The bass diffusion model: agent-based implementation on arbitrary networks

Abstract

The goal of this study is to model Bass diffusion and its extensions on complex networks, including scale-free networks with arbitrary power-law exponent and assortative degree correlations. For this purpose we employ a combination of the free software packages networkX and NetLogo. Some new results obtained in the agent-based simulations (and differing from those in mean-field approximation) are the following. The introduction of assortative correlations in scale-free networks has the effect of delaying the adoption peak in the Bass model, compared to the uncorrelated case. The peak time depends strongly also on the maximum degree effectively present in the network. For diffusion models with threshold on signed network, a high level of clustering tends to cause adoption blockades. By analysing statistical ensembles of assortative networks generated via Newman rewiring one observes a remarkable strong correlation between the average degree of first neighbours (Formula presented.) and the average clustering coefficient (Formula presented.).