*PhD Scholarship in *
*Agent-Based Modeling of Business Relations andNetworks*
*ARC Agent-Based Modeling of Business Relations and Networks grant*
*School of Marketing, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia*
*Overview*
Applications are invited for a scholarship to undertake a PhD in the Schoolof Marketing at the Australian School of Business at the University of NewSouth Wales. The research will form part of an Australian Research Councilfunded project to develop agent-based models of the development andevolution of business relations and networks in industrial markets.
The successful applicant will work under the supervision of the researchproject's Chief Investigators: Professor Ian Wilkinson of the School ofMarketing and Professor Robert Marks of the Australian Graduate School of Management and School of Economics at the University of New South Wales andProfessor Louise Young of the School of Marketing at the University of Technology Sydney. These are leading international researchers in the area of business marketing and economics with extensive backgrounds in the study of business relations and networks, as well as expertise in modeling. They have strong links with prominent researchers in the agent-based modelingfield around the world.
*Skills and Qualifications* * Required*
We are looking for a person with high-level computer science qualifications(First or Upper Second Class honours or equivalent) and skills, especiallyin the area of agent-based modeling, to work on the project. This wouldinclude expertise in object-oriented programming languages, such as Javaand/or C++. We would give preference to an applicant who also had somehigh-level disciplinary-relevant knowledge and educational qualifications inmarketing, business, economics or another relevant discipline. Because acombination of relevant computer science skills and disciplinary knowledgeis rare, our primary focus is on the computing skills plus a willingness toapply these in the area of business. This may mean that the successfulapplicant will be required to undertake a program of study to equip themwith necessary disciplinary knowledge to undertake the research and tofulfill the requirements of a PhD in the School of Marketing. High-levelcommunication and writing skills in English are also essential.
*The scholarship is available for local and international students for three years full-time enrolment in the PhD program and provides the scholarwith a tax-exempt stipend of up to AUD$30,000 per annum.
The successful candidate would be expected to commence the PhD at thebeginning of 2009.
*To apply,* please submit your CV, academic transcripts, a summary of yourresearch interests and strengths related to the research and two academicreferee reports to Professor Ian F. Wilkinson(*i.wilkinson@unsw.edu.au*<i.wilkinson@unsw.edu.au>).
*Further Enquiries*
Please contact Professor Ian F. Wilkinson(*i.wilkinson@unsw.edu.au* <i.wilkinson@unsw.edu.au>),
Professor Bob Marks (*bobm@agsm.edu.au* <bobm@agsm.edu.au>) or
ProfessorLouise Young (*l.young@uts.edu.au* <l.young@uts.edu.au>) for furtherinformation. Additional information may be also be found on the University'sand School of Marketing's websites (*www.unsw.edu.au*<http://www.unsw.edu.au/>,*www.marketing.unsw.edu.au* <http://www.marketing.unsw.edu.au/>).*
ARC2008 Phd Scholarship in Agent Based Modelling of Business Relations andNetworks: Additional Information*
*a) Chief Investigators and their Roles*
*Professor Ian F. Wilkinson*
Professor Wilkinson has played a leading role in introducing concepts andmethods from the complexity sciences into marketing and in developing modelsof market and network dynamics. In 2005 he was an invited keynote speaker atthe American Antitrust Institute workshop on Complexity and Antitrust. Hewas educated in the UK and Australia and has held academic posts at variousuniversities, including: UC Berkeley, Bath, Cincinnati, Temple, Lancaster,Stockholm School of Economics and the University of International Businessand Economics Beijing. His current research focuses the development andmanagement of interfirm relations and networks in domestic and internationalbusiness and the dynamics of markets and industrial networks. This work isbeing carried out in cooperation with various researchers in Asia, Europeand USA and is funded by ARC research grants. In 2005 he received theDistinguished Researcher of the Year Award from the Australia New ZealandMarketing Academy.
*Professor Robert E. Marks*
Professor Marks is a pioneering economist in the use of agent-basedmodelling. For the past twenty years his research has focused on the use ofsimulation in general, and agent-based simulation in particular, to analysemarket interactions that would otherwise remain unexplained, such asoligopolistic behaviour in markets where brands compete, and supermarketsmoderate their rivalry. He has made contributions to theory, application,and teaching, using genetic algorithms and other tools from computerscience, not just to analyse, but also to synthesise, to design. Hisresearch has been supported by ARC funding for some years. Most recently, hehas been applying techniques from complexity theory to the problem ofvalidating simulation models in general, and agent-based models inparticular. He has been a visiting professor at universities in Taiwan, theU.S. (Stanford, UC Berkeley, and M.I.T.), and France (INSEAD).
*Professor Louise Young*
Professor Young is an expert in the social processes embedded inrelationships and networks, in particular trust, including their emergenceand evolution. Her research focus is cross-disciplinary and multi-method,including computer-aided semantic analysis of interview and secondary text,social network mapping, relational marketing, complexity/evolution, socialinfluence and collaborative groupings in a range of contexts. A major focusof her current research is on the evolution and management of businessrelationships and networks and in particular on the ways the psychology ofthe individuals participating in these impacts on relation and networkfunctioning. Her work is carried out in collaboration with researchers inAustralasia, Europe and America, is supported by ARC research grants and hasbeen published in a range of business and social journals. She was educatedin the USA and Australia and has held visiting appointments at variousuniversities, including Bath, Cincinnati, Lancaster, Stockholm School ofEconomics, Southern Denmark, and the University of International Businessand Economics Beijing.
*b)* * Aims and Background of the Research Project:*
*Title: "Modeling the Development and Evolution of Business Relations andNetworks as Complex Adaptive Systems using Agent-Based Models"*
The development of collaborative relations and networks among and withinfirms is increasingly recognised as an important source of competitiveadvantage. These also present problems and challenges for managers andpolicy makers because relations and networks are not directed and controlledby individual firms or government but are examples of complex adaptivesystems that self-organise over time through the micro interactions andprocesses taking place. This is because business relations and networks area part of the extended enterprise of a firm; a form of collective mind withassociated skills, resources, knowledge and competences that both enable andconstrain what those involved can do, see, know, learn and think.
*A major gap in the literature exists* *in terms of theory andevidence about the way business relations and networks develop and evolveover time and the role managers and government can play in influencing thisin productive ways*, despite* * substantial past research*.* Most researchand theory to date has been dominated by comparative-static, variance-based,survey-type approaches to describing and explaining relationship and networkbehaviour and performance, which ignore temporal processes, includingdevelopment and evolution, interaction and order effects, and feedbackeffects. A special issue of the *Academy of Management Review* in 2006echoes these concerns and the underdeveloped nature of research on thetemporal and process dimensions of relations and networks, highlighting theimportance of additional research in this area.
The aim of this research is to build agent-based models (ABM) ofbusiness relationship and network development and evolution as complexadaptive systems that:
- Integrate the main psychological, social, managerial, economic and other mechanisms operating, as identified in existing theories, and through systematic narrative event history mapping of a sample of actual business relationship and network histories.
- Are capable of reproducing the stylised patterns of development and evolution of actual business relations and networks;
- Can systematically examine the kinds of relationship and network attractors that exist in different circumstances and their sensitivity to starting conditions and other factors;
- Can be used to examine the roles of managers and government in shaping patterns of development and evolution and to help design more effective intervention and participation strategies.
Our approach explains in the sense of Herbert Simon, "to 'explain' anempirical regularity is to discover a set of simple mechanisms that wouldproduce the former in any system governed by the later." Similarly,Epstein, in his recent book *Generative Social Science*, argues that to grow(or generate) is to explain. To accomplish our goals we will usecutting-edge theories and methodologies that the Chief Investgators areexpert in and make use of the results of prior research carried out by themregarding actual business relationships and networks to inform and test themodels developed. These models will integrate a diverse set of mechanismsand processes driving relationship and network development, including novelfeatures such as* multi-level group selection mechanisms* and *structuralbalance, * whose importance has only recently been appreciated.
