University of Bristol Lead: Dr Minhao Zhang (Bristol Business School, Social Sciences and Law), his research and teaching interests are operations and supply chain management, and social media. He is also the deputy director of postgraduate research at the University of Bristol Business School.
Institutional Partner Lead: Professor Yusen Xia is the Director of the Institute for Insight and also the faculty director of the MSA programme at Georgia State University (GSU) Robinson College of Business. His research interests include structured and unstructured data analytics, algorithm design and machine learning, blockchain technology, and operations and supply chain management. His research has been supported by National Science Foundation and industries such as Amazon and Ryerson. He is currently a senior editor of Production and Operations Management and an associate editor of Decision Sciences.
Other participants:
Professir Xiaojun Wang, Chair in Operations and Supply Chain Managment, University of Birmingham, his research interests include supply chain management, low carbon manufacturing, sustainability, coopetition, healthcare operations, e-business, and social media research.
The era of big data is arrived, especially for solving business problems. The terms "big data" and "Internet of things" (IoTs), "cloud computing", "wireless sensor networks", and "social media" are all often used in our daily lives. When a dataset demonstrates a number of qualities, such as great volume, high variety, and high "required" data processing velocity, the term "big data" is used. Undoubtedly, big data and the information technology and procedures associated with it will play a significant role in all future socioeconomic developments. Business Analytics is a field of study that uses scientifically sound analytical techniques to support decisions that are optimal (or nearly optimal) for businesses.
Although business analytics is a promising interdisciplinary area, the relevant research is still in its infancy, and there are challenges and future research potential. For instance, the data mining method suffers from the weaknesses of the underlying models, traditional optimisation methods could fall short of meeting large data requirements like quick processing times, and machine learning faces the challenge of being time-consuming in training the data. Therefore, building on a globally connected research network to establish a business analytics forum is vital to tackle the challenges and advance the field of business analytics.
Activity:
The purpose of this activity is to provide a workshop at Bristol for both institutions to discuss and explore the emerging practices and research issues in analysing the mixed business research data to inform business decision-making and policy recommendation through analytical way such as Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI). The workshop will include brainstorming sessions on how to use analytical approaches to analyse structured and unstructured business data and one coaching session for doctoral students in which a selected number of workshop attendees will present their full papers and receive feedback from the discussants of the workshop.
