Data Analytics and Business Intelligence: Computational Frameworks, Practices, and Applications

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.

商業分析（BA）是一個不斷發展的現象，展示了使用大量數據為企業創造價值的重要性不斷增加。BA的進步為組織提供了改善、創新和發展現有或新的流程、產品和服務的巨大機會。BA是將數據轉化為可行動洞察的過程，使用統計和數學分析、描述性、規定性和預測性模型、機器學習、信息系統和網絡科學方法等，以及各種數據、專家知識和基於事實的管理，以支持更好和更快的決策。

BA和商業智能（BI）為公司在市場上有效競爭提供了能力，已成為大多數公司的主要功能領域之一。BA工具以多種方式使用，例如，識別消費者行為模式和市場趨勢，獲得有關股票表現的有價值洞察，找到員工流失率的信息，分析和解決醫療問題，提供庫存管理和供應鏈管理的洞察，分析社交網絡數據，推斷交通行為並制定交通管理政策等。

由於商業界的需求不斷增加，BA和BI已成為學術界和工業界最受歡迎的研究領域之一。本書旨在成為刺激創新商業解決方案的推動力，涵蓋商業分析的各個方面，如管理科學、信息技術、描述性、規定性和預測性模型、機器學習、網絡科學、數學和統計技術。本書將包含一系列有價值的章節，探討和討論BA的計算框架、實踐和應用，以協助行業和相關利益相關者進行決策和解決問題的練習，以獲得競爭優勢。

Prof. V. Charles, PhD, PDRF, FRSS, FPPBA, is an experienced researcher in the field of Artificial Intelligence and Management Science. He has more than two decades of teaching, research, and consultancy experience in various countries, in the fields of applied quantitative analytics (big data), having been a full professor and director of research for more than a decade. He did his postdoc at the National University of Singapore and he holds Executive Certificates from the MIT Sloan School of Management (USA), Harvard Business School (USA), IE Business School (Spain), and the Royal Statistical Society (UK). He is an AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner and an AWS Academy Accredited Educator, as well as an AdvanceHE Certified External Examiner. Additionally, he is a Deputy Director for the SMP pathway, White Rose Social Sciences Doctoral Training Partnership, UK.

He has published over 130 research outputs and has 1351 citations, with h-index 18 and i10-index 32. He actively publishes in reputed peer-reviewed journals, such as the European Journal of Operational Research, Omega: The Management Science Journal, The Journal of Operational Research Society, Annals of Operations Research, and Expert Systems with Applications, among others; he is also a member/Associate Editor of the editorial boards of various reputed journals. He is a recipient of many international academic honours and awards. He won the 2016 Cum Laude Award from the Peruvian Marketing Society for his intellectual contribution to the area of marketing; the 2013 award in the category of The Most Innovative Study from the Premio PODER to Peru's Think Tank of the Year; the 2013 award in Summer Grants (competition) from the Emerging Markets Institute (EMI) of Johnson Cornell University, USA (along with Nagesh Gavirneni); also, the best research paper award (2006) in Finance from the Centre for Financial Excellence, KLS' IMER, Belgaum, India. Additionally, in 2012 he received the Best Paper Award from the ESIC Market Best Papers Awards CLADEA 2012. For three consecutive years, 2010-2012, he was the recipient of the Highly Commended Award of the Emerald/CLADEA Latin American Management Research Fund Award and for seven consecutive years, 2010-2016, he was the recipient of CENTRUM's annual research contribution award. He has developed the 4^3 Architecture for Service Innovation. He has published books with Springer-Verlag, Pearson Education, Cengage, and Cambridge Scholars Publishing, UK.

His areas of focus are Artificial Intelligence/ Machine Learning, [Big] Data Science; Performance Measurement and Management; Competitiveness; Social Progress; Doing Business; Innovation; and Design Thinking. He has industry exposure (Research and Consultancy) in Advertising (Branding), Agriculture & Agribusiness (Dry Apples), Transportation (Land - Public Transportation/ Marine - Logistics), Computer (Laptop Configuration), Consumer Products (Aerosols), Banking (Public/Private/Commercial), Education (Business Schools), Electronics (Assembled PCBs), Energy (Windmill), and Manufacturing (Oil Rigs/ Tyres and Axles).

Dr Pratibha Garg is working as Assistant Professor & area chair operations, Amity school of business, faculty of management studies, Amity University Noida. She completed her PhD in 2012 in management science. She has rich teaching experience of 18 years in the field of operations management.

She has authored 5 text books in the operation management field with most current, comprehensive and state-of-art analysis to fulfil the need of Engineering & Management students. She has contributed to 32 research papers in different referred national and international journals. Three scholars are doing PhD under her guidance and one submitted her thesis. She has attended and conducted many FDP/MDP. She also presented papers in national and international conferences.

Her research interests are lean manufacturing, operations management, total quality management, supply chain management, project management, stress management, meditation and yoga, spirituality, employee engagement, sustainability.

Dr Neha Gupta is currently working as Assistant Professor in the Amity School of Business, Amity University Uttar Pradesh, Noida (India). She started her career by working with SSLD Varshney Group of Institutions, Shree Guru Gobind Singh Tricentenary University, with more than of 4 years of rich experience in academics and research.

Dr. Gupta has published more than 25 research papers in journals of national and international repute including publishers like Taylor & Francis and Springer. She is also a member in the Editorial Board of International Journal of Mathematics and Systems Science, International Journal of Data Mining, Modelling & Management-Inderscience, and Editorial Review Board of OPSEARCH, Journal of Statistical Computation and Simulation, and International Journal of Management Science and Engineering Management.

She is a Gold Medalist and a life member of Operational Research Society of India. Her two books are accepted in Springer Nature and CRC Press, Taylor & Francis.

She has presented papers at various National & International conferences and has won best research paper award. His research interest includes Optimization, Decision-Making, Transportation, Operations Management, Supply Chain Management, Mathematical Programming, and Data analysis using R, SPSS, LINGO, MATLAB etc.

Dr Mohini Agarwal is currently working as Assistant Professor at Amity School of Business, Amity University Uttar Pradesh. Prior joining Amity University, she has worked as Assistant Professor at Galgotias University in School of Business. She did her Ph.D. from Department of Operational Research, University of Delhi, Delhi (INDIA). She obtained her B.Sc. (H) Mathematics and M.Sc. in Operational Research degree from University of Delhi, Delhi (INDIA).

She has recently authored a book entitled "Market Assessment with OR Applications". She has been actively involved in participating in conferences and FDPs. She has around 20 research papers published in journal and conferences of national and international repute. Her Research areas include Marketing Management and Software Reliability. She is a life time member of SREQOM. Her research interests are marketing management, operations research, decision sciences, software reliability modeling, sustainability, optimization.

Prof. V. Charles教授，PhD，PDRF，FRSS，FPPBA，是人工智慧和管理科學領域的經驗豐富的研究員。他在應用量化分析（大數據）領域擁有超過二十年的教學、研究和咨詢經驗，曾擔任全職教授和研究主任超過十年。他在新加坡國立大學進行博士後研究，並持有麻省理工學院斯隆管理學院（美國）、哈佛商學院（美國）、IE商學院（西班牙）和英國皇家統計學會的執行證書。他是AWS認證的雲計算從業者和AWS學院認可的教育者，也是AdvanceHE認證的外部考官。此外，他還是英國白玫瑰社會科學博士培訓合作伙伴計劃SMP途徑的副主任。

他已發表了超過130篇研究成果，被引用1351次，h指數為18，i10指數為32。他積極在知名的同行評審期刊上發表文章，如歐洲運籌學期刊、Omega：管理科學期刊、運籌學會期刊、運營研究年鑒和專家系統與應用等；他還是多個知名期刊的成員/副編輯。他獲得了許多國際學術榮譽和獎項。他因其對市場營銷領域的智力貢獻而獲得了2016年秘魯市場學會的Cum Laude獎；2013年獲得了秘魯年度智庫Premio PODER的最具創新研究獎；2013年與Nagesh Gavirneni一起獲得了美國康奈爾大學新興市場研究所（EMI）的夏季研究獎（競賽）；此外，他還獲得了2012年ESIC市場最佳論文獎。在連續三年，2010年至2012年，他獲得了Emerald/CLADEA拉丁美洲管理研究基金獎的高度讚揚獎，並連續七年，2010年至2016年，獲得了CENTRUM年度研究貢獻獎。他提出了服務創新的4^3架構。他在Springer-Verlag、Pearson Education、Cengage和Cambridge Scholars Publishing等出版社出版了書籍。

他的研究重點是人工智慧/機器學習、[大]數據科學；績效衡量和管理；競爭力；社會進步；商業經營；創新；和設計思維。他在廣告（品牌）、農業和農業業務（乾蘋果）、交通（陸地-公共交通/海洋-物流）、計算機（筆記本配置）、消費品（氣溶膠）、銀行（公共/私人/商業）、教育（商學院）、電子產品（組裝的PCB）、能源（風車）和製造業（油井/輪胎和軸承）等行業有實踐（研究和咨詢）經驗。

Pratibha Garg博士現任Amity大學Noida分校商學院管理學院的助理教授和運營領域主任。她於2012年獲得管理科學博士學位，擁有18年的運營管理領域的豐富教學經驗。

她在運營管理領域撰寫了5本教科書，提供最新、全面和最先進的分析，以滿足工程和管理學生的需求。她在不同的國內和國際期刊上發表了32篇研究論文。有三位學者在她的指導下攻讀博士學位，一位學者已提交了論文。她參加並主持了許多教師專業發展/管理專業發展課程。她還在國內和國際會議上發表論文。

她的研究興趣包括精益生產、運營管理、企業績效衡量和管理。