Business networks dynamics and agent-based simulation

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.