Stochastic Sznajd Model in open community

We extend the Sznajd Model for opinion formation by introducing persuasion probabilities for opinions. Moreover, we couple the system to an environment which mimics the application of the opinion. This results in a feedback, representing single-state opinion transitions in opposite to the two-state opinion transitions for persuading other people. We call this model opinion formation in an open community (OFOC). It can be seen as "stochastic extension of the Sznajd model for an open community, because it allows for "special choice of parameters to recover the original Sznajd model. We demonstrate the effect of feedback in the OFOC model by applying it to a scenario in which, e.g., opinion B is worse then opinion A but easier explained to other people. Casually formulated we analyzed the question, how much better one has to be, in order to persuade other people, provided the opinion is worse. Our results reveal a linear relation between the transition probability for opinion B and the influence of the environment on B.

Responsible Leadership: Business Myth or Corporate Reality?

The financial crisis has highlighted some of the limitations of the global system. Enterprises previously thought to be too big to fail have learned the harsh realities of capitalism (Merill Lynch, Lehman Bros, Northern Rock), countries have been shaken considerably from the bankruptcy of Iceland to the near-collapse of the markets in Greece, Ireland and Italy. The current age of austerity has largely dominated supra-national and indeed global politics in the last few years. The extent of the crisis has illustrated that relationships between business, governments and society needs to be re-evaluated in light of shifts in the global market thereby recognizing that some countries have a more limited power of persuasion than some corporations.