Business Analytics and Decision Making in Practice

This book presents selected proceedings of the International Conference on Business Analytics in Practice (ICBAP2024), which was held on January 8–11, 2024, at the University of Sharjah, UAE.

The book presents advanced modeling and examples to explore the practical applications of business analytics across various industries and domains. In addition, it dives deep into the world of data-driven decision-making, showcasing real-world case studies and best practices to illustrate how organizations can harness the power of analytics to optimize their decision-making processes. From descriptive analytics to predictive modeling and prescriptive analytics, readers will gain valuable insights into the different techniques and methodologies employed in business analytics.

Ali Emrouznejad is Professor and Chair in Business Analytics at Surrey Business School, University of Surrey, UK. His areas of research interest include performance measurement and management, efficiency, and productivity analysis as well as data mining and big data. Dr. Emrouznejad actively engages with several prominent academic journals either as Editor or as Editorial Board Member. His publications include over 200 research articles, and several books. See: www.emrouznejad.ac.uk.

Panagiotis D. Zervopoulos is Associate Professor in Business Analytics at the College of Business Administration, University of Sharjah, UAE. With a specialization in Operations Research and Statistics, his research interests include data envelopment analysis, efficiency and productivity analysis, performance management, production economics, and statistics. He held academic and research positions at Peking University (China), the London School of Economics (UK), the Academy of Athens (Greece), and the Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research (IOBE, Greece). He has been a member of the World Economic Survey Expert Group and the Economic Experts Survey Group of Ifo (Germany). Panagiotis has served as a Senior Consultant Modeling Statistician at IRi Worldwide and as a Project Manager and Expert in Quantitative Analysis and Public Sector Reform at the European Public Law Organization.

Ilhan Ozturk is Professor of Economics at the University of Sharjah, UAE, and Nisantasi University, Istanbul, Turkey. He is the Dean of the College of Business Administration at the University of Sharjah, UAE. His research interests are in the areas of energy and environmental economics and international economics. The total number of articles published by him is more than 300. Of these articles, 270 are listed by ISI Web of Science-Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) and Science Citation Index (SCI). His researchhas an international focus and has been published in a number of leading international journals. Dr. Ozturk’s research has been cited over 45,000 times in peer-reviewed international journals with H-index: 107. In addition, he is Editor and Associate Editor of several international refereed journals. Prof. Ozturk is also a Highly Cited Researcher in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022.

Dima Jamali is Professor and Vice President of Academic Affairs at the Canadian University in Dubai, UAE. She also served as Dean of the College of Business Administration at the University of Sharjah, UAE, from August 2020 to August 2023, as Associate Dean and Director for Strategic Partnerships for the Olayan School of Business (OSB). Forbes and Insights Success Magazine have highlighted her as one of the most admired women in the educational sector in 2023. Her research interest focuses on corporate social responsibility. She is also Editor-in-Chief of the journal Business Ethics: A European Review.

John Rice is Professor in Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the College of Business Administration, University of Sharjah, UAE. His research interests include strategic management innovation, knowledge and technology management, and open innovation.