Business Dynamics Models

Today’s leading authority on the subject of this text is the author, MIT Standish Professor of Management and Director of the System Dynamics Group, John D. Sterman. Sterman’s objective is to explain, in a true textbook format, what system dynamics is, and how it can be successfully applied to solve business and organizational problems. System dynamics is both a currently utilized approach to organizational problem solving at the professional level, and a field of study in business, engineering, and social and physical sciences.

Insightful modelling of dynamic systems for better business strategy The business environment is constantly changing and organisations need the ability to rehearse alternative futures. By mimicking the interlocking operations of firms and industries, modelling serves as a ‘dry run’ for testing ideas, anticipating consequences, avoiding strategic pitfalls and improving future performance. Strategic Modelling and Business Dynamics is an essential guide to credible models; helping you to understand modelling as a creative process for distilling and communicating those factors that drive business success and sustainability. Written by an internationally regarded authority, the book covers all stages of model building, from conceptual to analytical. The book demonstrates a range of in-depth practical examples that vividly illustrate important or puzzling dynamics in firm operations, strategy, public policy, and everyday life. This updated new edition also offers a rich Learners' website with models, articles and videos, as well as a separate Instructors' website resource, with lecture slides and other course materials (see Related Websites/Extra section below). Together the book and websites deliver a powerful package of blended learning materials that: Introduce the system dynamics approach of modelling strategic problems in business and society Include industry examples and public sector applications with interactive simulators and contemporary visual modelling software Provide the latest state-of-the-art thinking, concepts and techniques for systems modelling The comprehensive Learners' website features models, microworlds, journal articles and videos. Easy-to-use simulators enable readers to experience dynamic complexity in business and society. Like would-be CEOs, readers can re-design operations and then re-simulate in the quest for well-coordinated strategy and better performance. The simulators include a baffling hotel shower, a start-up low-cost airline, an international radio broadcaster, a diversifying tyre maker, commercial fisheries and the global oil industry. "Much more than an introduction, John Morecroft’s Strategic Modelling and Business Dynamics uses interactive ‘mini-simulators and microworlds’ to create an engaging and effective learning environment in which readers, whatever their background, can develop their intuition about complex dynamic systems." John Sterman, Jay W. Forrester Professor of Management, MIT Sloan School of Management "Illustrated by examples from everyday life, business and policy, John Morecroft expertly demonstrates how systems thinking aided by system dynamics can improve our understanding of the world around us." Stewart Robinson, Associate Dean Research, President of the Operational Research Society, Professor of Management Science, School of Business and Economics, Loughborough University

John Morecroft's book is an ideal text for students interested in system modelling and its application to a range of real world problems. The book covers all that is necessary to develop expertise in system dynamics modelling and through the range of applications makes a persuasive case for the power and scope of the approach. As such it will appeal to practitioners as well as students. Robert Dyson, Professor of Operational Research, Associate Dean, Warwick Business School. Much more than an introduction, John Morecroft's Strategic Modelling and Business Dynamics uses interactive "management flight simulators" to create an engaging and effective learning environment in which readers, whatever their background, can develop their intuition about complex dynamic systems. The numerous examples provide a rich test-bed for the development of systems thinking and modelling skills John Sterman, Jay W. Forrester Professor of Management, MIT Sloan School of Management This book, with its vivid examples and simulators, will help to bring modelling, system dynamics and simulation into the mainstream of management education where they now belong. John A. Quelch, Professor of Marketing, Harvard Business School, Former Dean of London Business School This text fills the gap between texts focusing on the purely descriptive systems approach and the more technical system dynamics ones. Ann van Ackere, Professor of Decision Sciences, HEC Lausanne, Universit? de Lausanne Strategic modelling based on system dynamics is a powerful tool for understanding how firms adapt to a changing environment. The author demonstrates the appeal and power of business modelling to make sense of strategic initiatives and to anticipate their impacts through simulation. The book offers various simulators that allow readers to conduct their own policy experiments. Dr. Erich Zahn, Professor of Strategic Management, Betriebswirtschaftliches Institut, University of Stuttgart A website to accompany the book can be found at www.wiley.com/college/morecroft housing supplementary material for both students and lecturers.

A guide explaining the application of systems dynamics to organizational problem solving. It looks at simulation models to understand issues such as fluctuating sales, market growth and stagnation, the reliability of forecasts and the rationality of business decision making.

Business cycle theory has been one of the fastest growing fields in modern nonlinear economic dynamics. This book presents new mathematical methods for global analysis which have not previously been available in this easily accessible form. In addition it contains a presentation of full analyses of several models left open in the 1950s when the tools then available did not permit more systematic analysis.

This book covers the broad spectrum of system dynamics methodologies for the modelling and simulation of complex systems: systems thinking, causal diagrams, systems structure of stock and flow diagrams, parameter estimation and tests for confidence building in system dynamics models. It includes a comprehensive review of model validation and policy design and provides a practical presentation of system dynamics modelling. It also offers numerous worked-out examples and case studies in diverse fields using STELLA and VENSIM. The system dynamics methodologies presented here can be applied to nearly all areas of research and planning, and the simulations provided make the complicated issues more easily understandable. System Dynamics: Modelling and Simulation is an essential system dynamics and systems engineering textbook for undergraduate and graduate courses. It also offers an excellent reference guide for managers in industry and policy planners who wish to use modelling and simulation to manage complex systems more effectively, as well as researchers in the fields of modelling and simulation-based systems thinking.

This book introduces optimal control methods, formulated as optimization problems, applied to business dynamics problems. Business dynamics refers to a combination of business management and financial objectives embedded in a dynamical system model. The model is subject to a control that optimizes a performance index and takes both management and financial aspects into account. Business Dynamics Models: Optimization-Based One Step Ahead Optimal Control includes solutions that provide a rationale for the use of optimal control and guidelines for further investigation into more complex models, as well as formulations that can also be used in a so-called flight simulator mode to investigate different complex scenarios. The text offers a modern programming environment (Jupyter notebooks in JuMP/Julia) for modeling, simulation, and optimization, and Julia code and notebooks are provided on a website for readers to experiment with their own examples. This book is intended for students majoring in applied mathematics, business, and engineering. The authors use a formulation-algorithm-example approach, rather than the classical definition-theorem-proof, making the material understandable to senior undergraduates and beginning graduates.

This book allows the reader to acquire step-by-step in a time-efficient and uncomplicated the knowledge in the formation and construction of dynamic models using Vensim. Many times, the models are performed with minimal current data and very few historical data, the simulation models that the student will design in this course accommodate these analyses, with the construction of realistic hypotheses and elaborate behavior models. That's done with the help of software Vensim that helps the construction of the models as well as performing model simulations. At the end of the book, the reader is able to: - Describe the components of a complex system. - Diagnose the natural evolution of the system under analysis. - Create a model of the system and present it using the simulation software. - Carry out simulations with the model, in order to predict the behavior of the system. Content Environmental Area 1. Population Growth 2. Ecology of a Natural Reserve 3. Effects of the Intensive Farming 4. The Fishery of Shrimp 5. Rabbits and Foxes 6. A Study of Hogs 7. Ingestion of Toxins 8. The Barays of Angkor 9. The Golden Number Management Area 10. Production and Inventory 11. CO2 Emissions 12. How to Work More and Better 13. Faults 14. Project Dynamics 15. Innovatory Companies 16. Quality Control 17. The impact of a Business Plan Social Area 18. Filling a Glass 19. A Catastrophe Study 20. The Young Ambitious Worker 21. Development of an Epidemic 22. The Dynamics of Two Clocks Mechanical Area 23. The Tank 24. Study of the Oscillatory Movements 25. Design of a Chemical Reactor 26. The Butterfly Effect 27. The Mysterious Lamp Advanced Exercises (Vensim PLE PLUS) 28. Import data from an Excel file 29. Building Games and Learning Labs 30. Interactive models 31. Input Output Controls 32. Sensitivity Analysis Annex I. Guide to creating a model II. Functions, Tables and Delays III. Frequently Asked Questions FAQs IV. Download the models of this book The author Juan Martín García is teacher and a worldwide recognized expert in System Dynamics, with more than twenty years of experience in this field. Ph.D. Industrial Engineer (Spain) and Postgraduated Diploma in Business Dynamics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT (USA). He teaches Vensim online courses in http://vensim.com/vensim-online-courses/ based on System Dynamics.