This book presents the state-of-the-art applications of machine learning in the finance domain with a focus on financial product modeling, which aims to advance the model performance and minimize risk and uncertainty. It provides both practical and managerial implications of financial and managerial decision support systems which capture a broad range of financial data traits. It also serves as a guide for the implementation of risk-adjusted financial product pricing systems, while adding a significant supplement to the financial literacy of the investigated study. The book covers advanced machine learning techniques, such as Support Vector Machine, Neural Networks, Random Forest, K-Nearest Neighbors, Extreme Learning Machine, Deep Learning Approaches, and their application to finance datasets. It also leverages real-world financial instances to practice business product modeling and data analysis. Software code, such as MATLAB, Python and/or R including datasets within a broad range of financial domain are included for more rigorous practice. The book primarily aims at providing graduate students and researchers with a roadmap for financial data analysis. It is also intended for a broad audience, including academics, professional financial analysts, and policy-makers who are involved in forecasting, modeling, trading, risk management, economics, credit risk, and portfolio management.

This book examines the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method, its varied uses, as well as its limitations for solving real-world scenarios. While the simplicity of the method compels users to find shortcuts to a real-world problem, it also leads to obtaining wrong results that do not represent reality. By alerting practitioners about the core necessities of a new scenario, this book helps solve this problem, as well as contribute to the field of Multicriteria Decision Making Method (MDCM). The authors use a demonstrative, rather than a theoretical approach, and examine 30 subjects that displays the shortcomings and drawbacks of the AHP. Each one is examined in-depth, discussed, debated and reasoned, using examples, some of them numeric. The book highlights the rationality and common sense of the subjects, and in most cases, validates the criticism by showing through numerical examples, the impossibility of the AHP method to address, let alone solve real-world projects. At the conclusion of each subject, a table is built comparing the similarities and differences between the opinions of the authors and other experts, along with the respective pros and cons.

This monograph introduces a novel multiset-based conceptual, mathematical and knowledge engineering paradigm, called multigrammatical framework (MGF), used for planning and scheduling in resource-consuming, resource-producing (industrial) and resource-distributing (economical) sociotechnological systems (STS). This framework is meant to enable smart operation not only in a "business-as-usual" mode, but also in extraordinary, highly volatile or hazardous environments. It is the result of convergence and deep integration into a unified, flexible and effectively implemented formalism operating on multisets of several well-known paradigms from classical operations research and modern knowledge engineering, such as: mathematical programming, game theory, optimal scheduling, logic programming and constraint programming. The mathematical background needed for MGF, its algorithmics, applications, implementation issues, as well as its nexus with known models from operations research and theoretical computer science areas are considered. The resilience and recovery issues of an STS are studied by applying the MGF toolkit and on paying special attention to the multigrammatical assessment of resilience of energy infrastructures. MGF-represented resource-based games are introduced, and directions for further development are discussed. The author presents multiple applications to business intelligence, critical infrastructure, ecology, economy and industry. This book is addressed to scholars working in the areas of theoretical and applied computer science, artificial intelligence, systems analysis, operations research, mathematical economy and critical infrastructure protection, to engineers developing software-intensive solutions for implementation of the knowledge-based digital economy and Industry 4.0, as well as to students, aspirants and university staff. Foundational knowledge of set theory, mathematical logic and routine operations on data bases is needed to read this book. The content of the monograph is gradually presented, from simple to complex, in a well-understandable step-by-step manner. Multiple examples and accompanying figures are included in order to support the explanation of the various notions, expressions and algorithms.

From Robin Sickles: As I indicated to you some months ago Professor William Horrace and I would like Springer to publish a Festschrift in Honor of Peter Schmidt, our professor. Peter s accomplishments are legendary among his students and the profession. I have a bit of that student perspective in my introductory and closing remarks on the website for the conference we had in his honor this last July. I have attached the conference program from which selected papers will come (as well as from students who were unable to attend). You will also find the names of his students (40) on the website. A top twenty economics department could be started up from those 40 students. Papers from some festschrifts have a thematic link among the papers based on subject material. What I think is unique to this festschrift is that the theme running through the papers will be Peter s remarkable legacy left to his students to frame a problem and then analyze and examine it in depth using rigorous techniques but rarely just for the purpose of showcasing technical refinements per se. I think this would be a book that graduate students would find invaluable in their early research careers and seasoned scholars would find invaluable in both their and their students research."

This book presents a rich collection of studies on the analysis of sustainable development from a multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) perspective, written by some of the most prominent authors in the field of MCDM/A. The book constitutes a unique international reference guide to the analysis, measurement, and management of sustainability in a multidimensional decision analysis context. Chiefly intended for academics and policymakers, it reflects some of the latest methodological advances in decision-making, which are illustrated in real-life applications to sustainability-related topics in both the private and public sector.

This textbook provides a comprehensive overview of noncooperative and cooperative dynamic games involving uncertain parameter values, with the stochastic process being described by an event tree. Primarily intended for graduate students of economics, management science and engineering, the book is self-contained, as it defines and illustrates all relevant concepts originally introduced in static games before extending them to a dynamic framework. It subsequently addresses the sustainability of cooperative contracts over time and introduces a range of mechanisms to help avoid such agreements breaking down before reaching maturity. To illustrate the concepts discussed, the book provides various examples of how dynamic games played over event trees can be applied to environmental economics, management science, and engineering.

The numerous advances in mathematical programming have opened up new insights about sensitivity analysis. The paradigm What if...?' question is no longer the only question of interest. Often, we want to know Why...?' and Why not...?' Such questions were not analyzed in the early years of mathematical programming to the same extent that they are now, and we have not only expanded our thinking about post-optimal analysis', but also about solution analysis', even if the solution obtained is not optimal. Therefore, it is now time to examine all the recent advances on sensitivity analysis and parametric programming. This book combines the origins of sensitivity analysis with the state of the art. It covers much of the traditional approaches with a modern perspective, and shows recent results using the optimal partition approach, stemming from interior methods, for both linear and quadratic programming. It examines the special case of network models. It presents a neglected topic, qualitative sensitivity analysis, as well as elements of mixed integer programming and gives a modern perspective of nonlinear programming. It provides recent advances in multi-criteria mathematical programming and also describes the state-of-the-art in stochastic programming. It covers recent advances in understanding redundancy in quadratic programs, considers an approach to diagnosing infeasibility in linear and nonlinear programs, and gives an overview of sensitivity analysis for fuzzy mathematical programming.

Matrix-analytic and related methods have become recognized as an important and fundamental approach for the mathematical analysis of general classes of complex stochastic models. Research in the area of matrix-analytic and related methods seeks to discover underlying probabilistic structures intrinsic in such stochastic models, develop numerical algorithms for computing functionals (e.g., performance measures) of the underlying stochastic processes, and apply these probabilistic structures and/or computational algorithms within a wide variety of fields. This volume presents recent research results on: the theory, algorithms and methodologies concerning matrix-analytic and related methods in stochastic models; and the application of matrix-analytic and related methods in various fields, which includes but is not limited to computer science and engineering, communication networks and telephony, electrical and industrial engineering, operations research, management science, financial and risk analysis, and bio-statistics. These research studies provide deep insights and understanding of the stochastic models of interest from a mathematics and/or applications perspective, as well as identify directions for future research.

This book showcases state-of-the-art advances in service science and related fields of research, education, and practice. It presents emerging technologies and applications in contexts ranging from healthcare, energy, finance, and information technology to transportation, sports, logistics, and public services. Regardless of its size and service, every service organization is a service system. Due to the socio-technical nature of service systems, a systems approach must be adopted in order to design, develop and deliver services aimed at meeting end users' utilitarian and socio-psychological needs alike. Understanding services and service systems often requires combining multiple methods to consider how interactions between people, technologies, organizations and information create value under various conditions. The papers in this volume highlight a host of ways to approach these challenges in service science and are based on submissions to the 2021 INFORMS Conference on Service Science.

This book is intended for those in the library community with an understanding of library processes and a desire to actually make use of scientific management techniques. The emphasis is on presenting insights into which tool may be appropriate for particular problems, not on the isolated understanding of theoretical issues. It does not require an extensive mathematical background. It shows well-developed examples of solving library problems and features chapter summaries and questions for further study.

This book is focused on quality management, and four different lenses which can be used to explore the phenomenon. It introduces emergence as a paradigm in thinking about quality, and explores conditions which are beneficial to radical innovation. The Emergence Paradigm in Quality Management provides an overview of the existing movements in thinking about quality, and discusses why these movements in fact represent paradigms. Three paradigms, the Empirical Paradigm, the Reference Paradigm and the Reflective Paradigm, are explained followed by a search for the Fourth Paradigm, the so-called Emergence Paradigm, which presents a route to radical innovation in organizations when plans, strategies and models fail. It presents the debates around the paradigms, and explores which is the best approach. This professional text will be ideal for strategy and policy makers wanting to establish a link between their conceived plans and the attention for quality, while finding ways to facilitate innovation. Professionals in a range of for-profit and non-profit organizations, including healthcare, will be able to expand their knowledge on quality management, operations management, and organizational studies.

Optimization in Science and Engineering is dedicated in honor of the 60th birthday of Distinguished Professor Panos M. Pardalos. Pardalos's past and ongoing work has made a significant impact on several theoretical and applied areas in modern optimization. As tribute to the diversity of Dr. Pardalos's work in Optimization, this book comprises a collection of contributions from experts in various fields of this rich and diverse area of science. Topics highlight recent developments and include: * Deterministic global optimization* Variational inequalities and equilibrium problems* Approximation and complexity in numerical optimization* Non-smooth optimization * Statistical models and data mining* Applications of optimization in medicine, energy systems, and complex network analysis This volume will be of great interest to graduate students, researchers, and practitioners, in the fields of optimization and engineering.

The present volume of essays on industrial organization, which are based on conferences held at Nijenrode and Brussels, differs considerably from its predecessor. Even more than in the first volume the essays demonstrate the broad scope of industrial organization analysis. Besides the traditional topics such as economies of scale, monopoly and competition policy, there are essays on methodology, on stagflation, and on the relationship between industrial struc ture and international trade and trade policies. The latter topics are of growing importance. The issue of restructuring industries and the question of whether free trade or some measure of protection is more appropriate are topics of increasing relevance today (and will no doubt continue to be in future years as well). The problem of persistent inflation which other essays address is also of major concern. Apart from being broad in scope and venturing into new fields, this volume is also controversial. Its central feature is a debate about welfare aspects. Here, more than in pure analysis, economists tend to entertain different points of view. One of the participants in the Nijenrode conference, Professor John Blair, who died in December 1976 and whom we honour as having been an active promoter of this kind of meeting, wrote to the editors shortly before his death to say that the first volume had succeeded very well in acquainting the reader with the results of empirical investigations, notably on trends and levels of concentration."

This first book on Maritime Informatics describes the potential for Maritime Informatics to enhance the shipping industry. It examines how decision making in the industry can be improved by digital technology, and introduces the technology required to make Maritime Informatics a distinct and valuable discipline. Based on participating in EU funded research over the last six years to improve the shipping industry, the editors stipulate that there is a need for the new discipline of Maritime Informatics, which studies the application of information systems to increasing the efficiency, safety, and ecological sustainability of the world's shipping industry. This book examines competition and collaboration between shipping companies, and also companies who serve shipping needs, such as ports and terminals. Practical examples from leading experts give the reader real world examples for better understanding.

This book recapitulates the major developments in Decision Support Systems (DSS) over the last 30 years in order to evaluate the research areas of decision making and in which direction the field should proceed. As it attempts to find a consensus about the next steps for the future of DSS research, the book also enforces the trends and new technologies currently in use. The book examines topics such as decision analysis for enterprise systems and non-hierarchical networks, integrated solutions for decision support and knowledge management in distributed environments, decision support system evaluation and analysis through social networks, and e-learning and its application to real environments. It clearly presents the evidence to support their cases and attempts to promote an extensive and objective discussion. In addition, the book also reflects on approaches to dead-end ideas and failures in DSS to better understand the lessons learned. The contributions for this book have been written by thought leaders and influential researchers from the EURO Working Group of Decision Support Systems (EWG-DSS).

This book explains the theoretical structure of particle swarm optimization (PSO) and focuses on the application of PSO to portfolio optimization problems. The general goal of portfolio optimization is to find a solution that provides the highest expected return at each level of portfolio risk. According to H. Markowitz's portfolio selection theory, as new assets are added to an investment portfolio, the total risk of the portfolio's decreases depending on the correlations of asset returns, while the expected return on the portfolio represents the weighted average of the expected returns for each asset. The book explains PSO in detail and demonstrates how to implement Markowitz's portfolio optimization approach using PSO. In addition, it expands on the Markowitz model and seeks to improve the solution-finding process with the aid of various algorithms. In short, the book provides researchers, teachers, engineers, managers and practitioners with many tools they need to apply the PSO technique to portfolio optimization.

This book presents the human, cultural, and scientific contributions of professor Eliano Pessa, who recently passed away. His research interests and activities were varied, some of which included quantum physics, cognitive science and psychology, systems science, artificial intelligence, and alpinism. They were never disciplinary-separated issues, but rather some coherent dimensions of his interests in life. He lived and not only practiced interdisciplinarity and multiple dimensions; he considered it unacceptable to do only one thing in life. The contributors in this volume consider, discuss, interpret, and represent the multiplicity and interdisciplinarity experienced, lived and applied by Pessa. The chapters are inspired by, rebuild, and retrace such networked interests lived by him from the personal, cultural, and scientific points of view of the authors. This is true interdisciplinarity and usage of non-equivalences, honoring the richness of Pessa's contributions.

Volume 29 of Research in Organizational Change and Development includes ten contributions from colleagues around the globe with powerful insights and potentially relevant impact for researching and practicing organization change and development during and post the pandemic. The emerging people analytics subfield and organization development perspectives are brought together to present an integrated framework that can guide future theoretical development and practice. Bourdieu's concept of social position in the form of "habitus oriented approach" expands our understanding of human behavior. Lewin's original view of political labs is advanced to examine the emerging phenomenon of labs as mechanisms for organization change and development. The alignment challenges of strategy and digital technology in government organizations is examined via the use of collaborative inquiry. The essence and context of collaboration in teams is investigated in the emerging new workplace. The current state of organizational DEI practice is examined and a new framework for diagnosing and addressing small-scale diversity-related challenges is introduced. Digital transformation suggests the need for a new STS platform with new guiding design principles. The establishment of a collaborative community generated insights into the challenges faced by healthcare organizations. Action research supported new cooperation and partnership between universities and external organizations. In the new "Reflection" feature, the author compares organization development (OD) and change management (CM) across eight concepts that are relevant to both OD and CM.

This book offers an introduction to various models and methods for green supplier evaluation and selection (GSES) within different information settings. As such, it provides valuable knowledge, useful GSES methods and practical examples that can be considered by manufacturers in selecting appropriate green suppliers to improve their environmental performance and customer satisfaction. This book is useful for practitioners and researchers working in the fields of supply chain management, operation management, information science, industrial engineering, and management science. It is also useful as a textbook for postgraduate and senior undergraduate students.

This book focuses on decision-making problems in engineering. It investigates the ranking aggregation problem and the related features, such as input/output data, simplification hypotheses, importance hierarchy of experts. In addition to a well-structured overview of several interesting, consolidated methodological approaches, it presents innovative approaches that can also be applied profitably in other fields. The fascinating selection of topics included is based on research that has been developed in the past twenty years. The descriptions are supported by figures, tables, flowcharts, diagrams, examples and practical case studies. The book is an ideal resource for engineering academics, practitioners, technicians and students, who do not necessarily have an in-depth knowledge of decision-making. It is also a thought-provoking read for engineers and academics looking for innovative ways to improve engineering processes in a variety of fields, such as conceptual design, quality improvement, reliability engineering. "Today, rankings are exercised in all spheres of life, products are ranked on Amazon and similar platforms; services such as restaurants and hotels on platforms such as TripAdvisor; and other services such as lectures or even medical treatment on different specialized platforms. We often make our daily decisions based on these rankings. The quality of our decisions depends on our ability to select appropriate methods to fit the context and needs. We need to be familiar with the theory and practice of these methods to make them useful. To this purpose, this book is an important addition to the bookshelves of academics and professionals, not only from engineering. The connection between theory and practice is weaved throughout the book, making it useful for practitioners also." Prof. Yoram Reich, Full Professor and Head of Systems Engineering research Initiative at Tel Aviv University (Israel), Editor-in-Chief of "Research in Engineering Design"

This book provides relevant theoretical frameworks and the latest empirical research findings of Operations Research/Management Science applied to Internet of Things. This book identifies and describes ways in which OR and MS have been applied and influenced the development of IoT. Examples are from smart industry; city; transportation; home and smart devices. It discusses future applications, trends, and potential benefits of this new discipline. It is written for professionals who want to improve their understanding of the strategic role of IoT at various levels of the organization, that is, IoT at the global economy level, at networks and organizations level, at teams and work groups, at information systems and, finally, IoT at the level of individuals, as players in the networked environments.

This book examines cross-chain control centers (4C), an ambitious concept in supply chain management and logistics that is intended to foster collaboration between different supply chains to increase efficiency. It provides an overview of the main results, insights, and other developments in the academic field of horizontal collaboration. Furthermore, it gives recommendations to governments, commercial companies, and academia on how to proceed with horizontal logistics collaboration in the years to come. To link research with practice, the book takes the Dutch project on cross-chain collaboration centers (4Cs) and identifies a typology of existing patterns for horizontal collaboration in supply chains. Finally, the book zooms in on the Netherlands as a case-study of intense public-private partnerships to develop 4C as a mature logistics value proposition. It provides an overview of the accomplishments in the government supported 4C projects and offers a critical reflection of why some more ambitious and structural solutions have not found solid ground yet. The book is of value to researchers and professionals in the supply chain domain.

This book gathers selected peer-reviewed papers from the 16th World Congress on Engineering Asset Management (WCEAM), held in Seville from 5-7 October 2022. This book covers a wide range of topics in Engineering Asset Management, including: Asset management and decision support system Industry 4.0 tools and its impact on asset management Monitoring, diagnostics and prognostics for smart maintenance Asset life cycle management Asset management in the industrial sector Human dimensions and asset management performance Infrastructure Asset management Asset condition, risk, resilience, and vulnerability assessments Asset operations and maintenance strategies Reliability and resilience engineering Applications of international and local guidelines and standards The breadth and depth of this state-of-the-art, comprehensive proceedings make it an excellent resource for asset management practitioners, researchers and academics, as well as undergraduate and postgraduate students.