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An Initial Study of Agent Interconnectedness and In-Group Behaviour

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Multi-Agent Based Simulation XVIII (MABS 2017)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 10798))

Abstract

This paper asks whether agent-based simulation can give insight into social factors surrounding corrupt behaviour in a technical process. The specific case study adopted, for studying the effects of social interconnectedness on corrupt behaviours, is the domain of maritime customs. Taking our previously-developed agent-based simulation, we add to the simulation a nuanced model of actor relatedness, consisting of clan, in-group (sect), and town of origin, and encode selected behavioural norms associated with these factors. Using the simulation, we examine the effects of social interconnectedness on domain performance metrics such as container outcomes, time, revenue, coercive demands, and collusion. Initial results confirm that as actor interconnectedness increases, established policies to combat corruption, such as process re-engineering, become less effective.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the MABS’17 anonymous reviewers and the workshop participants in São Paulo. Thanks to A. Komashie and B. Reinsberg. This work was supported in part by University Research Board grant numbers A88813 and 288810 from the American University of Beirut. Author NYS also gives thanks to the fellowship at St Edmund’s College, Cambridge.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Adnan Kassar School of Business, Lebanese American University, Beirut, Lebanon

    F. Jordan Srour

  2. Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

    Neil Yorke-Smith

  3. Olayan School of Business, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon

    Neil Yorke-Smith

Authors
  1. F. Jordan Srour
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  2. Neil Yorke-Smith
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Neil Yorke-Smith .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Universidade Federal do Rio Grande, Rio Grande, Brazil

    Graçaliz Pereira Dimuro

  2. Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

    Luis Antunes

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Srour, F.J., Yorke-Smith, N. (2018). An Initial Study of Agent Interconnectedness and In-Group Behaviour. In: Dimuro, G., Antunes, L. (eds) Multi-Agent Based Simulation XVIII. MABS 2017. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10798. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91587-6_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91587-6_8

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-91586-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-91587-6

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