How can imitation counterbalance innovation? An ABM Bass model for competing products

Abstract

The general context of this paper is the Bass model which presented a theory of the adoption of new products. We propose an agent based modelling to allow to model the respective grow of competing products. We assume that there is competition for the same market among two trademarks: each one has its own rate of spontaneous innovation and its own rate of imitation. This paper deals with the relative weight of these competing behaviours on the global dynamics; in particular, we ask the question of the equivalence between mass media influence and word-of-mouth effect.