Prescriptive Analytics: The Final Frontier for Evidence-Based Management and Optimal Decision Making

1. Introduction to Business Analytics and Decision-Making

Business analytics is a relatively new term that has been gaining popularity in the business world like nothing else in recent history. Before diving into the specifics about business analytics and one of its echelons—prescriptive analytics, which is closest to the decision-making stage and the main focus of this book—it would be helpful to first define business analytics and how its echelons relate to managerial decision-making. In most general terms, business analytics is the art and science of identifying or discovering novel insight from large volumes and varieties of data by means of using sophisticated machine learning, mathematical, and statistical models to support more accurate ...