4.6) Logistic Growth

Exponential growth in nature is quite unusual. This is because growth is usually based on the consumption of some resource and resources are always limited. When an otherwise exponential growth process is limited by a carrying capacity, a logistic growth curve results:

(Source: Sterman, J.D. "Business Dynamics: Systems thinking and modelling for a complex world", McGraw Hill, 2000.)

Examples of logistic growth include:

• Population growth in a limited environment (e.g. algae with limited sunlight, bacteria with limited food)
• Diffusion of innovation – early adopters are followed by the masses until the uninitiated become harder to find