Analyzing Consumer Preferences for Domestic or Foreign Goods by Agent-based Modeling (Case Study: Home Appliances)

The present research is aimed to evaluate individual preferences in the choice of domestic and foreign products in complex social systems. For this purpose, an agent-based modeling is used. According to this methodology, consumers are defined as the agent. For each consumer agent, preferences were defined as a function based on the concept of marketing mix. Also, the variable of social influence was considered as a factor that create network structure as well as preferential attachment. The refrigerator buyers in the previous month are considered as the statistical population of this research. Moreover, the sample size of the present research was limited to 110 samples using available sampling. Furthermore, data were collected using questionnaire and pairwise comparison matrix. The simulation that was run through the Net Logo software showed the tendency toward foreign goods preference compared to domestic products in the future. Different scenarios indicated that consumers’ domestic goods preference are affected by goods quality and price rather than their promotion and distribution.