Abstract for: Business Special Interest Group Poster Presentation

Does your company use system dynamics modeling? Would you like to learn how other businesses are applying system dynamics tools? Would you like some help bringing these tools into your business? The Business Special Interest Group was formed in 2005 to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas, methods, and lessons learned in the use of system dynamics in the corporate world. The SIG has grown substantially in the number of interested members since then. Our members represent a cross-section of industrial, consulting, and academic organizations, offering tremendous depth and breadth in relevant expertise. Our goal is to encourage the sharing of system dynamics best practices in business. Our approach is three-fold: (1) Development of the system dynamics modeling competence of business users through training and consultancies, (2) Sharing recommendations around effective tools and methodologies with immediate applicability to policy and decision making in business, and (3) Encouraging and inviting presentation tracks and speakers to present applicable work and case studies at the annual International System Dynamics Conference.

Abstract for: Roundtable & Business SIG Annual Meeting -- Long Waves and Short Waves - How Should Business Simulations Ride the Wave?

Business activities have been described using system dynamics for more than fifty years. Planning and scheduling, product adoption, profitability, job satisfaction, and many other parameters have been simulated. But have the prevailing assumptions behind these models been complete, or have they reflected narrow experience observed over a relatively short period? How many of the business-related models reported within the past ten years, for example, examined the effects of a major recession? Are the resulting policies rational at this time? Can and should the models be adjusted to reflect the current situation? Or should new models be developed? In light of the significant downturn in the global economy, is it time to rethink the underlying paradigms of economic and market behaviors? Have system dynamics models been based on overly optimistic expectations for long-term performance, leading to policies that do not consider negative externalities? What is the need for including a long-term view, say fifty or sixty years, of external economic and political cycles when simulating behavior over ten or twenty years? This roundtable will be an open discussion of the value of including the effects of short-, medium-, and long-term economic cycles on the dynamic simulation of business activities.