The Future of Business is Now
A computer screen filled with racing columns of numbers and symbols scrolling, shimmering like green-electric rivers. This is the visual we are given in the opening scene of The Matrix, a cyberpunk, science fiction movie—one of many that depict the future of machines taking over the world. Although computer technology is ubiquitously infused in every facet of our society, be rest assured, machines are not malevolent. And, as we hang on tight to the changing digital ecosystems arising at warp speed, it is thrilling to witness the expertise and innovation happening. For the last few decades, we have watched the rise and evolution of the Information Age and understand that technology is inevitable and most definitely essential and integral to the future of our society, but even more so, of business. So now, a common phrase in our lexicon: business analytics.
Business analytics (BA) is all about technology, such as artificial intelligence (AI), to collect and transform huge datasets into useful information; this to help firms make smarter, data-driven business decisions, ultimately giving them a competitive edge. In today’s market, 83 per cent of businesses think AI is a strategic priority for their business today—a global market that is estimated to be worth around 267 B USD by 2027 (idc.com). Moreover, there are significant societal benefits to business analytics—from improved urban infrastructure, environmental solutions, to medical innovations that could save lives. If knowledge is power, then the power of digital technology is the almighty powerful.
Fortunately, the Sprott School of Business has a powerful and mighty team of analytics experts that are focused on preparing businesses and students for tomorrow’s digitally driven world. The faculty represent a diverse range of expertise, spanning many disciplines that offer a wonderfully eclectic scope of BA research solutions. The Sprott school is committed to a five-year vision to become a pillar of excellence for education and research in business analytics; this includes highly innovative and real-world applicable research and projects. Moreover, there is a commitment to “help launch new professional programs and an executive-coaching group aimed at increasing management and leadership capacity in regional world-class technology companies.”
The research happening at Sprott is most definitely exciting, innovating—and game changing. The faculty are throwing away conventional approaches to research, and instead, developing ideas and solutions that keep Sprott at the forefront of business analytics.
Mohamed Al Guindy’s (Assistant Professor, Finance) research is unique, innovative, and highly contributory to one of the fastest growing and hottest areas within finance. Among many of his projects (including cryptocurrency and robonews), his work examining the impact of Tweeting on financial markets has drawn a lot of attention.
Al Guindy reveals financial Tweets not only improve the efficiency of information disclosure and help lower costs of capital, but they also provide smaller, less profiled companies—ones that have the “greatest information disadvantage,” with a voice in the market. Concurrently, Al Guindy’s research includes creating a working universe, or network, of companies. He calls this, The Social Intranetwork. Al Guindy determines which companies are associated with other companies from over 3000 publicly-traded companies’ financial Twitter conversations—these, Al Guindy finds, generate peer groups. From these relationships, Al Guindy can establish peer connections and ultimately a map of firms in the economy in a multidimensional lattice or mini universe. With this, governments, policy makers, and central bankers will know how to diffuse capital where it will have the greatest influence on the entire economy.
Michael Hine (Associate Professor, Information Systems) is an expert in the field of information systems and much of his research uses text mining to inform business decisions. One of his recent publications details an inductive approach to the development of a prescriptive model that was used to build and validate an environmental sustainability dictionary for the IT industry. “The resulting process model can provide a road map for researchers who want to use automated approaches to text analysis but are currently prevented by the lack of applicable domain dictionaries.
The dictionary can be used as a starting point for future research on Green IT and sustainability management.” Most recently, Hine has been awarded the Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response grant for his research using text-analytic methodologies to explore the 20 most active Canadian university Reddit sites. “Reddit provides real-time authentic student community response to the COVID crisis and is increasingly being used for studies of online communities.” The goal is to help educators, government, and students alike mitigate negative pandemic-related outcomes.
Ahmed Doha (Associate Professor, Supply Chain Management) is a computer scientist turned business guru. He has combined his talents to create a robust research program with a mission to solve business and economic problems using AI. Doha sees that business model innovation is paramount for unlocking the value of AI in everyday life.
“The success of today’s biggest businesses owes more to business model innovation than to technology, process, or product innovation.” And Doha is one of only a few whose research innovates on business models to turn AI’s powerful capabilities into valuable solutions to important problems. In one research project, he investigates AI-enabled innovative business models in identifying and fighting corruption at individual and organizational levels. Another project is a game-changer; in fact, it could save lives. Not yet published work, a glimpse into this amazing work develops innovative AI models that enable researchers to accomplish literature discovery tasks at a tiny fraction of the time and cost currently needed. This technology can expand beyond researchers to include many critical care and mission-driven professions, where instant access to vital information is invaluable.
Alex Ramirez (Associate Professor, Information Systems) is at the frontier of analytics research. Ramirez is part of a collaborative multidisciplinary team at Carleton University that is reimagining how we look at cities—the urban future—through the concept of digital twinning (DT). A project funded by the Government of Canada’s New Frontiers in Research Fund called: “Imagining Canada’s Digital Twin,” the idea of DT is to create digital versions of infrastructures, such as buildings (and other city features), then synchronize data connections between them in real-time.
“Smart cities” that can help reduce waste and improve efficiency for things such as energy use; essentially improving how we work and live. Ramirez knows that this is game-changing—it is machine intelligence and connectivity to the cloud that allows unprecedented potential for large-scale implementation of technology for companies in a variety of industries.
Samira Farivar (Assistant Professor, Information Systems) understands how important big data analytics have become in the business arena. It is essential in today’s economy for firms to implement analytic tools to enhance their performance in many areas of the business operations and functions. Yet, the successful adoption BA is not yet mainstream.
Farivar examines the factors and elements involved in the supply chain process that companies must consider. And, to provide an understanding of how to effectively implement analytic tools into the framework of business operations; a process that is vital for business sustainability and growth.
The Sprott school is excited to be an integral part of the rapid evolution of business analytics and to contribute with effective, socially conscious, and game-changing global solutions—as we blast into the future.