Agent-based Computational Economics in Management Accounting Research: Opportunities and Difficulties

Abstract

Agent-based computational economics (ACE) - while adopted comparably widely in other domains of managerial science - is a rather novel paradigm for management accounting research (MAR). This paper provides an overview of opportunities and difficulties that ACE may have for research in management accounting and, in particular, introduces a framework that researchers in management accounting may employ when considering ACE as a paradigm for their particular research endeavor. The framework builds on the two interrelated paradigmatic elements of ACE: a set of theoretical assumptions on economic agents and the approach of agent-based modeling. Particular focus is put on contrasting opportunities and difficulties of ACE in comparison to other research methods employed in MAR.

92 pages (including Appendix), 5 tables (including Appendix)

References in corpus (2)

• Agent-based computing from multi-agent systems to agent-based Models: a visual survey
• An Agent-Based Model of Collective Emotions in Online Communities