Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches Appliquées à la Gestion

Cellular automata are mathematical models that were initially used in hard sciences, but which were then adopted by social sciences and management for the modelling of behaviour. This paper deals with the usefulness of cellular automata for the study of a competitive situation on a given market. We present the possibility of using cellular automata to carry out market studies, and for simulating the launch of new products and the withdrawal of a product. Cellular automata can allow us to understand the behaviour of agents and the implications, in terms of market share variations, of competing brands on a given market.