Simulation study on collaborative behaviors in mass collaborative product development

Mass collaborative product development (MCPD) is an emerging product development mode which makes full use of open group intelligence with the advantage of low cost and high innovation level. In this paper, behaviors of individuals in MCPD, especially collaborative behaviors, are modeled and simulated, and the effects of collaborative behaviors on the whole MCPD process are identified based on the simulation study. Firstly, a multi-agent process model of MCPD is built, which includes product model, community model, and three-level agent model. Secondly, collaboration behaviors including collaboration request, collaborator choosing, collaboration judgment, and collaboration response are depicted. Finally, based on the process model and the individual behaviors of MCPD, a simulation system for MPCD is designed and developed, and two sets of experiments are carried out. The results of experiments show that different weights of collaborator choosing indices significantly influence OSC evolution, and individuals´ collaboration intensions significantly influence product evolution. The findings of this paper are expected to help the community managers develop more reasonable management and service mechanisms for participants of the MCPD.