Strategic Modelling and Business Dynamics: A Feedback Systems Approach

10.9. Conclusion – Model Fidelity and Usefulness

The reasons why different models present different opportunities for confidence building brings us full circle to the philosophical issue of model fidelity and usefulness that began the chapter. What is the value of a deliberately simplified model or representation of business or society? This question lies at the heart of the art and science of modelling and provides an appropriate conclusion for the book as well as an opportunity to review the various models we have covered along the way.

Models range in size from large and detailed to elegantly small and general. The spectrum is illustrated in Figure 10.23. On the left are analogue models, in the middle are illustrative models and on the right are metaphorical models. To appreciate the distinctions along this axis of fidelity compare the dictionary definitions of analogy and metaphor. According to Webster's Dictionary, analogy is derived from the Greek word analogia meaning proportion and equality of ratios. More specifically an analogy is an explaining of something by comparing it point-by-point with something else. For example, one might liken the atom to a miniature solar system (as the physicist Rutherford originally did) in which planet-like electrons circle around a sun-like nucleus. On the other hand, metaphor comes from the Greek word metaphora, a transferring to one word the sense of another. A metaphor is a figure of speech in which one thing is likened to another different ...