ABSTRACT
Business relations and networks play a central role in the way
business and economic systems are organized and function. But
their dynamics and evolution have received limited research
attention, with research focusing on comparative static and cross-
section surveys. In order to develop appropriate research-based
management and policy advice, we need a better understanding of
howbusiness relations and networks form and evolve. Oneway to do
this is through the development of agent-based simulationmodels of
business relations and networks that allow researchers to explore
systematically the nature and impact of various factors on the
structure, behaviour and performance that are beyond traditional
closed-form mathematical solutions and that would be impossible
to implement in the field. We identify the main mechanisms driving
the evolution of business relations and networks and reviewmodels
from various disciplines that attempt to represent these. This
provides the basis for developing a generic simulation platform
called the Business Network Agent-BasedModelling System (BNAS).
Social and business networks are ubiquitous and an increasingly
important area of research attention in many disciplines [18, 29,
63]. One of the major challenges is to better understand, predict and
control their dynamics, including how they form and evolve and how
this shapes their behaviour and performance [88, 95].
