The present work aims to contribute to a better understanding of the
dynamics of organizational competition and survival in a supply chain network
market context, while highlighting the potential of multi-layered cellular automata
models as frameworks for accommodating increasing levels of complexity.
More particularly, the implementation of inter-layer rules associated to k-bit
words modelling of market opportunities, customer desires and purchasing selectiveness,
and their impact on the dynamics of an evolutionary “ecology” of
suppliers, competing organizations, and customers, following a complex adaptive
systems approach is described and illustrated through a study case on organizational
survivability. The implications of the study results — reflecting the
interplay between market environment, competitors’ strategic choice, and corresponding
ability to succeed, survive crises and proliferate — are then discussed
and the main aims of the work ahead highlighted.