Today's leading authority on the subject of this text is the author, MIT Standish Professor of Management and
Director of the System Dynamics Group, John D. Sterman. Sterman's objective is to explain, in a true textbook format,
what system dynamics is, and how it can be successfully applied to solve business and organizational problems.
System dynamics is both a currently utilized approach to organizational problem solving at the professional level,
and a field of study in business, engineering, and social and physical sciences.
Table of Contents
Introduction Part I. Perspective and Process
1. Learning In and About Complex Systems
2. System Dynamics In Action
3. The Modeling Process
4. Structure and Behavior of Dynamic Systems
Part II. Tools for Systems Thinking
5. Causal Loop Diagrams
6. Stocks and Flows
7. Dynamics of Stocks and Flows
8. Closing the Loop: Dynamics of Simple Structures
Part III. The Dynamics of Growth
9. S-Shaped Growth: Epidemics, Innovation Diffusion, and the Growth of New Products
10. Path Dependence and Positive Feedback
Part IV. Tools for Modeling Dynamic Systems
11. Delays
12. Coflows and Aging Chains
13. Modeling Decision Making
14. Forming Non-linear Relationships
Part V. Instability and Oscillation
15. Modeling Human Behavior: Bounded Rationality or Rational Expectations?
16. Forecasts and Fudge Factors: Modeling Expectation Formation
17. Supply Chains and the Origin of Oscillations
18. Managing Supply Chains in Manufacturing
19. The Labor Supply Chain and the Origin of Business Cycles
20. The Invisible Hand Sometimes Shakes: Commodity Cycles
Part VI. Validation and Model Testing
21. Truth and Beauty
Part VII. Commencement
22. Challenges for the Future
Appendix A: Numerical Integration
Appendix B: Noise
References
Index
