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Business operations have entered the digital era in which artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and blockchain (BKC) have emerged as major disruptive forces. In AI and ML, deep learning is a critical area. In this paper, we aim to investigate how deep learning and BKC together can help improve business operations. We first examine the operations research (OR) literature related to the applications of deep learning for business operations. Then, we discuss the prior studies on using BKC for operations. After that, we explore deep learning's applications for BKC, BKC's applications for deep learning as well as how deep learning and BKC have been used together for business operations. Then, we construct a research framework and propose future research directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, emerging technologies have gained popularity and being implemented in different fields. Thus, critical leading-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence and other related technologies (blockchain, simulation, 3d printing, etc.) are transforming the operations and other traditional fields and proving their value in fighting against unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic outbreaks. However, due to this relation's novelty, little is known about the interplay between emerging technologies and COVID-19 and its implications to operations-related fields. In this vein, we mapped the extant literature on this integration by a structured literature review approach and found essential outcomes. In addition to the literature mapping, this paper's main contributions were identifying literature scarcity on this hot topic by operations-related fields; consequently, our paper emphasizes an urgent call to action. Also, we present a novel framework considering the primary emerging technologies and the operations processes concerning this pandemic outbreak. Also, we provided an exciting research agenda and four propositions derived from the framework, which are collated to operations processes angle. Thus, scholars and practitioners have the opportunity to adapt and advance the framework and empirically investigate and validate the propositions for this and other highly disruptive crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses recent advances in mathematical methods for finance. It highlights the impact of developments in financial markets, technology, and societal challenges on the field of Mathematical Finance. The article also mentions the emergence of new financial products, regulatory frameworks, and trading infrastructures, as well as the revolutionary changes brought about by artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques in numerical methods for finance. Additionally, it acknowledges the growing importance of new types of risks, such as climate-related and cyber-risks, in the financial industry. The article introduces a special issue on Recent Advances in Mathematical Methods for Finance, which provides a comprehensive overview of the latest developments in the field. The special issue includes 44 papers that underwent a rigorous peer review process, covering both theoretical and applied research in mathematical finance. The authors express their gratitude to the editor and staff for the opportunity to edit the special issue and to the referees and authors for their contributions. They hope that this collection of papers will stimulate further research in the field. [Extracted from the article]

The data revolution transforms operations, innovation, and society through artificial intelligence and advanced analytics. Data-driven innovations (DDI) have the most potential to tackle global challenges, including poverty, healthcare, climate actions, disaster management, gender inequality, peace and justice and others. This paper identifies the sources of DDI capabilities to address various global challenges. The findings show three major foundations of DDI capabilities: market orientation, infrastructure orientation, and talent orientation. Theoretically, these findings highlight the role of dynamic DDI capabilities to sense, seize and transform global challenges. Practically, we present guidelines for developing DDI in an agile and efficient manner that is fair and inclusive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Businesses nowadays often feel impelled to rush and implement Big Data and Artificial Intelligence initiatives in their organizations without clarity on their business problems, nor the appropriate methodologies for extracting actionable insights from the data. In contrast, this paper presents a process that starts with an articulated business problem instead of a "data rush". The presented process, dubbed the Business-Driven Data-Supported (BDDS) process, is rigorously anchored in concepts from Theory of Constraints and Information Theory. BDDS guides businesses in solving their problems by stating observed performance gaps, uncovering their underlying root cause, formulating the "right question", utilizing only the "right data", and choosing the "right methodology" to extract the "right information" from the data, leading to the "right actionable insights." Also provided is a prescriptive framework, dubbed the Data-to-Information-Extraction-Methodology (DIEM), for selecting the "right methodology", based on the understanding level of relevant system dependencies and the availability of relevant data. The BDDS process is illustrated by an example from the healthcare industry, and the efficacy and applicability of the DIEM framework are supported by eleven case studies from a broad range of industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document discusses the impact of fast and unpredictable change in the modern era, with billions of people connected through mobile devices and the Internet of Everything. It highlights the role of reliable statistical machine computing and intelligent systems in driving the shift towards Industry 5.0. The document also introduces a volume on Reliability and Statistical Computing, which includes 28 papers addressing various research challenges in areas such as network reliability, machine learning optimization, software reliability, and maintenance optimization. The document acknowledges the Editor-in-Chief, reviewers, and authors for their contributions to the volume. The publisher remains neutral regarding jurisdictional claims and institutional affiliations. [Extracted from the article]

The advent of Internet of Things and artificial intelligence in the era of Industry 4.0 has transformed decision-making within production systems. In particular, many decisions that previously required significant human activity are now made automatically with minimal human intervention via so-called digital twins (DTs). In the context of maintenance and reliability modeling, this naturally calls for new paradigms that can be seamlessly integrated within DTs for decision-making. The input data for time to failure needed in reliability computations are directly collected from the work center in a digital setting and often do not satisfy a known distribution. A neural network (NN) is proposed here to bypass this difficulty within the DT. Further, an algorithm inspired from machine learning is employed to solve the underlying semi-Markov decision process, whose transition model is captured via the NN. Numerical studies are carried out to demonstrate the usefulness of the approach. Finally, convergence properties of the algorithm are analyzed mathematically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditionally most cross-selling models in retail banking use demographics information and interactions with marketing as input to statistical models or machine learning algorithms to predict whether a customer is willing to purchase a given financial product or not. We overcome with such limitation by building several models that also use several years of account transaction data. The objective of this study is to analysis credit card transactions of customers, in order to come up with a good prediction in cross-selling products. We use deep-learning algorithm to analyze almost 800,000 credit cards transactions. The results show that such unique data contains valuable information on the customers' consumption behavior and it can significantly increase the predictive accuracy of a cross-selling model. In summary, we develop an auto-encoder to extract features from the transaction data and use them as input to a classifier. We demonstrate that such features also have predictive power that enhances the performance of the cross-selling model even further. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the last two decades, financial markets have exhibited several transformations owing to recurring crises episodes that has led to the development of alternative assets. Particularly, the commodity market has attracted attention from investors and hedgers. However, the operational research stream has also developed substantially based on the growth of the artificial intelligence field, which includes machine learning and deep learning. The choice of algorithms in both machine learning and deep learning is case-sensitive. Hence, AI practitioners should first attempt solutions related to machine learning algorithms, and if such solutions are unsatisfactory, they must apply deep learning algorithms. Using this perspective, this study aims to investigate the potential of various deep learning basic algorithms for forecasting selected commodity prices. Formally, we use the Bloomberg Commodity Index (noted by the Global Aggregate Index) and its five component indices: Bloomberg Agriculture Subindex, Bloomberg Precious Metals Subindex, Bloomberg Livestock Subindex, Bloomberg Industrial Metals Subindex, and Bloomberg Energy Subindex. Based on daily data from January 2002 (the beginning wave of commodity markets' financialization) to December 2020, results show the effectiveness of the Long Short-Term Memory method as a forecasting tool and the superiority of the Bloomberg Livestock Subindex and Bloomberg Industrial Metals Subindex for assessing other commodities' indices. These findings is important in term for investors in term of risk management as well as policymakers in adjusting public policy, especially during Russian-Ukrainian war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The training phase is the most crucial stage during the machine learning process. In the case of labeled data and supervised learning, machine learning entails minimizing the loss function under various constraints. We provide an innovative model for learning with numerous data sets, resulting from the application of multicriteria optimization techniques to existing deep learning algorithms. Data fitting is formulated as a multicriteria model in which each criterion measures the data fitting error on a specific data set. This is an optimization model involving a vector-valued function, and it has to be analyzed using the notion of Pareto efficiency. We present stability results for efficient solutions in the presence of input and output data perturbations. The multiple data set environment comes into play to eliminate the bias caused by the selection of a specific training set. To apply this concept, we present a scalarization strategy as well as numerical experiments in digit classification using MNIST data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Optimal Multivariate Mixture Problem (OMMP) consists of finding an optimal mixture which, starting from a set of elements (items) described by a set of variables (features), is as close as possible to an ideal solution. This problem has numerous applications spanning various fields, including food science, agriculture, chemistry, materials science, medicine, and pharmaceuticals. The OMMP is a class of optimization problems that can be addressed using traditional Operations Research (OR) approaches. However, it can also be effectively tackled using meta-heuristic techniques within Artificial Intelligence (AI). This paper aims to present an Artificial Intelligence perspective. It proposes a Genetic Algorithm (GA) for Optimal Multivariate Mixture (GA-OMM), a novel improved version of a GA whose modified genetic operators prove to improve the exploration efficiency. Here, the algorithm is described in its general framework, and a test case 8-items 5-features is conducted to evaluate efficiency by exploring various combinations of hyperparameters. Test cases are also set up for the previous version, as well as a linear programming (LP) approach. The data experiments indicate that the proposed GA is efficient, converges towards the global optimum, consistently outperforms its predecessor, and delivers highly competitive results. In particular, GA-OMM shows an average fitness of GA-OMMP/LP and standard deviation with an order of magnitude ranging between 10-8\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}\usepackage{amsmath}\usepackage{wasysym}\usepackage{amsfonts}\usepackage{amssymb}\usepackage{amsbsy}\usepackage{mathrsfs}\usepackage{upgreek}\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt}\begin{document}$$10^{-8}$$\end{document} to 10-4\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}\usepackage{amsmath}\usepackage{wasysym}\usepackage{amsfonts}\usepackage{amssymb}\usepackage{amsbsy}\usepackage{mathrsfs}\usepackage{upgreek}\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt}\begin{document}$$10^{-4}$$\end{document}. Moreover, it consistently outperforms its predecessor, which exhibits similar values around 10-3\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}\usepackage{amsmath}\usepackage{wasysym}\usepackage{amsfonts}\usepackage{amssymb}\usepackage{amsbsy}\usepackage{mathrsfs}\usepackage{upgreek}\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt}\begin{document}$$10^{-3}$$\end{document} [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital assistant is a recent advancement benefited through data-driven innovation. Though digital assistants have become an integral member of user conversations, but there is no theory that relates user perception towards this AI powered technology. The purpose of the research is to investigate the role of technology attitude and AI attributes in enhancing purchase intention through digital assistants. A conceptual model is proposed after identifying three major AI factors namely, perceived anthropomorphism, perceived intelligence, and perceived animacy. To test the model, the study employed structural equation modeling using 440 sample. The results indicated that perceived anthropomorphism plays the most significant role in building a positive attitude and purchase intention through digital assistants. Though the study is built using technology-related variables, the hypotheses are proposed based on various psychology-related theories such as uncanny valley theory, the theory of mind, developmental psychology, and cognitive psychology theory. The study's theoretical contributions are discussed within the scope of these theories. Besides the theoretical contribution, the study also offers illuminating practical implications for developers and marketers' benefit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supply chain resilience (SCRes) and performance have become increasingly important in the wake of the recent supply chain disruptions caused by subsequent pandemics and crisis. Besides, the context of digitalization, integration, and globalization of the supply chain has raised an increasing awareness of advanced information processing techniques such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) in building SCRes and improving supply chain performance (SCP). The present study investigates the direct and indirect effects of AI, SCRes, and SCP under a context of dynamism and uncertainty of the supply chain. In doing so, we have conceptualized the use of AI in the supply chain on the organizational information processing theory (OIPT). The developed framework was evaluated using a structural equation modeling (SEM) approach. Survey data was collected from 279 firms representing different sizes, operating in various sectors, and countries. Our findings suggest that while AI has a direct impact on SCP in the short-term, it is recommended to exploit its information processing capabilities to build SCRes for long-lasting SCP. This study is among the first to provide empirical evidence on maximizing the benefits of AI capabilities to generate sustained SCP. The study could be further extended using a longitudinal investigation to explore more facets of the phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]