Sustainable management of mobile telecommunications systems

Abstract

It is widely acknowledged that human society is transcending through the era of Society 5.0 with increasing impetus provided by the rapidly evolving technologies of the fourth industrial revolution. The era of Society 5.0 is characterized by rapid technological evolutions as well as volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous stressors arising from the effects of unprecedented events such as geopolitical tensions and socio-economic transitions, further exacerbated by climate change, global warming, and pandemics. There is also a general understanding that sustainability is the paramount paradigm for the Society 5.0 era. Subsequently, and due to increasing concerns about the effects of climate change, the predominant context has been the environmental dimension of the sustainability paradigm. However, in recent times, economic, business, technology and even socio-political aspects have emerged as other dimensions to study and operationalize the sustainability paradigm. The sustainability of technological systems, such as cellular mobile telecommunications networks, is paramount in the current era of Society 5.0.

Mobile telecommunications systems pervade all aspects of human endeavour in the sense that they not only facilitate hyper-interconnectivity and inter-communicability between individuals but also, telecommunications systems create high levels of interdependency between all actors, agents, and man-made things that facilitate commerce, governance, industry, and society. In conjunction with the imperatives of the sustainability paradigm, issues such as rapidly evolving technologies, increasing regulatory concerns, complex business relations and vagarious consumer expectations represent serious challenges for the management of mobile telecommunications systems. For the study discussed in this thesis, the primary issue is how to manage mobile telecommunications systems in a manner that conforms to the sustainability paradigm.

A literary analysis of the sustainability paradigm as well as the concepts of leadership, resiliency, and innovativeness provided theoretical underpinnings for the conceptual framework for the study. The research examined the life stages of the physical structures and business models, as well as the value networks of mobile telecommunications systems, taking into consideration the ongoing rapid technological evolutions.

A multi-method qualitative approach grounded on the sustainability paradigm was applied for this research study. The study encompassed preliminary case studies of mobile telecommunications systems (MTS) firms in various parts of the world, followed by detailed analyses of the influences of leadership, resiliency, and innovativeness constructs on sustainable management of such MTS firms via semi-structured interviews with dozens of industry experts and non-participatory observation of discussion panels of industry leaders and experts at the AfricaCom 2022. So far, the research outputs include (i) initial findings from the literary study leading to the conceptual model presented and published in the 2021 conference proceedings of the International Association for the Management of Technology; (ii) “an empirical examination of the role of leadership for the sustainable management of mobile telecommunications” which was presented and published in the conference proceedings of PICMET 2022; (ii) a pre- and post-COVID-19 pandemic trend analyses of a dozen firms which provided some insights regarding the resiliency of mobile telecommunications systems, and which was published in the conference proceedings of PICMET 2023.

Considering that there is a technological dimension to the sustainability paradigm, this thesis posits an integrated framework for the sustainable management of mobile telecommunications systems. The framework can be applied to examine whether or not a delineated mobile telecommunications system is being sustainably managed. The thesis is that within the volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous characterisation of Society 5.0. the triple-helix integration of leadership, resiliency, and innovativeness is paramount for sustainable management in general, and of mobile telecommunications systems in particular. The proposed framework not only holds practical implications for the sustainability of MTS businesses and organisations in both public and private sectors but also serves as a foundation for further scholarly research regarding the technological dimension of sustainability.