A Spatial Agent-Based Diffusion Model of the Online Swiss Grocery Market
by Iqbal Adjali (Unilever, UK)
Abstract. This talk will introduce a real world marketing application of
social simulation and will cover two methodological aspects of agent
based simulations. The first one is the integration of spatial and
geographical effects into agent based models, and the second one relates
to the calibration and validation of empirically based spatial
agent-based models. The talk will first introduce the background to the
marketing application and review the available data, then formulate the
key research question (what role do spatial and social network
interactions play in the diffusion of online service adoptions) and
describe the model assumptions as well as the model development and
calibration process. After presenting key simulation results and
analysis, the talk will end by drawing the main conclusions and
highlighting the key advantages and limitations of this approach.