Sarah Cechvala

• Cechvala, Sarah & Miklian, Jason (2025). Systems analysis and peacebuilding: a conceptual stock-taking and forward research agenda. Peacebuilding. ISSN 2164-7259. doi: 10.1080/21647259.2025.2570908. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  The growing complexity of conflicts has prompted the expansion of conceptual frameworks to better understand their multifaceted and inter-connected nature. Systems thinking has emerged as a popular approach in peacebuilding in response to this need. This approach leverages peacebuilding’s ‘local turn’ to promise a deeper study of complex social systems and their social, economic, political, and cultural factors. But what is ‘systems thinking’, and what does its proliferation mean for peacebuilding scholarship? To answer, this conceptual review systematically catalogues the most relevant 250 scholarly articles on systems thinking and analysis. We then build a framework for four interconnected approaches that systems thinking is commonly framed: heuristic, diagnostic, process-oriented, and adaptive. Our framework strengthens knowledge about how systems thinking is used in peacebuilding research and practice, and where its conceptual strengths and weaknesses lie. We conclude with a discussion of a critical analysis of the ‘systems turn’ in peacebuilding scholars

• Cechvala, Sarah (2024). Testing the boundaries of conflict systems: the case of La Frutera, Philippines and the possibilities and limitations of localised peace-positive action. Conflict, Security and Development. ISSN 1467-8802. doi: 10.1080/14678802.2024.2434574. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Contemporary peacebuilding frameworks articulate clear distinctions among the levels of conflict in which peace-positive action occurs. However, there is still little conceptual clarity as to how the impacts of such actions move across and between levels of conflict and how to ascertain the boundaries of their impacts. This article uses the case study of Unifrutti-Tropical Philippines Inc.’s (UTPI) farm, La Frutera, in Mindanao, Philippines to explore how the generation of local peace by a prominent actor can influence regional- and national-level conflict dynamics and where the boundaries lie for impact. The case study uses a systems modelling and time series analysis to consider questions about when, why, and for how long positive action may or may not foster societal change. Findings from this case shed light onto the frontiers of localised pro-peace action and the sustainability of those outcomes in complex conflict systems.

• Cechvala, Sarah (2024). Systems thinking for management practitioners and scholars: Strengthening the tools to analyze “wicked problems”. Business Horizons. ISSN 0007-6813. doi: 10.1016/j.bushor.2024.08.002. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Cechvala, Sarah & Ganson, Brian (2024). Systems Perspectives on Business and Peace: The Contingent Nature of Business-Related Action with Respect to Peace Positive Impacts. Journal of Business Ethics. ISSN 0167-4544. doi: 10.1007/s10551-023-05593-9. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  We examine three business-related initiatives designed to achieve peace positive impacts in the Cape Town township of Langa. Each was seemingly straightforward in its purpose, logic, and implementation. However, their positive intent was frustrated and their impacts ultimately harmful to their articulated goals. Understanding why this is so can be difficult in violent, turbulent, and information-poor environments such as Langa, confounding progress even by actors with ethical intentions. To aid in sense making and to provide insight for more positive future action, we develop from 125 interviews conducted for this study causal loop models for these initiatives within their conflict subsystems. These explain the perverse impacts of these initiatives by illuminating their (lack of) salience to key conflict factors, their (in)sufficiency to effect positive change in light of competing systems dynamics, and their (in)attentiveness to interdependencies with the intentions and actions of others. We thus contribute to understanding of the factors required to achieve positive social outcomes in more extreme contexts. More generally, we demonstrate the value of systems analysis both for scholarship related to business and peace and for reducing blind spots that can inhibit sound planning for ethical business action amidst complexity.

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• Miklian, Jason; Rettberg, Angelika; III, Harry J. Van Buren; Katsos, John E. & Cechvala, Sarah (2026). Has Your Company Gone Quiet, or Just Given Up? | STAKES. doi: https:/papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=7347858. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Under massive political and geopolitical pressures, companies are quietly stripping the visibility from their social activities. A survey of 400 CSR and ESG executives in both Europe and the USA shows why this silence matters, and what it costs companies now and in the future.

• Bull, Benedicte; Miklian, Jason; Hoelscher, Kristian & Cechvala, Sarah (2024). SMEs in violent contexts of the Global South: Challenges, Coping Strategies and Policy Implications. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Miklian, Jason; Bull, Benedicte; Hoelscher, Kristian; Cechvala, Sarah & Miller, Benjamin R. (2023). SMEs in Context: What effects do SMEs have on the environments in which they do business? Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Miklian, Jason; Bull, Benedicte; Miller, Benjamin R.; Hoelscher, Kristian; Cechvala, Sarah & Rettberg, Angelika (2022). ISA WORKSHOP - NASHVILLE. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv

Se alle arbeider i NVA