Explaining the Applications of Crowd Model Building and Group Model Building in System Dynamics

The systems dynamics emphasize the participation of individuals in modeling as well as modeling evaluation. In recent years, participative model building methods have been developed, both individually and in groups, as well as crowd model building, which are based on the mass participation of people through the Web 2 and social networks. However, so far no systematic study has been done to evaluate the effectiveness and compare these modeling methods. On the other hand, in the development of modeling methods, especially crowd model building; special features and characteristics have been enumerated for each of them, which needs to be carefully examined by evaluating them. Therefore, this article seeks to systematically evaluate and compare the crowd and group model building. For this purpose, these two modeling methods have been studied through an online questionnaire. The results showed that the participants acknowledged the positive effect of crowd and group model building sessions in achieving the goals as well as the importance and usefulness of these sessions. However, the results showed that crowd model building is more useful in recognizing different dimensions of crowdfunding with a divergent view, dissemination of topics, and culture building in society, while group model building has been more useful in deepening peoplechr(chr('39')39chr('39'))s knowledge of the dimensions of crowdfunding with a convergent view, increasing the commitment of individuals. The results also showed that the diversity of individuals and the informal structure of the sessions have a significant effect on the success of crowd and group model building.