A Multiple-Landscape Model on Innovation Master Thesis for the Erasmus Mundus Master in Complex Systems Science

In this work, we present a new framework for innovation modelling. Deriving from models using fitness landscapes for that task, we extend this idea to using multiple landscapes to represent different facets and stylized facts about artifacts. By using different landscapes, we are able to keep modularity and ease of modelling, by representing different aspects by different landscapes and by combining them towards an evolutionary optimization approach. We propose a system with three different landscapes: environment, attribution and artifact, all of them existing not in a design space, but in a functional space. They are related, respectively, to how useful different tasks are, what do we expect from an artifact and how good that artifact is at performing different tasks. These three landscapes are, then, used to calculate a fitness value which is used as an input for an evolutionary algorithm. We have seen that this setup retains the basic evolutionary optimization approach from fitness landscape models, while also introducing new possibilities to be explored. It might capture some specific features like radical innovation better than those models, and it brings more flexibility and modularity into the realm of innovation modelling. Acknowledgements First, I would like to thank the support from Claes Andersson, my supervisor. It was great to work with the subject of innovation modelling, especially together with someone who could teach me so much about it. I would also like to thank the support of Ph.D. candidate Petter Törnberg, for the explanations about some of the main concepts in this subject, and Prof. Kristian Lindgren, for gracefully agreeing to be my examiner. Getting at this point in my life was not always easy, coming from where I came. It is something that I would never have succeeded in if it was not for the support from my family and friends, in every possible way. I will be always indebted to them. Finally, many thanks to the European Commission, who awarded me an Erasmus Mundus Scholarship for the two years of my Master studies, without which this wonderful time getting to know the fascinating world of Complex Systems would not have been possible to me. Erick Martins Ratamero, Gothenburg 01/7/13