Nadia Jacoby

Evolution of Firms in Complex Worlds Generalized NK Models

Evolution is a method of searching among an enormous number of possible ‘solutions’, [10]. If, in biology, this set of possible solutions is the set of possible genetic sequences, evolution can also be seen as a «method for designing innovative solutions to complex problems », [10, p. 5]. The environment changes and thus, it is necessary to search continually new sets of possible solutions. Even if the evolution rules seem to be very complex, in particular because they are responsible for variety and complexity of species, in fact, there are rather simple. «Species evolve by means of random variation, followed by natural selection in which the fittest tend to survive and reproduce, thus propagating their genetic material to future generations », [10, p. 5].