Toward a typology of weak-signal early alert systems : functional early warning systems in the post-COVID age

Purpose: The study aims to expand on the concept of an early warning system (EWS) by introducing weak-signal detection, human-in-the-loop (HIL) verification and response tuning as integral parts of an EWS's design. Design/methodology/approach: The authors bibliographically highlight the evolution of EWS over the last 30+ years, discuss instances of EWSs in various types of organizations and industries and highlight limitations of current systems. Findings: Proposed system to be used in the transforming of weak signals to early warnings and associated weak/strong responses. Originality/value: The authors contribute to existing literature by presenting (1) novel approaches to dealing with some of the well-known issues associated with contemporary EWS and (2) an event-agnostic heuristic for dealing with weak signals. Peer review: The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-11-2020-0513.