Simulations are presented as a methodology that has been neglected in use by the social sciences when compared to the case study and the comparison, as a way to overcome the difficulty to run experiments. The simulation is a "virtual experiment", that requires an operating model representing the system, or processes that characterize it, as a whole or part. The use of this methodology is studied as a form of searching a model, confirming a model or making a projection about future events; in this way it serves both the "context of discovery" and the "context of proof" in sciences. Each of these uses is discussed, as well as the conditions in which simulations should be used and its advantages and limitations. The article explains that due to the advance of computers and their softwares in the last two decades this resource became much simpler to use, and two interactive examples using Excell are introduced, one about complexity theory applied to marketing and the other about microeconomic theory.
simulation; research; computers; methodology
