A Multi-Agent Model of a Small Firm
Publication Year: 2013

A Multi-Agent Model of a Small Firm

Citation:

Clinton Andrews, Ana Baptista, Shawn Patton, “A Multi-Agent Model of a Small Firm, “ Conference Proceeding: Corporate Environmental Behavior and the Effectiveness of Government Interventions, Washington, DC, 2004.

This paper presents a bottom-up view of industrial ecosystems by examining the interpersonal dynamics that influence corporate environmental behavior. Employees of profit-making firms don’t always behave in the shareholders’ best interests due to misaligned incentives, impaired information flows, and bounded rationality. Even worse, there are sometimes conflicts between shareholder interests and the broader public interest, evident in the moral struggles of people over their dual roles as employees and as citizens. Employees operate within the formal, regulative structures of the firm and government, as well as the informal, normative or cultural structures of social networks.