Article ID: | iaor201110103 |
Volume: | 48 |
Issue: | 1 |
Start Page Number: | 89 |
End Page Number: | 99 |
Publication Date: | Jan 2012 |
Journal: | Transportation Research Part E |
Authors: | Nagurney Anna, Nagurney Ladimer S |
Keywords: | supply & supply chains, calculus of variations |
In this paper, we develop a dynamic network model of ecological food webs and prove that the set of stationary points of the projected dynamical system coincides with the set of solutions of a variational inequality governing the equilibrium of predator–prey networks. We also establish the equivalence between the ecological models and supply chain network equilibrium models and highlight the connections to spatial price equilibrium problems. We propose an algorithmic scheme, provide convergence results, and apply it to a food web drawn from a fisheries application. This paper is a contribution to the interdisciplinary supply chain network literature.