Bandwagon Effects in High-technology Industries

Bandwagon Effects in High-technology Industries
Author: Jeffrey H. Rohlfs
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2003
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780262681384

The theory of bandwagon effects in high technology industries, illustrated by historical and contemporary case studies.

The Dynamics of Norms

The Dynamics of Norms
Author: Cristina Bicchieri
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 242
Release: 1997
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 9780521560627

This 'state-of-the-art' collection of essays presents some of the best contemporary research into the dynamical processes underlying the formation, maintenance, metamorphosis and dissolution of norms. The volume combines formal modelling with more traditional analysis.

Evolutionary Game Dynamics

Evolutionary Game Dynamics
Author: American Mathematical Society. Short Course
Publisher: American Mathematical Soc.
Total Pages: 186
Release: 2011-10-27
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 0821853260

This volume is based on lectures delivered at the 2011 AMS Short Course on Evolutionary Game Dynamics, held January 4-5, 2011 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Evolutionary game theory studies basic types of social interactions in populations of players. It combines the strategic viewpoint of classical game theory (independent rational players trying to outguess each other) with population dynamics (successful strategies increase their frequencies). A substantial part of the appeal of evolutionary game theory comes from its highly diverse applications such as social dilemmas, the evolution of language, or mating behaviour in animals. Moreover, its methods are becoming increasingly popular in computer science, engineering, and control theory. They help to design and control multi-agent systems, often with a large number of agents (for instance, when routing drivers over highway networks or data packets over the Internet). While these fields have traditionally used a top down approach by directly controlling the behaviour of each agent in the system, attention has recently turned to an indirect approach allowing the agents to function independently while providing incentives that lead them to behave in the desired way. Instead of the traditional assumption of equilibrium behaviour, researchers opt increasingly for the evolutionary paradigm and consider the dynamics of behaviour in populations of agents employing simple, myopic decision rules.

Understanding Strategic Interaction

Understanding Strategic Interaction
Author: Wulf Albers
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 526
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3642604951

Strategic interaction occurs whenever it depends on others what one finally obtains: on markets, in firms, in politics etc. Game theorists analyse such interaction normatively, using numerous different methods. The rationalistic approach assumes perfect rationality whereas behavioral theories take into account cognitive limitations of human decision makers. In the animal kingdom one usually refers to evolutionary forces when explaining social interaction. The volume contains innovative contributions, surveys of previous work and two interviews which shed new light on these important topics of the research agenda. The contributions come from highly regarded researchers from all over the world who like to express in this way their intellectual inspiration by the Nobel-laureate Reinhard Selten.

Population Games and Evolutionary Dynamics

Population Games and Evolutionary Dynamics
Author: William H. Sandholm
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 618
Release: 2010-12-17
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0262288613

A systematic, rigorous, comprehensive, and unified overview of evolutionary game theory. This text offers a systematic, rigorous, and unified presentation of evolutionary game theory, covering the core developments of the theory from its inception in biology in the 1970s through recent advances. Evolutionary game theory, which studies the behavior of large populations of strategically interacting agents, is used by economists to make predictions in settings where traditional assumptions about agents' rationality and knowledge may not be justified. Recently, computer scientists, transportation scientists, engineers, and control theorists have also turned to evolutionary game theory, seeking tools for modeling dynamics in multiagent systems. Population Games and Evolutionary Dynamics provides a point of entry into the field for researchers and students in all of these disciplines. The text first considers population games, which provide a simple, powerful model for studying strategic interactions among large numbers of anonymous agents. It then studies the dynamics of behavior in these games. By introducing a general model of myopic strategy revision by individual agents, the text provides foundations for two distinct approaches to aggregate behavior dynamics: the deterministic approach, based on differential equations, and the stochastic approach, based on Markov processes. Key results on local stability, global convergence, stochastic stability, and nonconvergence are developed in detail. Ten substantial appendixes present the mathematical tools needed to work in evolutionary game theory, offering a practical introduction to the methods of dynamic modeling. Accompanying the text are more than 200 color illustrations of the mathematics and theoretical results; many were created using the Dynamo software suite, which is freely available on the author's Web site. Readers are encouraged to use Dynamo to run quick numerical experiments and to create publishable figures for their own research.

The Evolution of Standards

The Evolution of Standards
Author: Volker Simmering
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 263
Release: 2013-04-17
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3322815145

Volker Simmering shows how globalization influences the evolution of international standards and compares the roles of mandatory and voluntary standards. He investigates the problem of technological progress in networks and analyzes the resolution of conflicts within international standardization bodies. As a result, he suggests that policy intervention and the presence of adjacent institutional arrangements are likely to improve the performance of network markets, e.g. those for information technology and telecommunication.

The Problem-solving Capacity of the Modern State

The Problem-solving Capacity of the Modern State
Author: Martin Lodge
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 327
Release: 2014-10-23
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0191025674

The early 21st century has presented considerable challenges to the problem-solving capacity of the contemporary state in the industrialised world. Among the many uncertainties, anxieties and tensions, it is, however, the cumulative challenge of fiscal austerity, demographic developments, and climate change that presents the key test for contemporary states. Debates abound regarding the state's ability to address these and other problems given increasingly dispersed forms of governing and institutional vulnerabilities created by politico-administrative and economic decision-making structures. This volume advances these debates, first, by moving towards a cross-sectoral perspective that takes into account the cumulative nature of the contemporary challenge to governance focusing on the key governance areas of infrastructure, sustainability, social welfare, and social integration; second, by considering innovations that have sought to add problem-solving capacity; and third, by exploring the kind of administrative capacities (delivery, regulatory, coordination, and analytical) required to encourage and sustain innovative problem-solving. This edition introduces a framework for understanding the four administrative capacities that are central to any attempt at problem-solving and how they enable the policy instruments of the state to have their intended effect. It also features chapters that focus on the way in which these capacities have become stretched and how they have been adjusted, given the changing conditions; the way in which different states have addressed particular governance challenges, with particular attention paid to innovation at the level of policy instrument and the required administrative capacities; and, finally, types of governance capacities that lie outside the boundaries of the state.

Food, Agri-Culture and Tourism

Food, Agri-Culture and Tourism
Author: Katia Laura Sidali
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 214
Release: 2011-02-09
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3642113613

This book will be a valuable source of information for those concerned with rural and farm tourism, sustainable tourism and the marketing of "Calibri">local gastronomy. It presents cases with an international and interdisciplinary approach in order to provide ideas for strategic perspectives in tourism studies. Furthermore, for the first time the complex fields of rural and food tourism are examined from an international (Italy and Germany) viewpoint. This book explores ways in which gastronomical heritage (i.e., regional food, organic food) can be incorporated in rural tourism (above all farm tourism) and development policies as well as in new avenues of research e.g., sensory marketing, online marketing) in order to enhance sustainable practices both in the tourism and in the agri-food sector. Overall, the book presents an overview of benchmark practices for professionals (associations of rural tourism, farmers, etc.), while offering scholars a well-founded source to refer to in order to gain up-to-date insights into the state of the art of studies on rural and food tourism.