The Oxford Handbook of Agent-based Computational Management Science

Over the past few decades, agent-based modelling and agent-based computational technologies have spread into research on business and management. Agent-based modelling takes account of individual behavior alongside interactions within and across organizations and their competitive environment, seeking to explain complex, macro-level patterns emerging from micro-level behavior. These characteristics make an agent-based approach useful for studying a number of open issues in management, including adaptive behavior and dynamics in and across organizations, variable outcomes caused by management practices, and bridging micro-and macro-levels in organizational analysis.

In The Oxford Handbook of Agent-based Computational Management Science, Friederike Wall, Shu-Heng Chen, and Stephan Leitner bring together a wide array of experts in the field to give a comprehensive overview of this novel approach in management science. In particular, the volume focuses on adaptive behavior and dynamics in and across organizations, non-linearities caused by management practices, and bridging micro-and macro-levels in organizational analysis. The Handbook addresses two purposes of agent-based approaches in management science. First, the volume shows how an agent-based approach advances theory-building in management. Second, it provides an overview of agent-based technologies employed for more practical issues in management. These comprise, for example, a normative understanding of systems design, such as determining which designs provide good results.

An indispensable resource on agent-based modeling in management science, this Handbook introduces its current state from theoretical and operational perspectives and discusses its future opportunities.