Advances in Business and Management Forecasting

Kenneth D. Lawrence is a Professor of Management Science and Business Analytics at the Tuchman School of Management at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Dr. Lawrence's professional employment includes over 20 years of technical management experience with AT&T as Director, Decision Support Systems and Marketing Demand Analysis, Hoffmann-La Roche, Inc., Prudential Insurance, and the U. S. Army in forecasting, marketing planning and research, statistical analysis and operations research. His professional experience is reflected in his research which has been cited in 267 journals, including: Computers and Operations Research, International Journal of Forecasting and the Journal of Marketing. Ronald Klimberg is a Professor in the Decision and System Sciences Department of the Haub School of Business at Saint Joseph's University. He received his B.S. in Information Systems from the University of Maryland, his M.S. in Operations Research from George Washington University, and his Ph.D. in Systems Analysis and Economics for Public Decision-Making from the Johns Hopkins University. Ron was the 2007 recipient of the Tengelmann Award for his excellence in scholarship, teaching, and research. His research has been focused in the areas of efficiency analysis, forecasting, location, multiple criteria problems and visualizations.

Business scholars present recent findings on the forecasting of marketing, sales, and service; economic, financial, and insurance forecasting; and forecasting CEO compensation and operations. Specific topics include exploring the suitability of support vector regression and radial basis function approximation to forecast sales of Fortune 500 companies, service contracts for delays in delivery, detecting non-injured passengers and drivers in car accidents: a new under-resampling method for imbalanced classification, regression modeling based on a peer group for the executive compensation of AT&T CEO, and an agent-based queuing model for call center forecasting and management optimization.

• SECTION A: Marketing, Sales and Service Forecasting Chapter 1. Exploring the Suitability of Support Vector Regression and Radial Basis Function Approximation to Forecast Sales of Fortune 500 Companies; V. Evangelista and R. Rommel Chapter 2. Buy-Online-and-Pick-Up-in-Store Strategy and Showroom Strategy in the Omnichannel Retailing; F. Yang, X. Li and Z. Huang Chapter 3. Service Contracts for Delays in Delivery; A. Mitra SECTION B: Economic, Financial and Insurance Forecasting Chapter 4. Growth Business Cycles and the Great Recession: Comparing State and County Unemployment Costs per capita for North Carolina; C. M. Keller and J. W. Kleckly Chapter 5. Dimension Reduction in Bankruptcy Prediction: A Case Study of North American Companies; S. Nguyen, E. Golas, W. Zywiak and K. Kennedy Chapter 6. Detecting Non-Injured Passengers and Drivers in Car Accidents: A New Under-Resampling Method for Imbalanced Classification; S. Nguyen, G. Niu, J. Quinn, A. Olinsky, J. Ormsbee, R. Smith and J. Bishop SECTION C: CEO Compensation and Operations Forecasting Chapter 7. Regression Modeling of the Peer Group of Verizon Corporation for the CEO of Verizon; D. Pai, K. Lawrence and S. M. Lawrence Chapter 8. Regression Modeling Based on a Peer Group for the Executive Compensation of AT&T CEO; R. Klimberg, K. Lawrence and S. M. Lawrence Chapter 9. Agent Based Queuing Model for Call Center Forecasting and Management Optimization; G. Niu, J. Vadiveloo and M. Xu