title: Effects of competition and cooperation interaction between agents on networks in the presence of a market capacity.
abstract: A network effect is introduced taking into account competition, cooperation, and mixed-type interaction among agents along a generalized Verhulst-Lotka-Volterra model. It is also argued that the presence of a market capacity undoubtedly enforces a definite limit on the agent's size growth. The state stability of triadic agents, i.e., the most basic network plaquette, is investigated analytically for possible scenarios, through a fixed-point analysis. It is discovered that: (i) market demand is only satisfied for full competition when one agent monopolizes the market; (ii) growth of agent size is encouraged in full cooperation; (iii) collaboration among agents to compete against one single agent may result in the disappearance of this single agent out of the market; and (iv) cooperating with two rivals may become a growth strategy for an intelligent agent.
authors.affiliation: Scuola di Economia e Statistica, Department of Statistics and Quantitative Methods, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, I-20126 Milano, Italy.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sonubi
authors.affiliation: Scuola di Economia e Statistica, Department of Statistics and Quantitative Methods, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, I-20126 Milano, Italy.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Arcagni
authors.affiliation: Scuola di Economia e Statistica, Department of Statistics and Quantitative Methods, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, I-20126 Milano, Italy.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Stefani
authors.affiliation: School of Management, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, United Kingdom.|Group of Researchers for Applications of Physics in Economy and Sociology (GRAPES), Rue de la Belle Jardiniere 483, B-4031, Angleur, Belgium.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ausloos