Title: Assessment of similarities between model behaviour and actual product from economic and technical perspectives

Authors: Tomas Macak; Mansoor Maitah; Bruno S. Sergi

Addresses: Department of Management, Faculty of Economics and Management, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, 165 21 Praha 6 Suchdol, Czech Republic ' Department of International Relations, Faculty of Economics and Management, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, 165 21 Praha 6 Suchdol, Czech Republic ' Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA; Department of Economics, University of Messina, 98122 Messina, Italy

Abstract: This paper assesses the proximity of the degree of similarity between the behaviour of a model and the actual product from technical and economic criteria. The methodology is best illustrated by using the example of a power boat and a sail boat model. The first portion deals with technical aspects, using the cybernetic theory of similarities - classification of the relationship between the model and the actual product (isomorphic or homomorphic). Since the similarity was assessed in the field of aerodynamics, the Bernoulli equation was used to derive the conditions of isomorphism for flow in the actual object. This defines the boat model from the technical point of view. The objectives of the experiment in this study were two-fold. The first objective is to identify the formula for the deduction of the technical and economic criteria of the product model (in this case, a sail boat). The second objective is to use factorial design for identification of the parameters that affect the decisions about the choice of the model (homomorphic vs. isomorphic).

Keywords: competitive advantage; economic criteria; technical criteria; model of product; isomorphic relation; relation of homomorphism; factorial experiment.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMDM.2017.084200

International Journal of Management and Decision Making, 2017 Vol.16 No.2, pp.172 - 185

Received: 11 Jan 2017
Accepted: 12 Feb 2017
Published online: 19 May 2017 *

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