Burstiness in Quasi-Group Decision Making in Business Settings

Business advances its business process in order to adapt to a constantly changing situation in economy and society. Analysis of buyers' burstiness assists in optimization of flow of business process in order to increase the profit. However, burstiness in quasi-group decision making in business settings has not attracted a lot of research efforts. The aim of the chapter is to explore the nature, origins, and impact of burstiness in quasi-group decision making in business settings underpinning implementation of an empirical study and elaboration of a new research question for further studies. The meaning of such key concepts as burstiness, mirror neurons, quasi-group, and decision making is studied. Moreover, the study demonstrates how the key concepts are related to the idea of business settings. The novel contribution of this manuscript is the newly defined research question on burstiness in quasi-group decision making in business settings. Directions of further research are proposed.

Development of a Simulation Model for Optimization of Business Process

Optimization of business process assists in efficient organization of business process. For the success of optimization of business process, a simulation model based on gap processes for the analysis of buyers' burstiness in business process has been proposed. However, the model has to be validated. The aim of the research is to implement a validation approach to the simulation model based on gap processes for the optimization of business process underpinning elaboration of a new research question on the model validity. The meaning of the key concepts of “validation,” “model validation,” and “model validation approach” is studied. The results of the present research show that the application of real system measurements validates the simulation model for the optimization of business process. The novel contribution of the manuscript is revealed in the newly created research question on the proposed model validity. Directions of future research are proposed.

Burstiness as a Predictor of Performance

Entrepreneurship education in teacher professional development is of paramount importance as teachers are a critical success factor in the entrepreneurship development. However, little attention has been paid to burstiness as a predictor of performance. The aim of the manuscript is to analyze the relationship between burstiness of entrepreneurship education in teacher professional development and teachers' entrepreneurial performance underpinning implementation of an empirical study in the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania). The meaning of the key concepts of “burstiness,” “performance,” “entrepreneurship education,” and “teacher professional development” is studied. The findings of the empirical study allow drawing the conclusion that a level of frequency, as a criterion of burstiness, of entrepreneurship education in teacher professional development does not reflect a level of teachers' entrepreneurial performance. The novel contribution of this manuscript is the newly formulated research question on burstiness as a predictor of performance.

Agent-Based Approach to Customers' Flow Modelling

Agents are relatively autonomous computational objects. They can slightly differ in values of their properties, called attributes, and can as well have different number of quite different properties. Agents exchange messages and carry out activities influencing other agents and environment. Agent activities are defined by its own rules that can be static or dynamic. Simulation of various phenomena using agents are called agent-based modelling (ABM). ABM enables observation and investigation of processes that are complicated to be modelled by other modelling means. The purpose of this chapter is to demonstrate the agent-based approach for modelling and analyzing agents-customers flow to shops or service places. Each agent randomly with defined probability decides if the service is to be booked or not. Flow of customers is modelled by another kind of single agent environment. This real-world process modelling by means of agents enables to collect statistics and to compare outcomes with similar analytical results.

Development of a Simulation Model for Optimization of Business Process

Earning profits in business promotes optimization of business processes. For the analysis of business processes, realistic simulation models are an important prerequisite. The research question is as follows: What is business process based on gap processes? The aim of the research is to carry out mathematical analysis of gap processes underpinning elaboration of a simulation model for optimization of a bursty business process. The meanings of such key concepts as “bursty business process,” “binary customer behavior,” “gap,” and “gap processes” are studied. In this chapter, a new simulation model is presented that allows a realistic analysis of business process based on gap processes. The model is based on the assumption that the gaps between two buyers are statistically independent on each other, which has been proofed as a good practical approximation. The novel contribution of the manuscript is revealed in the newly created simulation model based on gap processes. Directions of further research are indicated.

Traffic Flow Burstiness and Bottlenecks in Entrances

Many different companies and institutions related to cargo transportation (such as logistics centers, manufacturing companies, shopping malls, etc.) face a major problem: bottlenecks. The purpose of the chapter is to introduce the framework of modeling traffic flow patterns in entrances of companies operating queuing managing system. Aiming to present effective solutions for congested traffic control and ensure high quality customer flow management, the authors present a framework of a traffic flow simulator. The simulator each and every modeling minute generates a stochastic flow of arriving vehicles meeting corresponding to the average values of the selected parameters. In the result the output characteristics—such as queues and traffic jams—are obtained in graphical form. The model has been designed using Visual Basic for Applications for the reason that non-standard parameter values of the above-mentioned model might be also inserted into the cells.