Title :
A time-dependent agent-based model of an eco-product market with social interactions and dynamic game pricing schemes
Author :
Thommes, Edward W. ; Thille, Henry ; Cojocaru, Monica ; Nelson, Dominic
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Phys., Univ. of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada
Abstract :
We present an agent-based model of an eco-product market from a system design perspective. The aim of our work is to investigate practicable ways in which such a market can be made to emerge and develop. The model takes an existing static formulation of a differentiated products market and generalizes it to include social interactions among different consumer classes, as well as time evolution over a finite horizon. In particular, we examine how an existing market changes in response to various influences, such as new (eco-) products becoming available. Social interactions play an important role in these changes. The analysis of the model is conducted considering multiple ¿personality¿ types of consumers, ranging from early to reluctunct adopters of the new product. The simulations show various consumer distribution outcomes over the product space and give insight as to how consumer demands for the environmentally friendly products can be influenced/increased over time. We also consider a dynamic game analysis perspective for pricing schemes of eco-products on markets simulated as above.
Keywords :
game theory; marketing; pricing; consumer demands; consumer distribution; dynamic game analysis; dynamic game pricing schemes; eco-product market; social interactions; time-dependent agent-based model; Analytical models; Consumer behavior; Environmental economics; Mathematical model; Mathematics; Physics; Pricing; Psychology; Social network services; Statistics;
Conference_Titel :
Science and Technology for Humanity (TIC-STH), 2009 IEEE Toronto International Conference
Conference_Location :
Toronto, ON
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-3877-8
Electronic_ISBN :
978-1-4244-3878-5
DOI :
10.1109/TIC-STH.2009.5444501