040228 UE Experimental Methods I: Agent Based Modelling in Organisations (MA) (2024S)

Agent Based Modelling, and Computational Methods in general, can provide valuable insights into the functioning of organisations. In academic research, simulations have long been used as a complementary tool besides traditional empirical work and laboratory experiments to produce propositions for empirical validation, model real-world scenarios and generate artificial datasets.

This class is an introductory course to modelling techniques in the context of organizational studies and should serve as a basis for the corresponding follow-up course. Whereas this second class will be focused on actual implementation of simulations, the first course will lay out the foundations for this by focusing on understanding the main ingredients needed in computational modelling, developing ideas on how to get from a research question to an actual model (mainly on the basis of pseudocode) and providing an introduction to the programming language Python which will be used for implementation later on.

Students will learn when computational models can be used, how they can be usefully employed and what the main advantages and limitations of this method are. Furthermore, participants will be familiarized with existing work in this domain and will have to prepare presentations based on peer-reviewed publications in some of the highest ranked journals in the field.

Important information for students planning on completing the entire specialization Strategic Management, i.e. those who want to enroll for the Major as well:
This course is NOT compatible with “Experimental Methods – Laboratory Experiments”. That means that if you complete this course (“Experimental Methods I: Agent Based Modelling in Organisations”), you are expected to continue with “Experimental Methods II: Agent Based Modelling in Organisations”, which is the corresponding follow-up class in the Major. You should NOT switch between those two streams, as the topics discussed are entirely different and you will not be able to participate meaningfully in any follow-up course if you haven’t completed the corresponding Minor-class.

This course is meant to be interactive and is built around the idea of a laboratory setup as is typical for social sciences. The setup necessitates certain software and IT equipment and in order to provide every student with the same opportunity to successfully participate in the course, it is typically held in one of the PC-labs at OMP 1.