Computer Simulation of Competitive Market Response

This book presents a comprehensive behavioral theory of market interactions and proposes an approach to policy management based on the use of microanalytic computer simulation. The author describes how simulation-based computer systems can provide realistic artificial environments in which managers evaluate historical strategies and examine the implications of proposed future marketing programs under various assumed competitive conditions. Management use of microanalytic simulations to assess the appropriateness of alternative solutions for a wide range of consumer and industrial marketing problems is also discussed. While other books have presented simulations of limited aspects of the marketing environment, Computer Simulation of Competitive Market Response presents complete models of consumer, distributor, retailer, and salesman behavior. Validated representations of key action and response processes including purchase decisions, response to media and word-of-mouth communication, brand image formation, and trade acceptance of new products are described. While adopting a managerial perspective, the author develops an interdisciplinary approach to problem formulation, synthetic and analytic procedures, and hypotheses regarding human behavior and interactions. His carefully structured approach to the fundamental problem of developing, testing, and validating complex models of human actions and responses makes this volume both comprehensible and valuable to researchers and practitioners from a variety of disciplines.