The study of the transformation of the industrial complex and industrial products markets, due to its complexity, involves the use of tools that can adequately simulate elaborate systems of interconnections. The paper aims at developing an agent-based model of digital transformation of the regional industrial complex. The research methodology relies on regional economics, game and contract theories, the network approach, as well as the concepts of new industrialisation and the fourth industrial revolution. The author uses simulation modelling to study the individual behaviour of agents. As one of its outcomes, the article provides a methodological rationale for modelling industrial development processes by simulating the behaviour of interacting agents. The structural elements of the proposed model include an interaction environment, four classes of agents with individual parameters, strategies and rules of behaviour, a complex of external stimulating factors and a set of indicators of a phased digital transformation of an industrial complex. The model development algorithm consists of three parts: setting the initial state; determining the specific number of model runs corresponding to the time horizon of calculations; making final calculations and visually presenting simulation outcomes. The author proposes one of the possible methods to formalise behaviour rules of heterogeneous agents that includes the choice of the digitalisation strategy and operational decision-making. The results of the study can offer support for the practical implementation of the simulation model within a specific computer environment and lay the foundations for the control system of a region’s industry digitalisation.
Peer Review of “A Full-Scale Agent-Based Model to Hypothetically Explore the Impact of Lockdown, Social Distancing, and Vaccination During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Lombardy, Italy: Model Development” (Preprint)
