This book inclusively and systematically presents the fundamental methods, models and techniques of practical application of grey data analysis, bringing together the authors' many years of theoretical exploration, real-life application, and teaching. It also reflects the majority of recent theoretical and applied advances in the theory achieved by scholars from across the world, providing readers a vivid overall picture of this new theory and its pioneering research activities. The book includes 12 chapters, covering the introduction to grey systems, a novel framework of grey system theory, grey numbers and their operations, sequence operators and grey data mining, grey incidence analysis models, grey clustering evaluation models, series of GM models, combined grey models, techniques for grey systems forecasting, grey models for decision-making, techniques for grey control, etc. It also includes a software package that allows practitioners to conveniently and practically employ the theory and methods presented in this book. All methods and models presented here were chosen for their practical applicability and have been widely employed in various research works. I still remember 1983, when I first participated in a course on Grey System Theory. The mimeographed teaching materials had a blue cover and were presented as a book. It was like finding a treasure: This fascinating book really inspired me as a young intellectual going through a period of confusion and lack of academic direction. It shone with pearls of wisdom and offered a beacon in the mist for a man trying to find his way in academic research. This book became the guiding light in my life journey, inspiring me to forge an indissoluble bond with Grey System Theory. --Sifeng Liu

This book explores the methodological and application developments of network design in transportation and logistics. It identifies trends, challenges and research perspectives in network design for these areas. Network design is a major class of problems in operations research where network flow, combinatorial and mixed integer optimization meet. The analysis and planning of transportation and logistics systems continues to be one of the most important application areas of operations research. Networks provide the natural way of depicting such systems, so the optimal design and operation of networks is the main methodological area of operations research that is used for the analysis and planning of these systems. This book defines the current state of the art in the general area of network design, and then turns to its applications to transportation and logistics. New research challenges are addressed. Network Design with Applications to Transportation and Logistics is divided into three parts. Part I examines basic design problems including fixed-cost network design and parallel algorithms. After addressing the basics, Part II focuses on more advanced models. Chapters cover topics such as multi-facility network design, flow-constrained network design, and robust network design. Finally Part III is dedicated entirely to the potential application areas for network design. These areas range from rail networks, to city logistics, to energy transport. All of the chapters are written by leading researchers in the field, which should appeal to analysts and planners.

This book provides a systematic framework for effectively creating value through engineering in global business networks, and contributes to an increasingly important branch of engineering operations. By updating the traditional disciplines of engineering and operations management and addressing challenges and opportunities in building global network capabilities, this study offers a contemporary guide for developing effective industrial policies to enhance the global competitiveness of engineering sectors, which will be extremely useful to engineering companies and policy-makers. Themes discussed include main trends and driving forces, state-of-the-art knowledge in relevant subject areas, new technologies and leading practice. This timely book will help researchers, managers and students to gain an overall understanding of the pioneering research occurring in this field and it will enable companies to benefit from global engineering networks.

Supply Chain Optimization captures the latest results in a segment of current research activity in supply chain management. This research area focuses on applying optimization techniques to supply chain management problems. The research papers that make up the volume provide a snapshot of state-of-the-art optimization methods within the field. This book presents rigorous modelling approaches for supply chain operations problems with a goal of improving supply chain performance (or the performance of some segment thereof). It contains high-quality works from leading researchers in the field whose expertise fits within this scope. The book provides a diverse blend of research topics and novel modelling and solution approaches for difficult classes of supply chain operations, planning, and design problems.

Globalization has created an increase in the number of business opportunities presented to enterprises. A competitive market places demands on businesses to think differently and follow new approaches to managing their business goals and remaining acceptable to suppliers and service providers. Effective Open Innovation Strategies in Modern Business: Emerging Research and Opportunities is a comprehensive resource that focuses on the importance of interdisciplinary concepts in open innovation projects. Using case illustrations, the book examines concepts such as virtual reality, knowledge harvesting, and business process reengineering in relation to open innovation initiatives. As a publication exploring the areas of management and information technology disciplines, this resource is useful for corporate executives, business managers, entrepreneurs, business professionals, and graduate-level students seeking current research on business innovation techniques and approaches.

This book focuses on the latest advances in nonlinear dynamic modeling in economics and finance, mainly-but not solely-based on the description of strategic interaction by using concepts and methods from dynamic and evolutionary game theory. The respective chapters cover a range of theoretical issues and examples concerning how the qualitative theory of dynamical systems is used to analyze the local and global bifurcations that characterize complex behaviors observed in social systems where heterogeneous and boundedly rational economic agents interact. Nonlinear dynamical systems, represented by difference and differential and functional equations, are extensively used to simulate the behavior of time-evolving economic systems, also in the presence of time lags, discontinuities, and hysteresis phenomena. In addition, some theoretical issues and particular applications are discussed, as well. The contributions gathered here offer an up-to-date review of the latest research in this rapidly developing research area.

This book provides the readers with the overall latest research on think tanks, summarizing the characteristics of think tanks, revealing the general laws and internal logic of think tank research, applying systems, dialectical views and operations research, system theory, and cybernetics to the problems existing in the research work of think tanks at home and abroad. Based on problem-oriented, evidence-oriented and scientific orientation, this book systematically considers the methodology of think tank research, proposes the DIIS theoretical method system of think tank research, defines the standardization process of think tank research and the quality standard of think tank DIIS, and gives corresponding DIIS to the actual think tank research problem. The method aims to improve the scientificity, effectiveness, and reliability of the research results of think tanks, provide systematic theoretical analysis for think tank research, promote the professional development of think tanks, and better serve the modernization of national governance systems and governance capabilities. This book presents new theoretical and research method support and reference that contribute to macro decision-making departments, management departments, scientific research institutes, universities, and enterprises think tank research related departments, strategic decision makers, think tank managers, think tank researchers, and readers interested in think tanks reading and using. Finally yet importantly, this book embodies the research of think tank as the object of investigation, jumping out of specific social conditions, using systemic thoughts, thinking about the more general role and characteristics of think tanks from the theoretical level, important theoretical issues such as principles and logic systems that think tank research should follow.

This book gives a thorough and systematic introduction to the latest research results on hesitant fuzzy and its extensions decision making theory. It includes five chapters: Hesitant Fuzzy Set and its Extensions, Distance Measures for Hesitant Fuzzy Sets and Their Extensions, Similarity Measures for Hesitant Fuzzy Sets and Their Extensions, Entropy Measures for Hesitant Fuzzy Sets and Their Extensions, and Application of Information Measures in Multiple Criteria Decision Making. These methodologies are also implemented in various fields such as decision making, medical diagnosis, cluster analysis, environmental management, etc. This book is suitable for the engineers, technicians, and researchers in the fields of fuzzy mathematics, operations research, information science and management science and engineering, etc. It can also be used as a textbook for postgraduate and senior-year undergraduate students of the relevant professional institutions of higher learning.

The author is one of the prominent researchers in the field of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), a powerful data analysis tool that can be used in performance evaluation and benchmarking. This book is based upon the author's years of research and teaching experiences. It is difficult to evaluate an organization's performance when multiple performance metrics are present. The difficulties are further enhanced when the relationships among the performance metrics are complex and involve unknown tradeoffs. This book introduces Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) as a multiple-measure performance evaluation and benchmarking tool. The focus of performance evaluation and benchmarking is shifted from characterizing performance in terms of single measures to evaluating performance as a multidimensional systems perspective. Conventional and new DEA approaches are presented and discussed using Excel spreadsheets - one of the most effective ways to analyze and evaluate decision alternatives. The user can easily develop and customize new DEA models based upon these spreadsheets. DEA models and approaches are presented to deal with performance evaluation problems in a variety of contexts. For example, a context-dependent DEA measures the relative attractiveness of similar operations/processes/products. Sensitivity analysis techniques can be easily applied, and used to identify critical performance measures. Two-stage network efficiency models can be utilized to study performance of supply chain. DEA benchmarking models extend DEA's ability in performance evaluation. Various cross efficiency approaches are presented to provide peer evaluation scores. This book also provides an easy-to-use DEA software - DEAFrontier. This DEAFrontier is an Add-In for Microsoft (R) Excel and provides a custom menu of DEA approaches. This version of DEAFrontier is for use with Excel 97-2013 under Windows and can solve up to 50 DMUs, subject to the capacity of Excel Solver. It is an extremely powerful tool that can assist decision-makers in benchmarking and analyzing complex operational performance issues in manufacturing organizations as well as evaluating processes in banking, retail, franchising, health care, public services and many other industries.

This book introduces readers to essential technology assessment and forecasting tools, demonstrating their use on the basis of multiple cases. As organizations in the high-tech industry need to be able to assess emerging technologies, the book presents cases in which formal decision-making models are developed, providing a framework for decision-making in the context of technology acquisition and development. Applications of different technology forecasting tools are also discussed for a range of technologies and sectors, providing a guide to keep R&D organizations abreast of technological trends that affect their business. As such, the book offers a valuable the theoretical and practical reference guide for R&D managers responsible for emerging and future technologies.

social network analysis has been an established eld since the 1950s; in computer and information sciences, in biology, and of course in mathematics (graph theory) networks are central representations of objects and methods (De Nooy, forthc- ing). More detailed bibliometric studies have examined the individual, cognitive, and institutional composition of complex network theory (Morris and Yen 2004), and social network theory (Otte and Rousseau 2002). Among the more impor- .. tant pieces of literature are Borner et al. (2007), Bornholdt and Schuster (2003), Buchanan (2002), Dorogovtsev and Mendes (2003), Otte and Rousseau (2002), Newman (2003), and Watts (1999, 2004). Of these, Borner .. et al. (2007) stand out because they have most recently re-examined network science, considering it as a possible innovation in information science. All the reviews mentioned include efforts to build bridges between different scienti c disciplines and specialties. In this book we draw particular attention to the link between evolutionary economics and statistical physics. Despite this impressive development, claims that an entirely new science has been created (Barabasi ' 2002) have nevertheless been the subject of criticism. - depth analyses of a subset of "complex networks" contributions (1991-2003) have shown that the notion of "complex networks" was already prevalent in a number of different elds before it became practically a "brand name" or the popular label for a new specialty area in physics, or a new cross-disciplinary paradigm.

MICHEL GENDREAU AND PATRICE MARCOTTE As an academic, Michael Florian has always stood at the forefront of transportation research. This is reflected in the miscellaneous contributions that make the chapters of this book, which are related in some way or another to Michael's interests in both the theoretical and practical aspects of his field. These interests span the areas of Traffic Assignment, Network Equilibrium, Shortest Paths, Railroad problems, De mand models, Variational Inequalities, Intelligent Transportation Systems, etc. The contributions are briefly outlined below. BASSANINI, LA BELLA AND NASTASI determine a track pricing policy for railroad companies through the solution of a generalized Nash game. BEN-AKIVA, BIER LAIRE, KOUTSOPOULOS AND MISHALANI discuss simulation-based estimators of the interactions between supply and demand within a real-time transportation system. BOYCE, BALASUBRAMANIAM AND TIAN analyze the impact of marginal cost pricing on urban traffic in the Chicago region. BROTCORNE, DE WOLF, GENDREAU AND LABBE present a discrete model of dynamic traffic assignment where flow departure is endogenous and the First-In-First-Out condition is strictly enforced. CASCETTA AND IMP ROTA give a rigorous treatment of the problem of estimating travel demand from observed data, both in the static and dynamic cases. CRAINIC, DUFOUR, FLo RIAN AND LARIN show how to obtain path information that is consistent with the link information provided by a nonlinear multimodal model. ERLANDER derives the logit model from an efficiency principle rather than from the classical random utility approach."

There is synergy between the diverse methodologies of Operations Research and Management Science, and the many problems it seeks to solve. Operation Research/Management Science at Work is an example of that synergy. The principal aim of this book is to examine selected recent research in and applications of Operational Research/Management Science. The focus is on research that is of industry interest and covers a wide range of topics from major fields of OR/MS in a systematic and coherent fashion. Each application is chosen to demonstrate the elegance of their implementations. The book meets the needs of applied researchers who are interested in applications of OR/MS algorithms. Moreover, real world problems together with their solutions and implementations are the applications that have been selected for the volume. The Asia Pacific region has embraced business applications of decision support systems in recent years. Many of these applications have the state of the art OR/MS techniques in this region embedded in them. Hence, the increased use of OR/MS techniques in this region provides opportunities for identifying methodological advances that are taking place as a result of the unique nature of the applications. These also provide opportunities for exploring synergies and interfaces that exist between OR/MS, both in terms of applications and theoretical advances.

Like norms, translation invariant functions are a natural and powerful tool for the separation of sets and scalarization. This book provides an extensive foundation for their application. It presents in a unified way new results as well as results which are scattered throughout the literature. The functions are defined on linear spaces and can be applied to nonconvex problems. Fundamental theorems for the function class are proved, with implications for arbitrary extended real-valued functions. The scope of applications is illustrated by chapters related to vector optimization, set-valued optimization, and optimization under uncertainty, by fundamental statements in nonlinear functional analysis and by examples from mathematical finance as well as from consumer and production theory. The book is written for students and researchers in mathematics and mathematical economics. Engineers and researchers from other disciplines can benefit from the applications, for example from scalarization methods for multiobjective optimization and optimal control problems.

This book covers recent advances in efficiency evaluations, most notably Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) methods. It introduces the underlying theories, shows how to make the relevant calculations and discusses applications. The aim is to make the reader aware of the pros and cons of the different methods and to show how to use these methods in both standard and non-standard cases. Several software packages have been developed to solve some of the most common DEA and SFA models. This book relies on R, a free, open source software environment for statistical computing and graphics. This enables the reader to solve not only standard problems, but also many other problem variants. Using R, one can focus on understanding the context and developing a good model. One is not restricted to predefined model variants and to a one-size-fits-all approach. To facilitate the use of R, the authors have developed an R package called Benchmarking, which implements the main methods within both DEA and SFA. The book uses mathematical formulations of models and assumptions, but it de-emphasizes the formal proofs - in part by placing them in appendices -- or by referring to the original sources. Moreover, the book emphasizes the usage of the theories and the interpretations of the mathematical formulations. It includes a series of small examples, graphical illustrations, simple extensions and questions to think about. Also, it combines the formal models with less formal economic and organizational thinking. Last but not least it discusses some larger applications with significant practical impacts, including the design of benchmarking-based regulations of energy companies in different European countries, and the development of merger control programs for competition authorities.

The contributions of this volume stem from the "Fifth International Conference on the Dynamics of Information Systems" held in Gainesville, FL in February 2013, and discuss state-of the-art techniques in handling problems and solutions in the broad field of information systems. Dynamics of Information Systems: Computational and Mathematical Challenges presents diverse aspects of modern information systems with an emphasis on interconnected network systems and related topics, such as signal and message reconstruction, network connectivity, stochastic network analysis, cyber and computer security, community and cohesive structures in complex networks. Information systems are a vital part of modern societies. They are essential to our daily actions, including social networking, business and bank transactions, as well as sensor communications. The rapid increase in these capabilities has enabled us with more powerful systems, readily available to sense, control, disperse, and analyze information.

This work brings together some of the most up to date research in the application of operations research and mathematical modeling te- niques to problems arising in supply chain management and e-Commerce. While research in the broad area of supply chain management enc- passes a wide range of topics and methodologies, we believe this book provides a good snapshot of current quantitative modeling approaches, issues, and trends within the field. Each chapter is a self-contained study of a timely and relevant research problem in supply chain mana- ment. The individual works place a heavy emphasis on the application of modeling techniques to real world management problems. In many instances, the actual results from applying these techniques in practice are highlighted. In addition, each chapter provides important mana- rial insights that apply to general supply chain management practice. The book is divided into three parts. The first part contains ch- ters that address the new and rapidly growing role of the internet and e-Commerce in supply chain management. Topics include e-Business applications and potentials; customer service issues in the presence of multiple sales channels, varying from purely Internet-based to traditional physical outlets; and risk management issues in e-Business in B2B m- kets.

This book is devoted to a novel approach for dimensionality reduction based on the famous nearest neighbor method that is a powerful classification and regression approach. It starts with an introduction to machine learning concepts and a real-world application from the energy domain. Then, unsupervised nearest neighbors (UNN) is introduced as efficient iterative method for dimensionality reduction. Various UNN models are developed step by step, reaching from a simple iterative strategy for discrete latent spaces to a stochastic kernel-based algorithm for learning submanifolds with independent parameterizations. Extensions that allow the embedding of incomplete and noisy patterns are introduced. Various optimization approaches are compared, from evolutionary to swarm-based heuristics. Experimental comparisons to related methodologies taking into account artificial test data sets and also real-world data demonstrate the behavior of UNN in practical scenarios. The book contains numerous color figures to illustrate the introduced concepts and to highlight the experimental results.

This book reports on the development and validation of a generic defeasible logic programming framework for carrying out argumentative reasoning in Semantic Web applications (GF@SWA). The proposed methodology is unique in providing a solution for representing incomplete and/or contradictory information coming from different sources, and reasoning with it. GF@SWA is able to represent this type of information, perform argumentation-driven hybrid reasoning to resolve conflicts, and generate graphical representations of the integrated information, thus assisting decision makers in decision making processes. GF@SWA represents the first argumentative reasoning engine for carrying out automated reasoning in the Semantic Web context and is expected to have a significant impact on future business applications. The book provides the readers with a detailed and clear exposition of different argumentation-based reasoning techniques, and of their importance and use in Semantic Web applications. It addresses both academics and professionals, and will be of primary interest to researchers, students and practitioners in the area of Web-based intelligent decision support systems and their application in various domains.

This contributed volume contains fourteen papers based on selected presentations from the European Conference on Game Theory SING11-GTM 2015, held at Saint Petersburg State University in July 2015, and the Networking Games and Management workshop, held at the Karelian Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Petrozvavodsk, Russia, also in July 2015. These papers cover a wide range of topics in game theory, including recent advances in areas with high potential for future work, as well as new developments on classical results. Some of these include A new approach to journal ranking using methods from social choice theory; A differential game of a duopoly in which two firms are competing for market share in an industry with network externalities; The impact of information propagation in the model of tax audits; A voting model in which the results of previous votes can affect the process of coalition formation in a decision-making body; The Selten-Szidarovsky technique for the analysis of Nash equilibria of games with an aggregative structure; Generalized nucleoli and generalized bargaining sets for games with restricted cooperation; Bayesian networks and games of deterrence; and A new look at the study of solutions for games in partition function form. The maturity and vitality of modern-day game theory are reflected in the new ideas, novel applications, and contributions of young researchers represented in this collection. It will be of interest to anyone doing theoretical research in game theory or working on one its numerous applications.

For both public and private managers, the book Optimization Methods for a Stakeholder Society is today's key to answer the problem of a sustainable development world. This world has to take into account the meaning of all stakeholders involved and has to reconcile a number of objectives, such as economic growth, employment and preservation of the ecosystem. Traditional methods, such as cost-benefit, are outmoded as they translate all these objectives into monetary costs, a materialistic approach. On the contrary, objectives have rather to stick to their own units, eventually indicators.
The author is in favor of the use of nonlinear methods in multi-objective optimization. Therefore, several nonlinear approaches are proposed, illustrated with many applications from different fields such as: privatization in the public sector, regional versus national economic policy in a country, location of a seaport, arms procurement, industrialization of a developing country, updating or replacement of old industry, pre- and post-evaluation of projects, performance management, marketing and distribution.

FIRST PART Preparation of the Investment 1. Investments in the Company 19 The decline of stability . . 19 The change in direction of studies on the investment process. 25 Basic elements for arithmetical study of selection 29 Thc study of selection from non-numerical elements. 37 2. Programming Investment Activity 49 Classical programming techniques. 49 Handling of an investment programme. 56 Incorporation of costs into investment projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Estimating financial needs throughout the process. 72 3. Financial Risk of Investment 85 Financial aspects of the investment process. 85 Determination of the financial capacity of the investment . . 89 From pre-diagnosis to diagnosis. 102 Numerical determination of the financial risk of an investment. 106 4. Analysis of financial products for the investment 113 Aspects prior to product analysis. 113 Analysis by means of the clan concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Obtaining affinities and thc use of codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 Grouping the characteristics of the products by means of the Moore closing. 126 From product grouping to affinities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 10 / Index SECOND PART Selection 5. A first approximation to selection models 145 Updating of monetary currents 145 Incorporation of the lack of precision of interests rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 The hypothesis of known net values and fuzzy rate of interest . . . . . . 157 6. Selection of investments in an economy with inflation 165 Estimate of monetary currents at constant prices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 Estimate of monetary currents at prices for each period . . . . . . . 172 The hypothesis of different rates of inflation . . . . 180 7.

Dynamic game theory serves the purpose of including strategic interaction in decision making and is therefore often applied to economic problems. This book presents the state-of-the-art and directions for future research in dynamic game theory related to economics. It was initiated by contributors to the 12th Viennese Workshop on Optimal Control, Dynamic Games and Nonlinear Dynamics and combines a selection of papers from the workshop with invited papers of high quality.

These proceedings focus on selected aspects of the current and upcoming trends in transportation, logistics, supply chain management, and decision sciences. In detail the included scientific papers analyze the problem of Decision Making under Uncertainty, Stochastic Optimization, Transportation, Logistics and Intelligent Business. The variety of the papers delivers added value for both scholars and practitioners. This book is the documentation of the symposium "The Seventh International Forum on Decision Sciences", which took place in Windsor, Canada.