Analysis of Social Dynamics in Product Adoption

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Date

2011-09-16

Authors

Kuusela, Chris

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Publisher

University of Guelph

Abstract

A variety of movements and social pressure have driven the need for an increase in environmental awareness, and subsequently fuels the need for individuals to reduce their ecological footprint. Firms are now trying to implement 'eco-friendly' technologies that both build and run their products. How these 'eco-friendly' products will perform in the market is strongly tied to a variety of consumer related influences and decisions, as well as personality type. This thesis presents a model of varied social influence on consumer markets. First we show how varied playing characteristics amongst opponents in the Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma yields a different distribution of strategies. Utilizing two variations of IPD, we map scores to edges based on the agents involved in each edge as one construct of influence. Other types of influence include a homogeneous influence, and a zero influence for comparison of results. We also introduce the Rate of Social Mobility as a basis for initializing random social movement in a network. We show that the social influence of the network in the consumer market plays a vital role in the dynamics of product adoption. In closing we discuss future model refinements, and advances.

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Keywords

Social Influence, Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma, Product Adoption

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