Vincent Charles – författare

Business Analytics (BA) is an evolving phenomenon that showcases the increasing importance of using huge volumes of data to generate value for businesses. Advances in BA have offered great opportunities for organisations to improve, innovate, and develop existing or new processes, products, and services. BA is the process of transforming data into actionable insight by using statistical and mathematical analysis, descriptive, prescriptive, and predictive models, machine learning, information systems and network science methods, among others, along with a variety of data, expert knowledge, and fact-based management to support better and faster decision-making.

BA and Business Intelligence (BI) generate capabilities for companies to compete in the market effectively and has become one of the main functional areas in most companies. BA tools are used in diverse ways, for example, to identify consumer behaviour patterns and market trends, to derive valuable insights on the performance of stocks, to find information on the attrition rate of employees, to analyse and solve healthcare problems, to offer insight into inventory management and supply chain management, to analyse data from social networks, and to infer traffic behaviour and develop traffic management policy, among others.

BA and BI have become one of the most popular research areas in academic circles, as well as in the industry, driven by the increasing demand in the business world. This book aims to become a stimulus for innovative business solutions covering a wide range of aspects of business analytics, such as management science, information technology, descriptive, prescriptive, and predictive models, machine learning, network science, mathematical and statistical techniques. The book will encompass a valuable collection of chapters exploring and discussing computational frameworks, practices, and applications of BA that can assist industries and relevant stakeholders in decision-making and problem-solving exercises, with a view to driving competitive advantage.

Business Analytics (BA) is an evolving phenomenon that showcases the increasing importance of using huge volumes of data to generate value for businesses. Advances in BA have offered great opportunities for organisations to improve, innovate, and develop existing or new processes, products, and services. BA is the process of transforming data into actionable insight by using statistical and mathematical analysis, descriptive, prescriptive, and predictive models, machine learning, information systems and network science methods, among others, along with a variety of data, expert knowledge, and fact-based management to support better and faster decision-making.

BA and Business Intelligence (BI) generate capabilities for companies to compete in the market effectively and has become one of the main functional areas in most companies. BA tools are used in diverse ways, for example, to identify consumer behaviour patterns and market trends, to derive valuable insights on the performance of stocks, to find information on the attrition rate of employees, to analyse and solve healthcare problems, to offer insight into inventory management and supply chain management, to analyse data from social networks, and to infer traffic behaviour and develop traffic management policy, among others.

BA and BI have become one of the most popular research areas in academic circles, as well as in the industry, driven by the increasing demand in the business world. This book aims to become a stimulus for innovative business solutions covering a wide range of aspects of business analytics, such as management science, information technology, descriptive, prescriptive, and predictive models, machine learning, network science, mathematical and statistical techniques. The book will encompass a valuable collection of chapters exploring and discussing computational frameworks, practices, and applications of BA that can assist industries and relevant stakeholders in decision-making and problem-solving exercises, with a view to driving competitive advantage.

This book includes a spectrum of concepts, such as performance, productivity, operations research, econometrics, and data science, for the practically and theoretically important areas of ‘productivity analysis/data envelopment analysis’ and ‘data science/big data’. Data science is defined as the collection of scientific methods, processes, and systems dedicated to extracting knowledge or insights from data and it develops on concepts from various domains, containing mathematics and statistical methods, operations research, machine learning, computer programming, pattern recognition, and data visualisation, among others.

Examples of data science techniques include linear and logistic regressions, decision trees, Naïve Bayesian classifier, principal component analysis, neural networks, predictive modelling, deep learning, text analysis, survival analysis, and so on, all of which allow using the data to make more intelligent decisions. On the other hand, it is without a doubtthat nowadays the amount of data is exponentially increasing, and analysing large data sets has become a key basis of competition and innovation, underpinning new waves of productivity growth. This book aims to bring a fresh look onto the various ways that data science techniques could unleash value and drive productivity from these mountains of data.

Researchers working in productivity analysis/data envelopment analysis will benefit from learning about the tools available in data science/big data that can be used in their current research analyses and endeavours. The data scientists, on the other hand, will also get benefit from learning about the plethora of applications available in productivity analysis/data envelopment analysis.

Composite indices are used by national and international organisations, as well as governments and corporations, to track various performance aspects of a country''s economy and its people, evaluate progress, and engage constructively in policy dialogue; and they have long proven useful as communication tools and inputs into decision-making and policymaking.

Modern Indices for International Economic Diplomacy compiles a spectrum of relevant indices for development and well-being used in benchmarking across nations, namely the OECD Better Life Index, the Gini Index, the Gender Equality/Inequality Index, the International Energy Security Risk Index, the Big Mac Index, the Country Risk Index, the Corruption Perceptions Index, and the Global Terrorism Index.

This book aims to provide the necessary background to work with big data blockchain by introducing some novel applications in service operations for both academics and interested practitioners, and to benefit society, industry, academia, and government. Presenting applications in a variety of industries, this book intends to cover theory, research, development, and applications of big data and blockchain, as embedded in the fields of mathematics, engineering, computer science, physics, economics, business, management, and life sciences, to help service operations management.

This book introduces readers to benchmarking techniques in the stochastic environment, primarily stochastic data envelopment analysis (DEA), and provides stochastic models in DEA for the possibility of variations in inputs and outputs. It focuses on the application of theories and interpretations of the mathematical programs, which are combined with economic and organizational thinking. The book’s main purpose is to shed light on the advantages of the different methods in deterministic and stochastic environments and thoroughly prepare readers to properly use these methods in various cases. Simple examples, along with graphical illustrations and real-world applications in industry, are provided for a better understanding. The models introduced here can be easily used in both theoretical and real-world evaluations.

This book provides a comprehensive and practical introduction to Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). It explains how this non-parametric technique is used to measure performance and extract efficiency from homogeneous entities within a production procedure. It situates DEA within a growing field of productivity analysis and performance measurement, for which numerous models have been proposed.