Businesses typically encounter problems first and then seek out analytical methods to help in decision making. Business Analytics: Solving Business Problems with R by Arul Mishra and Himanshu Mishra offers practical, data-driven solutions for today's dynamic business environment. This text helps students see the real-world potential of analytical methods to help meet their business challenges by demonstrating the application of crucial methods such as neural nets, natural language processing, and boosted decision trees. Applications of these methods to pricing models, social sentiment analysis, and branding with company experiences like Frito-Lay, Netflix, and Zappos show students how to use the results of research in real business settings. Step-by-step R code with commentary gives readers the tools to adapt each method to their business settings. The book offers comprehensive coverage across diverse business domains, including finance, marketing, human resources, operations, and accounting.
Author Biography:
Arul Mishra is the Emma Eccles Jones Presidential Chair Professor of Marketing and Adjunct Professor, School of Computing at the University of Utah. Her research, on a broader level, uses machine learning methods to understand customer decisions and guide firm strategies. Specifically, she derives theoretical and practical insights from data using computational algorithms to understand customer engagement in digital markets, customer preference and choice, financial decisions, online advertising, and creativity. Currently her research involves leveraging language and generative models for business applications. She also examines the ethical consequences of using algorithms. Can algorithms exacerbate or reduce the impact of social biases and inequities? How can algorithms help firms make better decisions?
Methodologically, she uses Natural Language Processing, generative language models, image processing, and field studies to test social phenomena and theories. Arul’s research has been published in the Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing, Marketing Science, Management Science, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Psychological Science, and American Psychologist®. Popular accounts of her work have appeared in Scientific American, Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, MSN Money, The Financial Express, and Shape. Arul teaches or has taught several courses at the Eccles School of Business including Algorithms for Business Decisions for Master students, Consumer Analytics for undergraduate students, and doctoral courses on research theory and methods.
Himanshu Mishra serves as the David Eccles Professor at the Eccles School of Business and as an Adjunct Professor in the Kahlert School of Computing at the University of Utah. He earned his Ph.D. in marketing from the University of Iowa. Himanshu uses machine learning methods to analyze human decisions in social and marketplace settings. He often collaborates with firms to apply the insights he gathers from research. The findings of his research inform consumer decision-making, AI′s role in fair decisions, risk assessment strategies, and overall human well-being.
With over 20 years in academia, Himanshu has taught across undergraduate, graduate, and Ph.D. levels. His recent courses involve using machine learning applications to improve business decisions and the importance of algorithmic fairness. His extensive research contributions can be found in top journals and conferences spanning marketing, business, computer science, and psychology—including the Journal of Marketing Research, IEEE International Conference on Big Data, Psychological Science, and others. Moreover, media outlets like MSNBC, The Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio, and The New York Times have featured his work.
