychological biases of project managers to systematically affect project outcomes. The result, across a wide variety of projects, is a predictable “fat-tailed” effect on the distribution of a project’s total duration and cost; moreover, this effect is highly resistant to traditional planning techniques and management controls. This chapter draws on concepts from both engineering and psychology to suggest how, under conditions of ambiguity, a paradoxical combination of cognitive and system factors predictably shapes the distributions of project outcomes. Several diverse examples of project outcome distributions are presented, and a simulation is used to illustrate how the effects of one factor in project ambiguity, complexity in project tasks, and task interactions lead to decisions that systematically bias project duration.

Recent events affecting occupational safety, and our understanding of how individuals process threat information, encourage a renewed examination of safety psychology. This chapter suggests that two information processing systems are key influences on the prioritization of safety when safety competes with other demands for attention and effort. Derived from cognitive theory and neuroscientific research, these systems are (1) identification, which represents the understanding of threats and responses, recognizing form and magnitude, and (2) proximity, which is the closeness of threats, recognizing both time and distance. Identification arises from the systematic and analytical processing of safety information and relies on the individual’s established identifications, classifications, descriptions, and understandings of threats and safety. Proximity is the temporal and spatial closeness of a threat; it induces a sense of personal exposure, responsibility, urgency, fear, and presence and is dominated by the processing of information specific to the current situation. Identification and proximity affect safety engagement, and control over the situation plays an important role in determining the actions that follow from engagement. Two examples of applications are also provided.

With increasing attention to nonlinear approaches in market analysis from the 1980s onward, the fractal structures are the most important of these approaches, especially in energy markets. Several studies have emphasized the existence of complex and nonlinear structures in energy markets, and due to this feature, the researcher’s interest has moved toward the fractal techniques and structures. After more than two decades of fractal studies in energy markets, this chapter attempts to provide a comprehensive overview of previous studies in the energy markets to provide clear insights from existing analyses in this field. By identifying research gaps in energy market issues and challenges and methodologies, a clear path can be drawn for future studies.

One of the important points confirmed by the results of previous studies is the high ability of fractal modeling to analyze nonlinear dynamics in the time series of energy prices. Various developments made in these tools paved the way for the study of energy economic studies from monofractal to multifractal. However, methodological gaps in energy studies are still visible. MF-DCCA (multi-fractal detrended cross-correlation analysis) model, lagged DFA (detrended fluctuation analysis) technique, V’s statistic technique, and finally the combination of the ARIMA (autoregressive integrated moving average) econometric model with the fractal dimension are techniques that have been somewhat neglected in energy studies. Finally, most of the fractal tools introduced in financial market studies have been developed after a time delay in energy economic studies. Therefore, in filling the research gap of nonlinear time series analysis of prices in energy markets, it will be interesting to follow the developments of fractal methodology tools in future studies of financial markets.

The efficient market hypothesis (EMH) introduced by Fama (J Finance 25(2), 383–417, 1970) has been employed in energy market studies since the 2000s. Using the multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis (MF-DFA) approach, which allows for nonlinear analysis in the time series of energy prices, the deviation of EMH in energy markets can be measured especially in the aftermath of an event or a crisis. Given the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, in late 2019 as the most consequential event influencing the global economy, we attempt to examine the efficiency of the most significant US energy markets in the pre- and post-pandemic era using the fractal approach in this chapter.

Results of the MF-DFA technique unveil that, firstly, the multifractal spectrum in all US energy markets has increased significantly post-pandemic, which in turn indicates the complexity and multi-scaling behaviors in such markets. Secondly, the electricity market always exhibits deviations from the efficiency present in the two previous periods due to the nature of the impossible storage. Finally, the results of the present study signify that COVID-19 has transformed the fractal structure pattern of all US selected energy markets. Moreover, the MF-DFA technique yields good power to analyze the time series of energy prices.

Today, most organizations increasingly act as living systems in nature. This process reflects the growth of human awareness of mutual relationships between employees and organizations. The variety of distinct elements and the diversity of relationships in the structure of dynamic management systems can be very complicated. This chapter aims to theoretically explain the relationship between the two areas of the fractal organizations and the employee-organization relationship (EOR) based on the commonalities of the two mentioned areas. This aim is done with a descriptive analytical approach by reviewing library studies. From a theoretical point of view, the findings of this chapter can be used to expand the research area of EOR by focusing on the dynamics and stability of organizational relationships and creating an effective fractal organization, based on the findings of this chapter in explaining the commonalities between the EOR and fractal organizations, demonstratively developing and growing organizational and interpersonal relationships facilitated through the alignment of the employee’s and organization’s goals and interests. Correspondingly, both parties of the relationship, whether the individual or the organization, believe that they contribute to the desirability and stability of the relationship; hence, they are required to meet the other party’s expectations. The findings explain the seven general commonalities of the two areas of the fractal organization and EOR: the requirement to have a pattern of organizational behavior, the integrity of goals and the unity of individual’s and organization’s interests, requirements of leader’s/manager’s role, the importance of individual’s role, the structure of governing interpersonal and organizational relationships, dynamics of information and background knowledge of dynamics of relationships in fractal organizations, and the importance of mutual trust as a facilitating factor. Realization and accessibility of fast and successful organizational goals can be facilitated by providing a better understanding and developing a basic knowledge of these commonalities.