Agent-Based Models of a Banking Network as an Example of a Turbulent Environment: The Deliberate vs Emergent Strategy Debate Revisited is a paper that I wrote that uses an agent-based model to simulate the strategic positioning decisions of firms within a competitive environment. It links firm strategy (particularly banking strategy) to the competitive environment: where should …
Author archives: Dr Duncan Robertson
EPSRC Associate Peer Review College Membership
I have been invited to become a member of the EPSRC Associate Peer Review College. The EPSRC has a budget of £0.8 billion, which it uses to fund research in engineering and the physical sciences. These research grants are awarded on a competitive basis, and a pool of reviewers decide on which proposals should be …
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ADD – Addis Ababa: The Yellow and Green of Development
Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia, is undergoing a development revolution. In common with much of Africa, Chinese-funded development is changing the city. Everywhere you look, the green and yellow hoardings show which blocks are being developed or are about to be so. I last visited Addis four years ago in 2012, and the changes …
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Why do the Roads at London’s Heathrow Airport have strange names?
If you have ever driven around Heathrow Airport in London, you may have noticed that the road names have an interesting pattern. Roads in the central area – such as Croydon Road, Cambourne Crescent all begin with ‘C’; roads near Terminal 5 – such as Walrus Road, Wayfarer Road all begin with ‘W’; roads near …
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Parkrun Freedom of Information Act Release: Public Policy Gone Bad
Parkrun is an organization that coordinates a series of 5km runs for the public. Crucially, there is no charge for participating in these runs, and this has contributed to over 1 million people registering themselves as runners. It does good, doesn’t take a profit, and generally is regarded as a Good Thing. Generally, the locations at …
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Building the Multiplex: An Agent-Based Model of Formal and Informal Network Relations
This presentation from the EURO 2016 conference in Poznan, Poland, and from the GDN conference in Bellingham, WA, USA, joint work with Leroy White of Warwick Business School, shows how combining formal and informal organizational networks enables decisions to flow more freely around organizations, but at a cost, leading to an optimal size of informal …
The Brexit Paradox: This is not Representative Democracy
In the UK, voters elect a Member of Parliament who is there to represent the views of their constituents. This is representative democracy, and the UK has survived pretty well with this form of government. It is one of the many things that the Romans Have Done For Us. Members of Parliament are supposed to …
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What proportion of an airline ticket is made up of the cost of the aeroplane?
Aircraft aren’t cheap. Neither are airline tickets. But how much of that airline ticket is made up of the cost of the aeroplane? If we assume a relatively efficient modern airliner, say a 777, a 30-year lifetime, 3500 hours per year, and an average speed of 500mph, that produces a total distance of 52,500,000 miles. Which is …
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Stacking Shelves the Amazon way
Amazon FC are playing in the Euros (the UEFA football championship). Or at least that’s what could be inferred from my name badge. In fact, Amazon FC is one of the Amazon fulfilment centres, located in the Polish town of Poznań, location of the 28th European conference on Operational Research. The fulfilment centre is huge – with a …
The Complexity of the Corporation
In my paper, The Complexity of the Corporation, I introduce complexity science applied to management, discussing complex adaptive systems, emergence, co-evolution, and power laws. “We discuss the notion of complexity as applied to firms and corporations. We introduce the background to complex adaptive systems, and discuss whether this presents an appropriate model or metaphor to be used within …