An Extended N-Player Network Game and Simulation of Four Investment Strategies on a Complex Innovation Network

PLoS One. 2016 Jan 8;11(1):e0145407. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0145407. eCollection 2016.

Abstract

As computer science and complex network theory develop, non-cooperative games and their formation and application on complex networks have been important research topics. In the inter-firm innovation network, it is a typical game behavior for firms to invest in their alliance partners. Accounting for the possibility that firms can be resource constrained, this paper analyzes a coordination game using the Nash bargaining solution as allocation rules between firms in an inter-firm innovation network. We build an extended inter-firm n-player game based on nonidealized conditions, describe four investment strategies and simulate the strategies on an inter-firm innovation network in order to compare their performance. By analyzing the results of our experiments, we find that our proposed greedy strategy is the best-performing in most situations. We hope this study provides a theoretical insight into how firms make investment decisions.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Cooperative Behavior*
  • Game Theory*
  • Investments

Grants and funding

This work was supported by: 1. National Natural Science Foundation of China, Grant No. 71203135, http://isisn.nsfc.gov.cn/egrantindex/funcindex/prjsearch-list, WZ; 2. the Marianne and Marcus Wallenberg Foundation, grant number 2011.0023, https://www.wallenberg.com/mmw/en, NK. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.