GAME THEORY: HISTORICAL OVERVIEW AND SYNTHESIZING CRITIQUE

Abstract

According to scholars, the period of intense activity in evolutionary game theory in the mid to late 1990s had two goals, firstly to justify Nash equilibrium and secondly to give some consistent and simple the selection criterion for favouring some Nash equilibria over others. Therefore, the primary goal of this paper is to provides a historical overview, synthesis and critique of the game theory. However, we find that game theory is the most appropriate approach for making decisions in the fields of construction, engineering and project management in order to solve the problem of rivalry in real life. Game theory is also found to be particularly useful for multi-criteria decision-making as well. Game theory assumes that each player has information about the actions of the other players. In addition, the review shows that many scholars have been conducting studies into different research areas and the game theorem has been applied in a wide and varied range of discipline, including computer science and logic, political science, project management, economics, business, and many other fields. It is clear that game theory has played an important role in the development and practical application of construction, as well as in many other fields. However, this theory has been surprisingly less used in some other areas. For this reason, this study is important for providing guidance and insightful information for future and hitherto unexplored research areas.