COOPERATIVE GAMES IN MARKETING: A DIFFERENTIAL GAME APPROACH

摘要

Cooperation is not applicable in a constant-sum differential game because there is no possibility of mutual gain from cooperation. However, in other types of games cooperation is possible. The fate of a game being noncooperative or cooperative is generally determined by the 'scope' of the game, which means how many people will be included in the game, and the status of the players. In reality it is possible to have both cooperative and noncooperative games, or just one of them, in different situations/phases of the same game. In this paper we will set up a cooperative differential game model for competition in marketing. There are many ways to define the solution of a cooperative differential game. Different definitions of 'solution' will precipitate totally different models. After defining the solution for our cooperative differential game model, we develop an algorithm based on the idea of evolutionary computation, and then draw conclusions about general cooperative differential games.