Terry Schumacher

Search on Rugged Landscapes: An Experimental Study

This paper presents findings from a laboratory experiment on human decision making in a complex combinatorial task. We draw on the canonical NK model to depict tasks with varying complexity and find strong evidence for a behavioral model of adaptive search. Success narrows down search to the neighborhood of the status quo, whereas failure promotes gradually more exploratory search. Task complexity does not have a direct effect on behavior but systematically affects the feedback conditions that guide success-induced exploitation and failure-induced exploration. The analysis also shows that human participants were prone to overexploration, since they broke off the search for local improvements too early. We derive stylized decision rules that generate the search behavior observed in the experiment and discuss the implications of our findings for individual decision making and organizational search.

New product development simulation

This paper describes the New Product Development (NPD) Simulation we developed and use in our Marketing and Entrepreneurship courses. The simulation teaches NPD best practice, focusing on determining potential customers needs, then matching those needs with product attribute selection. Participants simulate the building & launching of a product, then receive feedback on their NPD process.

Simulation training for innovation champions

Summary form only given as follows. Encouraging innovative practice in mature, stable, change resisting organizations is a topic of interest. Champions are especially important in mature organizations because routines are well established and there is considerable resistance to innovation due to its routine-disrupting nature. The simulation described here provides training in the champion role.