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.