The Network Bass Model with Behavioral Compartments

Abstract

A Bass diffusion model is defined on an arbitrary network, with the additional introduction of behavioral compartments, such that nodes can have different probabilities of receiving the information/innovation from the source and transmitting it to other nodes. The dynamics are described by a large system of non-linear ordinary differential equations, whose numerical solutions can be analyzed in dependence on diffusion parameters, network parameters, and relations between the compartments. For example, in a simple case with two compartments (Enthusiasts and Sceptics about the innovation), we consider cases in which the “publicity” and imitation terms act differently on the compartments, and individuals from one compartment do not imitate those of the other, thus increasing the polarization of the system and creating sectors of the population where adoption becomes very slow. For some categories of scale-free networks, we also investigate the dependence on the features of the networks of the diffusion peak time and of the time at which adoptions reach 90% of the population.

Keywords

• Bass diffusion model
• scale-free networks
• nonlinear differential equation systems