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Agent-Based Modeling Toolkits NetLogo, RePast, and Swarm

Article  in  Academy of Management Learning and Education, The · December 2005

DOI: 10.5465/AMLE.2005.19086798

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524 Academy of Management Learning & Education
years or longer to turn a concept into a working
weapon system or new fighter jet, by which time
the mission for which it was intended may have
changed radically. Likewise, biotech and pharma-
ceutical firms typically invest hundreds of millions
of dollars and 10 –15 years to go from the lab to
getting a new drug approved, with no guarantee
that there will not be a superior alternative tech-
nology available or that they will be able to obtain
reimbursement for their drug.
Even with these minor limitations, Shaping the
Next One Hundred Years, would provide an excel-
lent addition to any course on strategic decision
making or business policy, particularly one for
public policymakers or those working in nonprof-
its. It provides a succinct, very readable history of
the strengths and flaws in different approaches to
strategic planning, as well as a new framework
and practical tools for executives to make deci-
sions that have very long-term consequences.
FIGURE 1
Fire Model Running Using NetLogo
December
The approach to strategic planning that the book
puts forward also fits closely with the three key
principles outlined by Greiner, Cummings, and
Bhambri (2003) for ways to teach strategy. Its ex-
ploratory modeling approach “(1) is comprehensive
and integrative across disciplines” — enabling de-
cision makers to combine qualitative and quanti-
tative data from a variety of different fields, includ-
ing those outside finance and organizational
theory that dominate existing approaches to strat-
egy; “(2) requires a wide range of analytical and
behavioral skills”—through the use of simulations
of multiple scenarios where actors are incorpo-
rated into the decision making and able to test the
consequences of their actions for the future, and
“(3) makes strategic decisions under highly dy-
namic, uncertain and changing conditions”—the
very heart of the authors’ justification for their new
method, which seeks not the right answer, but
rather a more robust means for making decisions
2005 Book & Resource Reviews
FIGURE 2
SugarScape Model Running Using RePast
when faced with the inherent uncertainty in ad-
dressing long-term, vital questions such as global
sustainability.
Agent-Based Modeling Toolkits NetLogo,
RePast, and Swarm
Reviewed by Duncan A. Robertson, University of War-
wick, UK.
Management educators are always seeking new
and exciting ways of teaching key concepts to their
students. Agent-based models are one way of com-
municating management ideas using a method
that is inherently visual— one that can capture the
attention of students and executives alike.
Agent-based models are gradually making their
way into management research. Although this re-
view does not consider the use of agent-based
models in management research and does not give
an in-depth insight into agent-based modeling
concepts (readers may wish to consult Robertson,
forthcoming, for these purposes), what is intended
is to expose readers to a small selection of agent-
based modeling packages to see whether and how
they can incorporate them into their teaching.
“Agents” can include firms, people within orga-
nizations, or entire industries: Agent-based model-
ing allows the user to define the interactions be-
525
tween these agents and then use these to generate
models. Agent-based models define the interac-
tions between these agents, whether they be for
example interactions between firms or the interac-
tions between people within a firm. What makes
this technique exciting for a taught audience is
that the models are inherently visual, as can be
seen from the screenshots (Figs. 1, 2). Students can
see the dynamics of the interaction between
agents and the subsequent effect on other agents.
This generally sparks a discussion between stu-
dents, and can therefore, be used as a discussion
tool in order to initiate debate, debate that may
well be augmented with the use of other teaching
methods such as case studies. While the use of
agent-based models alone is often not sufficient to
explain all the intricacies of a chosen manage-
ment concept, they can supplement traditional
techniques. Agent-based models are particularly
suitable for modeling complex systems, where
many agents interact; there is therefore scope for
using these toolkits to illustrate some of the more
recent concepts within management, particularly
those where the micro level behavior of individu-
als affects the global, macro properties of a sys-
tem.
As with any new method, knowing where to start
can be a significant obstacle in introducing the
technique into a course. I review three agent-
based modeling toolkits in order to point readers to
526 Academy of Management Learning & Education December

an appropriate place to start investigating agent-
based models, to decide whether there is a place
for them in their courses: NetLogo, RePast, and
Swarm.
The first is NetLogo, a system that is very easy to
install and to operate: Users can explore models
without any technical knowledge; an extensive
“models library” exists so that users can see the
types of models that have been made using the
toolkit. These are generally well documented, the
documentation being easily accessible through
the “information” tab within the program. Param-
eters of the model are easily changed using graph-
ical “sliders.” For those who want to change the
details in a model, clicking on the “procedures” tab
brings up the entire model code, which can easily
be changed in order to extend the sample models.
NetLogo provides a very accessible introduction to
agent-based modeling. This is a very useful first
step after which users can decide whether the
technique is one that warrants further investiga-
tion (Figure 1).
For those more adventurous readers, or those
with some experience in programming, RePast is
the obvious next step. It provides an extremely
wide set of “libraries” for developing models. As
with NetLogo, several sample models are avail-
able that are easily downloaded and run. However,
to extend these models requires a reasonable ef-
fort, for example in installing a facility such as
JBuilder for editing Java programs. One of the key
features of RePast is that it was set up and is
maintained by a group of social scientists, which
means that social networks, genetic algorithms,
systems dynamics, and geographical information
systems (GIS) are all supported. However, the time
to develop a new model will be significant unless
you have relatively good Java programming skills.
But there is a good community of model builders,
all keen to support new members of the RePast
community (Figure 2).
For completeness, I also mention Swarm, as this
may often be considered as a viable option by
people new to agent-based modeling. Swarm is
now looking relatively geriatric at the early age of
about 10 years. Although still very usable by the
expert, it is not designed specifically for social
science applications, and is not well supported. It
is also extremely tricky to install or run success-
fully.

TABLE 1
Selected Agent-Based Modeling Packages

NetLogo RePast Swarm

Developed by Northwestern University Repast Organization for Swarm Development Group

(Center for Connected Architecture and (originally Santa Fe Institute)
Learning and Computer- Development (originally
Based Modeling) University of Chicago Social
Science Research
Computing)
Advantages Very easy to set up and run Many users, good support The precursor to RePast and to a
models. from the RePast community lesser extent NetLogo
Example models Many Many Only a few are readily
available.
Disadvantages Very complicated models are Need to be able to understand Extremely difficult to install and
outside the capability of a programming language run on a Windows computer.
NetLogo, mainly for abstract (e.g., Java)
models.
Time required to start building A few hours A few days A few weeks
models for programming
novice
Limitations Models created cannot be Very versatile system. Models Difficulty in installation, not
easily extended. can be extended very easily well supported, especially by
subject to at least some the social science community
knowledge of e.g., Java.
Support from academic High High—especially from social Relatively low
community sciences academic
community
Active maintenance of High High Low
software
Additional features 3D visualization of models. GIS implementation Complicated to install
Models can be embedded in
web pages.
2005 Book & Resource Reviews
So which toolkit to use? In summary, NetLogo (for
beginners wanting to make models work), or Re-
Past (for people wanting to extend models or for
those with good programming skills). Swarm is the
grandfather of them all and is not recommended,
at least initially for the nonexpert.
All the toolkits ultimately provide a similar end
result: the ability to model, to manipulate, and
inspect agents. NetLogo has a simple interface,
models can be set up and run with only the push of
one or two buttons; to produce the model such as
the one illustrated takes just 50 lines of simple
code. Compare this to the simulation in Figure 2,
using RePast, which requires 950 lines of code,
much of it quite complicated. However, this reflects
the potential complexity of each of these toolkits:
NetLogo is good for setting up simple simulations
very quickly, while RePast allows simulations, per-
haps trialed using NetLogo, to be expanded and
made more sophisticated (Table 1).
As more educators develop their own models,
527
management-specific models will become avail-
able to our community. For the moment, we have to
start with models from other disciplines (such as
social science or natural science) that can be
adapted to shed light on management problems.
This is a call to arms for educators to get their
hands dirty—to download NetLogo to see what
models exist, to use tools such as NetLogo to de-
velop their own models, then (if still enthusiastic)
to develop their own models using RePast. And
finally, to report their findings back to AMLE so
that we may share in their rich experiences.
REFERENCES
NetLogo, http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/
Repast, http://repast.sourceforge.net/
Robertson, D. A. In press. Agent-based models in management
research. Organizational Research Methods.
Swarm, http://www.swarm.org/
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