Title: Business networks dynamics and agent-based simulation
Authors: Giorgio Gottardi
Addresses: Faculty of Engineering, Department of Management and Engineering, Padova University, Via Ognissanti, 72, Padova 35100, Italy
Abstract: The interest of social scientists in dynamic and far from equilibrium processes, the need for efficient methods to analyse complex business systems, and the availability of new computational tools, are the reasons for the growing interest in agent-based simulation models (ABMs). One of the applications of ABMs in economic and business field is the study of geographical clusters. Using simulation, various authors have tried to validate specific hypotheses about emergent features and performances of these systems. Nevertheless, the analyses of their dynamic behaviour are in part, lacking. The aim of this paper is to investigate, using a quite general AB simulation platform, the drivers of their evolutionary trajectories: origin, growth, maturity and death or transformation. After some references on the state of the art and on the use of the ABMs in business systems dynamics, the principal building criteria of a quite general simulation platform are described. In the conclusions, some preliminary results and research agenda are synthesised.
Keywords: agent-based simulation; modelling; geographical clusters; business network dynamics; agent-based systems; multi-agent systems; business systems dynamics; business networks.
DOI: 10.1504/IJBSR.2011.040787
International Journal of Business and Systems Research, 2011 Vol.5 No.4, pp.364 - 387
Published online: 17 Apr 2015 *
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