Technology of management by weak signals in information redundant environments of the data economy

Relevance. Today, the government is making significant efforts for implementation of the national project “Data Economics and Digital Transformation of the State”, which will create an advanced technological infrastructure for real-time processing of management information in unprecedented volumes. A dialectical view of the processes of shaping an economic environment saturated with data allows us to consider a number of challenges that require scientific understanding. The key one is the need to distinguish between data with the management value and disparate information arrays. At a fundamental level, this problem was foreseen by the founders of cybernetics, developing the “weak signal–noise” dichotomy, where weak signals can be considered as proto-data. A weak signal is an inconspicuous, not yet classified, but potentially critical for decision–making, sign of changes in the internal and external environment that eludes standard perception and analysis procedures. Technology of management by weak signals issues have been the subject of research not only in cybernetics, but also in information theory and strategic management, but the task of developing a unified applied management methodology has not yet been solved. The purpose of this study is the bibliometric systematization of approaches to the technology of weak signal management, followed by the synthesis of a verifiable ontological model of the concept. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the reconstruction of a transdisciplinary ontological structure of the weak signal as a managerial category that integrates cybernetic, informational, and strategic foundations. To achieve this goal, two key tasks were solved: defining a semantic field that localizes the concept of a weak signal in an interdisciplinary space, and transdisciplinary ontological mapping of such technology. Bibliometric statistical tools, semantic coding and mapping are used. The methodological basis of the study is the combination of bibliometric analysis, semantic normalization, and ontological modeling. The research corpus includes 210 publications selected for the period 1996–2023 based on a continuous sample from international scientific citation databases. Verification of the concept of weak signals was carried out on two cases. The results of the study include: the construction of a semantic map of the “weak signal” concept; the identification of stable clusters of scientific discourse and their comparative characterization; and the development of an ontological model of the technology of management by weak signals. The authors have created methodological foundations for the further development of the concept of management by weak signals and its application in the governance of complex organizational systems in data economy. 

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