Abstract
Systems involving agriculture and natural resources (AGNR) management and representing integrations of biologic, geologic, socio-economic, and climatic characteristics are incredibly complex. AGNR managers purport using a systems-oriented mental model while many observed management and policy strategies remain linear or symptom-driven. To improve AGNR professionals’ systems thinking abilities, two programs, the King Ranch® Institute for Ranch Management at Texas A&M University-Kingsville (KRIRM) and the Honors College at South Dakota State University (SDSUHC), implemented the famous Production Distribution Simulation Game (a.k.a. the Beer Game) into their programs beginning in 2003 and 2011. A Beer Game database consisting of 10 years of trials or over 270 individual players was compared to seminal work in the literature as well as to one another. We found that AGNR managers and students performed worse than players in a seminal Beer Game study. More interestingly, we found that younger players adapted more readily to inventory surpluses by reducing the order rates and effective inventories significantly when compared to older players (p < 0.10 for retailer and distributors, and p < 0.05 for wholesales and factories). We substantiated our results to those in more recent studies of age-related decision-making and in the context of common learning disabilities. Lastly, we discuss some implications of such decision-making on 21st century AGNR problems and encourage AGNR disciplines to better integrate system dynamics-based education and collaboration in order to better prepare for such complex issues.
Highlights
The nature of agricultural and natural resource (AGNR) systems is inherently complex due to biologic, geologic, economic, social, policy, and climatic characteristics and delays which are powerfulSystems 2020, 8, 37; doi:10.3390/systems8040037 www.mdpi.com/journal/systemsSystems 2020, 8, 37 and oftentimes longer than in corporate settings
We describe the participants represented in our database and how performance data were screened using a Beer Game simulation model prior to analysis of individual decisions
System dynamics facilitates investigation of the dynamic consequences of choices made by decision-makers in complex, feedback driven systems
Summary
The nature of agricultural and natural resource (AGNR) systems is inherently complex due to biologic, geologic, economic, social, policy, and climatic characteristics and delays which are powerfulSystems 2020, 8, 37; doi:10.3390/systems8040037 www.mdpi.com/journal/systemsSystems 2020, 8, 37 and oftentimes longer than in corporate settings. Contemporary AGNR problems have worsened over time, increasingly affecting the livelihoods of producers, local communities, and food systems globally These 21st century challenges operate at multiple temporal and spatial scales and include problems such as climate variability and change [1,2,3], water resource scarcity [4,5,6,7], soil erosion and land degradation [8,9,10,11], biodiversity loss [12,13,14], and limits to agricultural productivity and food security [15,16,17,18,19,20], among others.
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