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Social environments can be presented as complex systems that are continually changing their structures in a nonlinear fashion. However, this notion of complexity is commonly disregarded in the study of strategic interactions between competing actors. One of the major reasons for this is the inability to collect sufficient empirical data in order to adequately study decision making under dynamic circumstances. In order to cope with this problem an online simulator module is being developed. This module allows researchers to create interactive simulators that confront human subjects with virtual social environments designed by the researcher. Unlike previous simulator modules, this one provides a high degree of flexibility and imposes fewer restrictions on the simulated environment and the manner in which decisions can be made. Thus, the subjects operating this simulator can pursue multiple policies simultaneously rather than choosing between alternatives. They can make decisions in real time and receive feedbacks also at anytime, including delayed feedbacks. Decisions that are made can alter the environment, resulting in changing payoffs and the policies that are available. It is also possible to provide subjects operating the simulator with different formats for presenting information. Another significant feature is the capability to monitor when choices are made and what information is being analyzed and when it is being observed. In comparison to other simulator modules that have been developed in the past, this one is not based on an old simulation language but is completely newly programmed in a language designed for online interactions.

Purpose – Driver education and licensing are two mechanisms used to reduce crash rates. The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of these countermeasures and consider how simulators can be used to augment more traditional approaches.

Approach – A literature review was undertaken evaluating key concepts in driver licensing including graduated driver licensing (GDL), the role of parents in licensing, compliance and enforcement, driver testing and how the driver licensing system impacts on levels of unlicensed driving. Literature regarding driver education for individuals who have and not yet obtained a licence was also reviewed.

Findings – GDL is a successful countermeasure for reducing the crash rates of young novice drivers as it limits their exposure to higher risk situations. The support for driver education initiatives is mixed. As there are big differences between education programs, there is a need to consider each program on its own merits. Driving simulators provide a safe environment for novices to gain experience. In particular, they may be bifacial for development of hazard perception and visual scanning skills.

Practical Implications – GDL systems should be introduced where appropriate. Existing systems should be strengthened where possible by including additional, best-practice and restrictions. When considering driver education as a countermeasure, the type of program is very important. Education programs that have been shown to increase crashes should not be introduced. Further research and development are necessary to ensure that driver education and licensing adequately equip novice drivers with the skills necessary to drive in the 21st century.

In Schelling’s “checkerboard” model of segregation, individuals’ moderately held preferences about the proportion of their neighbors who are similar versus dissimilar to them can, through an automatic and mathematical process, yield dramatic population-level segregative behaviors. The notion of such an automatic segregative process would seem to have implications for spatial dynamics when a group home for persons with disabilities is introduced into a community. This study sought to examine those implications alongside data in the research literature regarding community acceptance of group homes.

Using an agent-based modeling approach, computer simulations were constructed to apply Schelling’s model, as well as an alternative model, to community reaction to the introduction of group homes for persons with disabilities. Simulation conditions were set to roughly correspond to the proportion of group homes or other congregate living situations, as well as vacant dwellings, in a typical community in the United States.

The simulations predict that group homes will, to varying degrees, become spatially isolated within their communities. These predictions conflict with previous research findings that suggest minimal relocation of neighbors and rapid adjustment of communities to the presence of group homes.

Simulations of an automatic segregative process might offer a baseline or a “null hypothesis” of sorts, allowing us to more fully understand the extent of the social and socioeconomic forces that serve to moderate or override such an automatic process, allowing communities to adjust to group homes’ presence.

Social enterprises (SEs), part of the third sector, are hybrid organizations combining the pursuit of social scopes with commercial business solutions. In seeking for social value, they pair for-profit and non-profit features, thereby compensating for shortcomings of both the public sector and the commercial market. Therefore, the performance management of such organizations assumes a crucial relevance. Among the available tools, the balanced scorecard (BSC) aims to capture performance multidimensionality, at the same time fostering legitimacy towards stakeholders.

In general terms, the BSC has the limit to follow a linear and static logic of construction and functioning. For this reason, scholars combine it with system dynamics (SD) to create dynamic balanced scorecards (DBSCs). However, literature seems to devote scarce attention to the adoption of such analytic tools in the third sector, particularly in SEs. This chapter wants to contribute to bridging this gap by proposing a tailored application in the context of a social cooperative, active in the clothing recycle and in the re-integration of disadvantaged social categories. By referring to previous literature about DBSC, two modelling strategies are identified: the BSC-driven and the SD-driven. The latter, based on inductive reasoning, is the one privileged for the study because of its wider flexibility. The modelling outputs consider different perspectives than the ones within traditional BSCs, contain elements of circular causality and show how financial and non-financial performances interplay and co-determine each other. Insights from the proposed model can be useful to support both decision-making and stakeholder engagement.

Business Schools and other executive training providers have come under withering attacks since before the global financial crisis for their standardised, non-integrated executive curricula, rigid methods of instruction and weak participant engagement. The crisis has extended this critique. Further criticisms relate to the inability of providers who are schooled in Western paradigms of instruction to manage increasingly multi-cultural, executive workshops. This chapter proposes a play-based approach to executive training. The chapter argues that a play-based approach re-dresses some of the above imbalances and re-positions the interests of entrepreneurial and executive learners. The chapter evaluates the development of the approach to learning by using play-based and experiential-learning simulator called Synergy. Initial arguments are presented with indications and results on why play-based designs can offer a productive response to some of the current criticisms that are levelled at executive and entrepreneurial training provision.