Topic recipe-based social simulation for research dynamics analysis

In this paper, we introduce an agent-based modeling and simulation model for research dynamics analysis. Since researchers constitute research systems in research dynamics, modelling the behavior of a researcher is a key to this method. A researcher makes topic recipes for research products projecting his/her interest and fulfilling financial needs under his/her capability and topical trends. A topic recipe means a combination of topics in a research field. A topic can be related to a methodology or domain knowledge. However, the researcher chooses the favorable topic recipe among the recipes for each. We analyzed the forecasting power of our model. We also examined research dynamics, in terms of foresight, with respect to the social network structure of researchers. In result, we confirmed many topical trends generated by our model had similar pattern to the real topical trends. However, there still are future works to improve the forecasting power

Rethinking the Value of Simulation Methods in the Information Systems Research Field: A Call for Reconstructing Contribution for a Broader Audience

The impact of simulation methods for social research in the Information Systems (IS) research field remains low. A concern is our field is inadequately leveraging the unique strengths of simulation methods. Although this low impact is frequently attributed to methodological complexity, we offer an alternative explanation – the poor construction of research value. We argue more intuitive value construction, better connected to the knowledge base, will facilitate increased value and broader appreciation. Meta-analysis of studies published in IS journals over the last decade evidences the low impact. To facilitate value construction, we synthesize four common types of simulation research contribution: Analyzer, Tester, Descriptor, and Theorizer. To illustrate, we employ the proposed typology to describe how each type of value is structured in simulation research and connect each type to instances from IS literature, thereby making these value types and their construction visible and readily accessible to the general IS community

The co-evolution of competition and parasitism in the resource-based view:a risk model of product counterfeiting

The primary concern in the resource-based view of the firm has been competition. For many firms, however, the relevant ecology includes parasites as well as competitors – notably product counterfeiters who parasitically exploit a firm’s reputational resource. This parasitic process both diminishes the reputational resource it exploits, and produces significant risk of harm as a by-product. This article extends the resource-based view, presenting an account of the mechanism by which competition and parasitism co-evolve and produce a distinctive form of resource erosion. It does so using a model which, because a firm’s reputational resource exists distributedly in the minds of mutually-influencing but not centrally-coordinated consumers, takes an agent-based approach. This model then naturally forms a basis for the probabilistic risk assessment of the consequences of parasitism – particularly the harm that arises from the counterfeiting of safety critical products such as pharmaceuticals. The intended contribution is to show how the resource-based view can be extended to reflect the fact that heterogeneous resource distribution is implicated in parasitism as much as competition, and to show how a model of the underlying mechanisms can support risk analysis

Community college faculty job satisfaction: A network approach

This study addresses the question, \u27how do network dynamics and leadership behavior influence community college faculty job satisfaction?\u27 Using ORA\u27s dynamic network analysis (DNA) tools, this study investigates how network interactions relate to faculty job satisfaction, how beliefs about leader-member exchange (LMX) relationships relate to network interactions, and how beliefs about LMX relationships relate to job satisfaction. A faculty network is analyzed as a whole, then clusters are identified and analyzed using standard network measurements and a belief propagation algorithms. Results indicate that job satisfaction and perceptions of relationship with leaders are co-created within networks. Cluster which have high network density (tightly coupled) and clusters which have low network density (loosely coupled) have lower co-created realities of job satisfaction and perceptions of quality of relationships with leaders than clusters with moderate network density (moderate coupling). Network theory asserts that networks which have moderate density also respond more adaptively to internal and external challenges, are more creative, and allow for more appropriate flow of information into and out of the network than those with low or high density. In other words, clusters with moderate density are not only adaptive systems, but also that members of moderately dense clusters have high levels of job satisfaction and perceive high quality relationships with leaders. An additional finding is that larger, co-located clusters of agents are likely to have moderate network density. Agents within larger clusters are likely to have high job satisfaction and perceptions of high-quality relationships with leaders. Furthermore, this study offers a new approach to studying job satisfaction though the use of in-depth analysis of the co-created network conditions under which satisfaction occurs. Changes in satisfaction are projected through modeling using a belief propagation algorithm

Is competition sufficient to drive observed retail location and revenue patterns? An agent-based case study.

Agent-based models (ABMs) have been widely used to represent and investigate complex systems and are a contemporary modelling approach used in the study of land-use and land-cover change. While many ABMs have been constructed to address research questions associated with residential land development and human choices, agricultural land transition and farmer decision-making, and transportation networks and planning, less attention has been given to improving our understanding about the drivers and agent behaviours associated with commercial and retail competition, which subsequently affects land-use change. Among existing ABMs that represent the retail system, the focus has been on understanding consumer behaviours, but the inclusion of the store competition is lacking, and most retail competition models still use a top-down modelling framework. The thesis herein provides a new contribution to retail competition literature through the development and use of a retail-competition agent-based model (RC-ABM). Utilizing previous empirical research on consumer expenditures and retail location site selection, competition for home-improvement expenditures is simulated within the home-improvement retail system in the Region of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Results exhibit a high level of alignment between the RC-ABM and a traditional Location-Allocation Model (LAM) in estimating a market capture and store revenue acquisition. In addition, while modelled competition itself cannot reproduce the observed spatial pattern of home-improvement stores in our study area, results from the model can be used to identify path dependencies associated with retail success generated by competition and factors affecting retail store survival. Lastly, the presented RC-ABM provides the potential to enrich future land-use and land-cover change models by better representing commercial development

Die Entwicklung Sozialer Netzwerke von Gründerteams. Formulierung, Implementierung und Anwendung eines kognitionsbasierten Simulationsmodells

Die Untersuchung befasst sich mit der Entwicklung Sozialer Netzwerke von Gründerteams. Dazu wurde ein kognitionsbasiertes Modell entwickelt, welches die Anbahnung, die Etablierung und den Abbruch von Geschäftsbeziehungen bei Gründerteams erfasst, sowie Tranksaktionen und Kommunikationen innerhalb von diesen. Das Modell wurde in einer Computersimulation implementiert, validiert und angewandt. Aus dem beobachteten Verhalten der Computersimulation heraus wurden 22 Propositionen über die Entwicklung Sozialer Netzwerke von Gründerteams abgeleitet