This volume presents techniques and theories drawn from mathematics, statistics, computer science, and information science to analyze problems in business, economics, finance, insurance, and related fields. The authors present proposals for solutions to common problems in related fields. To this end, they are showing the use of mathematical, statistical, and actuarial modeling, and concepts from data science to construct and apply appropriate models with real-life data, and employ the design and implementation of computer algorithms to evaluate decision-making processes. This book is unique as it associates data science - data-scientists coming from different backgrounds - with some basic and advanced concepts and tools used in econometrics, operational research, and actuarial sciences. It, therefore, is a must-read for scholars, students, and practitioners interested in a better understanding of the techniques and theories of these fields.

This book demonstrates that innovative ideas are systematically constructed in the creative space spanned by the dimensions of systems thinking and knowledge management. Readers will be introduced to this proposition in the final chapter, after learning about the key innovation theories, design thinking, systems thinking, and idea creation methods in systems science and knowledge science. The content provided throughout the book supports knowledge creation in various fields, the management of research and business projects, and the creation of promotion stories for products and services. Practitioners who are seeking to create innovative ideas can systematically learn the minimum theories and methods required, while graduate students will be equipped to link their research to innovation by learning the essence of systems science and knowledge science and considering selected issues. Lastly, the book includes suggestions for future research directions in knowledge science.

Based on the "Fourth International Conference on Dynamics of Disasters" (Kalamata, Greece, July 2019), this volume includes contributions from experts who share their latest discoveries on natural and unnatural disasters. Authors provide overviews of the tactical points involved in disaster relief, outlines of hurdles from mitigation and preparedness to response and recovery, and uses for mathematical models to describe natural and man-made disasters. Topics covered include economics, optimization, machine learning, government, management, business, humanities, engineering, medicine, mathematics, computer science, behavioral studies, emergency services, and environmental studies will engage readers from a wide variety of fields and backgrounds.

This book analyses decision-making in dynamic economic environments. By applying a wide range of methodological approaches, combining both analytical and computational methods, the contributors examine various aspects of optimal firm behaviour and relevant policy areas. Topics covered include optimal control, dynamic games, economic decision-making, and applications in finance and economics, as well as policy implications in areas such as pollution regulation. This book is dedicated to Christophe Deissenberg, a well-known and distinguished scholar of economic dynamics and computational economics. It appeals to academics in the areas of optimal control, dynamic games and computational economics as well as to decision-makers working in policy domains such as environmental policy.

This book has resulted from the activities of IFAC TC 5.2 "Manufacturing Modelling for Management and Control". The book offers an introduction and advanced techniques of scheduling applications to cloud manufacturing and Industry 4.0 systems for larger audience. This book uncovers fundamental principles and recent developments in the theory and application of scheduling methodology to cloud manufacturing and Industry 4.0. The purpose of this book is to present recent developments in scheduling in cloud manufacturing and Industry 4.0 and to systemize these developments in new taxonomies and methodological principles to shape this new research domain. This book addresses the needs of both researchers and practitioners to uncover the challenges and opportunities of scheduling techniques' applications to cloud manufacturing and Industry 4.0. For the first time, it comprehensively conceptualizes scheduling in cloud manufacturing and Industry 4.0 systems as a new research domain. The chapters of the book are written by the leading international experts and utilize methods of operations research, industrial engineering and computer science. Such a multi-disciplinary combination is unique and comprehensively deciphers major problem taxonomies, methodologies, and applications to scheduling in cloud manufacturing and Industry 4.0.

This book tackles the perplexing problem of how to capture the qualitative differences that exist in entrepreneurship at any given point in time or across time, by presenting a novel qualitative index: Entrepreneurship Quality Index (EQI). This comprehensive composite index is based on recognized interactions among different factors affecting intensity and types of entrepreneurial activity, which in turn is impacting the well-being. It brings qualitative differences in entrepreneurship depending on time and space into calculation of the composite index. Besides, EQI is the missing piece of the entrepreneurship puzzle, and the quality of entrepreneurship is a significant factor that shows why less developed countries do not achieve higher levels of economic growth, despite their high rate of entrepreneurial activities. This book does a masterful job in explaining the diversity of existing perspectives, their contributions, and their shortfalls. It applies rigorous tools of mathematical statistics and quality engineering, such as Bayes' rule, maximum likelihood estimation, six sigma algorithm, and standardization equation, to derive and introduce EQI, as a novel operations research model. It offers a number of important ideas and insights as to how the quality of entrepreneurship can be measured more accurately. It also illustrates the proposed approaches showing their efficacy across time. The proposed solutions are logical and empirically sound; they represent an important leap in thinking about the quality of entrepreneurship. Its contribution is crucial and timely - one that will be well recognized by researchers worldwide. They give a much-needed framework along with the necessary tools to evaluate and measure entrepreneurial activities.

The yard block of a container terminal is the central point of synchronisation for asynchronous container flows between deep-sea vessels and transport to the hinterland. The structure of the block stipulates that containers are stacked on top of each other with only the topmost container directly accessible by a yard crane. This book describes a holistic and integrative approach to container handling in yard blocks to optimise productivity by minimising re-handling operations. The results provide insights for academic scholars as well as for experts from practical terminal planning and operations. The approach presented is two-fold: first, a theoretical foundation of the interdependencies in decision-making is established using mathematical programming. Secondly, operations involving uncertain container arrival information are examined on the basis of a simulation with a rigorous experimental design and statistical evaluation. In this context, the book develops container-handling strategies and analyses the impact of a system for vehicle arrival management - the "Terminal Appointment System". The findings presented in this book are the result of a close cooperation with experts at the port of Hamburg and build on previous research.

This book develops innovative techniques from operational research and management science for the design and implementation of a reconfigurable manufacturing system (RMS), and subsequently analyzes and assesses their performance. A reconfigurable manufacturing system (RMS) is a paradigm that can address many of the challenges posed by the modern market. Accordingly, substantial research is now being conducted on RMS, focusing on various levels of decision-making (strategic, tactical and operational). However, as a relatively new research area, there are still only very few books and articles available on reconfigurable manufacturing system design and management. In addition to filling that gap, this book provides a forum for investigating, exchanging ideas on, and disseminating the latest advances in the broad area of RMS applications in today's industry. Gathering contributions by experts from academia, industry and policy-making, it represents an essential contribution to the existing literature on manufacturing and logistics in general and industry 4.0 in particular.

Primarily an introduction to the theory of stochastic processes at the undergraduate or beginning graduate level, the primary objective of this book is to initiate students in the art of stochastic modelling. However it is motivated by significant applications and progressively brings the student to the borders of contemporary research. Examples are from a wide range of domains, including operations research and electrical engineering. Researchers and students in these areas as well as in physics, biology and the social sciences will find this book of interest.

This is a management oriented book about efficiency, quality and effectiveness designed for an audience of management practitioners, scholars, and students. The integrative approach developed in this book contains new ideas regarding quality and efficiency-based effective management. These ideas lend themselves to managerial applications. This work is not meant to provide an exhaustive account of the measurement, and applications of effectiveness, quality, and efficiency concepts. With the exception of the treatment of conventional productivity concepts and measurements in Chapter 2, and of production flexibility in Chapter 5, the discussion in this book is largely non-teclmical. Among management practitioners, the book may be of particular interest to managers with broad strategic orientations in the fields of production management, quality management, marketing, and management of human resources. The academic audience is likely to include scholars and students interested in strategic planning, applied productivity analysis, quality management, marketing management, and management of human resources. The book could also be used as a supplementary text to or part of the readings in basic and advanced courses in strategic management, production management, and quality management. Concepts and dimensions of efficiency, quality, and effectiveness, as used throughout this book, are introduced in Chapter 1. The intricate sets of relationships among effectiveness, quality, and efficiency are explored.

This book introduces readers to the main traffic flow modelling approaches and discusses their features and applications. It provides a comprehensive and cutting-edge review of traffic flow models, from their roots in the 1930s to the latest developments in the field. In addition, it presents problem sets that offer readers further insights into the models and hands-on experience with simulation approaches. The simulations used in the exercises can be built upon for readers' own research or other applications. The models discussed in this book are applied to describe, predict and control traffic flows on roads with the aid of rapid and accurate estimations of current and future states. The book shows how these models are developed, what their chief characteristics are, and how they can be effectively employed.

The Feature-Driven Method for Structural Optimization details a novel structural optimization method within a CAD framework, integrating structural optimization and feature-based design. The book presents cutting-edge research on advanced structures and introduces the feature-driven structural optimization method by regarding engineering features as basic design primitives. Consequently, it presents a method that allows structural optimization and feature design to be done simultaneously so that feature attributes are preserved throughout the design process. The book illustrates and supports the effectiveness of the method described, showing potential applications through numerical modeling techniques and programming. This volume presents a high-performance optimization method adapted to engineering structures-a novel perspective that will help engineers in the computation, modeling and design of advanced structures.

This book introduces readers to advanced data science techniques for signal mining in connection with agriculture. It shows how to apply heuristic modeling to improve farm-level efficiency, and how to use sensors and data intelligence to provide closed-loop feedback, while also providing recommendation techniques that yield actionable insights. The book also proposes certain macroeconomic pricing models, which data-mine macroeconomic signals and the influence of global economic trends on small-farm sustainability to provide actionable insights to farmers, helping them avoid financial disasters due to recurrent economic crises. The book is intended to equip current and future software engineering teams and operations research experts with the skills and tools they need in order to fully utilize advanced data science, artificial intelligence, heuristics, and economic models to develop software capabilities that help to achieve sustained food security for future generations.

The second edition of Leadership offers a unique, highly-applied academic treatise on leadership, uniquely blending a chronological analysis of the last 100 years of leadership theory with exclusive CEO interviews. The case studies, expert insights and other teaching aids are timely and hard hitting, making this textbook relevant, insightful and informative, while a research chapter empowers the reader to competently question the leaders that shape our world. The world has turned on its political and corporate axis since the first edition of Leadership was published, and it became necessary to produce a second edition that fully encapsulated, respected and observed these changes. Numerous new case studies, discussion starters and examples subsequently reflect today's volatile technological, political, financial and social shifts, while exclusive interviews with successful CEOs powerfully blend theory with practice. Readers will learn the importance of navigating leadership in the most testing of times. A new chapter, 'Researching leadership', offers the reader the opportunity to develop significantly as a leadership researcher and to ably question reality in a post-truth world. A self-leadership chapter equips the reader to develop their own leadership capabilities, while retaining the ability to avoid destructive leadership. Ultimately, readers will become empowered to appreciate the complex, intersectional nature of leadership and to learn what it takes to lead in today's politically, technologically and socially tumultuous world. This book will be particularly engaging for students and educators at secondary school, college, undergraduate and postgraduate level, and for leadership/management consultants. While the book's primary role remains as a core text for leadership, management and business modules, it will also be of interest to students on many other courses (e.g. psychology, politics, sociology). Packed with teaching resources which educators will find particularly useful, Leadership is the only textbook of its kind to offer such an applied view of this subject via the inclusion of 12 (mostly CEO) expert insights. The first edition was an "Amazon Hot New Release", so this second edition might also hold interest for a general readership.

This book offers a systematic introduction to the clustering algorithms for intuitionistic fuzzy values, the latest research results in intuitionistic fuzzy aggregation techniques, the extended results in interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy environments, and their applications in multi-attribute decision making, such as supply chain management, military system performance evaluation, project management, venture capital, information system selection, building materials classification, and operational plan assessment, etc.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the most important and frequently considered optimization problems concerning cutting and packing. Based on appropriate modeling approaches for the problems considered, it offers an introduction to the related solution methods. It also addresses aspects like performance results for heuristic algorithms and bounds of the optimal value, as well as the packability of a given set of objects within a predefined container. The problems discussed arise in a wide variety of different fields of application and research, and as such, the fundamental knowledge presented in this book make it a valuable resource for students, practitioners, and researchers who are interested in dealing with such tasks.

Dynamic programming (DP) has a relevant history as a powerful and flexible optimization principle, but has a bad reputation as a computationally impractical tool. This book fills a gap between the statement of DP principles and their actual software implementation. Using MATLAB throughout, this tutorial gently gets the reader acquainted with DP and its potential applications, offering the possibility of actual experimentation and hands-on experience. The book assumes basic familiarity with probability and optimization, and is suitable to both practitioners and graduate students in engineering, applied mathematics, management, finance and economics.

This book presents the main principles of preference disaggregation analysis and covers theoretical advances in preference modelling, group decision making, classification methods, robustness analysis, process mining, and decision support systems. In addition, it highlights several applications of the preference disaggregation analysis in a wide range of areas, such as customer satisfaction analysis, consumer behavior, energy and environmental policy, strategy development, and agricultural marketing. This book was published in honor of Yannis Siskos on the occasion of his retirement from the University of Piraeus, Greece. It offers a unique snapshot of the preference disaggregation philosophy in multiple criteria decision analysis and presents a range of research ideas, many of which were significantly influenced by Professor Siskos work.

This volume is the last (IV) of four under the main themes of Digitizing Agriculture and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). The four volumes cover rapidly developing processes including Sensors (I), Data (II), Decision (III), and Actions (IV). Volumes are related to 'digital transformation" within agricultural production and provision systems, and in the context of Smart Farming Technology and Knowledge-based Agriculture. Content spans broadly from data mining and visualization to big data analytics and decision making, alongside with the sustainability aspects stemming from the digital transformation of farming. The four volumes comprise the outcome of the 12th EFITA Congress, also incorporating chapters that originated from select presentations of the Congress. The focus in this volume is on the directions of Agriculture 4.0 which incorporates the transition to a new era of action in the Agricultural sector, represented by the evolution of digital technologies in 4 aspects: Big Data, Open Data, Internet of Things (IoT), and Cloud Computing. Under the heading of "Action," 14 Chapters investigate the implementation of cutting-edge technologies on real world applications. It will become apparent to the reader that the penetration of ICT in agriculture can result in several benefits related to the sustainability of the sector and to yield the maximum benefits, successful management is required. The entire discussion highlights the importance of proper education in the adoption of innovative technologies starting with the adaption of educational systems to the new era and moving to the familiarization of farmers to the new technologies. This book covers topics that relate to the digital transformation of farming. It provides examples and case studies of this transformation from around the world, examines the process of diffusion of digital technologies, and assesses the current and future sustainability aspects of digital agriculture. More specifically, it deals with issues such as: Challenges and opportunities from the transition to Agriculture 4.0 Safety and health in agricultural work automation The role of digital farming on regional-spatial planning The enrollment of Social Media in IoT-based agriculture The role of education in digital agriculture Real-life implementation cases of smart agriculture around the world

This book presents a collection of mathematical models that deals with the real scenario in the industries. The primary objective of this book is to explore various effective methods for inventory control and management using soft computing techniques. Inventory control and management is a very tedious task faced by all the organizations in any sector of the economy. It makes decisions for policies, activities, and procedures in order to make sure that the right amount of each item is held in stock at any time. Many industries suffer from indiscipline while ordering and production mismatch. It is essential to provide best ordering policy to control such kind of mismatch in the industries. All the mathematical model solutions are provided with the help of various soft computing optimization techniques to determine optimal ordering policy. This book is beneficial for practitioners, educators, and researchers. It is also helpful for retailers/managers for improving business functions and making more accurate and realistic decisions.

This book explores all aspects of the sharing economy, pursuing a multidisciplinary approach encompassing Service Design, Spatial Design, Sociology, Economics, Law, and Transport and Operations Research. The book develops a unified vision of sharing services, and pinpoints the most important new challenges. The first, more theoretical part covers general topics from the perspectives of experts in the respective disciplines. Among the subjects addressed are the role of the user in co-design and co-production; impacts of sharing services on cities, communities, and private spaces; individual rewarding and social outcomes; regulatory issues; and the scope for improving the efficiency of design, management, and analysis of sharing services. In turn, the second part of the book presents a selection of case studies of specific sharing services, in which many of the concepts described in the first part are put into practice. Readers will gain a deeper understanding of the dynamics of sharing services and of the hidden problems that may arise. Key factors responsible for the success (or failure) of sharing services are identified by analyzing some of the best (and worst) practices. Given its breadth of coverage, the book offers a valuable guide for researchers and for all stakeholders in the sharing economy, including startup founders and local administrators.

This book presents recent developments and results found by participants of the Third International Conference on the Dynamics of Information Systems, which took place at the University of Florida, Gainesville FL, USA on February 16-18, 2011. The purpose of this conference was to bring together scientists and engineers from industry, government, and universities to exchange knowledge and results in a broad range of topics relevant to the theory and practice of the dynamics of information systems.

Dynamics of Information plays an increasingly critical role in our society. The influence of information on social, biological, genetic, and military systems must be better understood to achieve large advances in the capability and understanding of these systems. Applications are widespread and include: research in evolutionary theory, optimization of information workflow, military applications, climate networks, collision work, and much more.

Dynamics of Information plays an increasingly critical role in our society. The influence of information on social, biological, genetic, and military systems must be better understood to achieve large advances in the capability and understanding of these systems. Applications are widespread and include: research in evolutionary theory, optimization of information workflow, military applications, climate networks, collision work, and much more.

All project stakeholders have different needs, objectives, responsibilities and priorities. For many project managers it is disturbing to realise that, for any number of personal or professional reasons, some of their stakeholders may not be as co-operative and helpful as they expect. It could be a negative and powerful sponsor (the 'Anti-sponsor'), a demotivated team, low-maturity or unrealistic external clients, maliciously compliant gatekeepers and finance teams, or uninterested internal customers. The reality of project management is that stakeholders can be difficult! Jake Holloway, Professor David Bryde and Roger Joby bring their years of project management experience and combine it with research and insight from social psychology to delve into how and why project stakeholders can be difficult. The book describes some of the common stakeholder types - such as Sponsors, the Team, Gatekeepers, Clients and Contractors - and associated unhelpful or difficult behaviour profiles that you will often come across on projects. It then provides practical ideas, techniques and methods that will help the project manager to effectively manage the impact of these stakeholders on the project. As projects get larger and more complicated, the role and influence of stakeholders grows too. A Practical Guide to Dealing with Difficult Stakeholders will provide your project teams with the basis for a more sophisticated and resilient approach to stakeholder management.

The Japan Association of Simulation & Gaming (JASAG) and the Science Council of Japan (SCJ) hosted ISAGA 2003, the 34th annual conference of the International Simulation and Gaming Association (ISAGA), at Kazusa Akademia Park in Kisarazu, Japan,August 25-29, 2003. About 450 participants and guests attended,with 330 from Japan and 101 from 34 other countries. The number of submitted papers and reports exceeded 210, and in addition, many poster presentations and experiential sessions were held. This book is made up of 30 papers submitted to ISAGA 2003 and provides a good example of the diverse scope and standard of research achieved in simu- tion and gaming today.The theme of ISAGA 2003 was "Social Contributions and Responsibilities of Simulation and Gaming." Looking back over the history of simulation and gaming research in Japan,in 1991 JASAG hosted ISAGA 1991 in Kyoto. However,even though there were only 12 years between ISAGA 1991 and ISAGA 2003,and both conferences were held in the same country,Japan,for Japanese researchers,the meaning of hosting these two international conferences of simulation and gaming research was very different.

This textbook treats graph colouring as an algorithmic problem, with a strong emphasis on practical applications. The author describes and analyses some of the best-known algorithms for colouring graphs, focusing on whether these heuristics can provide optimal solutions in some cases; how they perform on graphs where the chromatic number is unknown; and whether they can produce better solutions than other algorithms for certain types of graphs, and why. The introductory chapters explain graph colouring, complexity theory, bounds and constructive algorithms. The author then shows how advanced, graph colouring techniques can be applied to classic real-world operational research problems such as designing seating plans, sports scheduling, and university timetabling. He includes many examples, suggestions for further reading, and historical notes, and the book is supplemented by an online suite of downloadable code. The book is of value to researchers, graduate students, and practitioners in the areas of operations research, theoretical computer science, optimization, and computational intelligence. The reader should have elementary knowledge of sets, matrices, and enumerative combinatorics.