Consensus decision making on scale-free buyer networks

Abstract

Problem statement: Due to a behavior of buyers effects to a growth of marketing, then a group of agreement of buyers and buyers' behavior on eventually placing orders are investigating. Approach: In this study, a discrete-time consensus protocol for a scale-free buyer networks is proposed. Herein, an initial purchase intention of each buyer is defined to be active or non-active and an impulse signal is used to activate a purchase intention as an advertisement. Results: To investigate a global decision making in the buyer networks, the number of active buyers after activating was considered. Finally, the numerical simulations were conducted to visualize the effectiveness of the proposed protocol. The results showed that buyers change their intentions based on activation of advertisement that also effect to the group decision making of network. Conclusion: The active buyers still be active if the current number of active buyers (φ(x)) is more than or equal to the defined value of their thi. On the other hand, the non-active buyers still be non-active if the current number of non-active buyers n-φ(x)) is more than or equal to the defined value of their thi. Otherwise, their states are altered. © 2011 Science Publications.