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Decide: Work Smarter, Reduce Your Stress, and Lead by Example
by Steve McClatchyHow to make better decisions and achieve your goals What shapes a person's career and life, and defines them as a leader? Their decisions. We all want to be more productive and deliver our best results. But doing this effectively—and consistently over time—is a significant challenge. Managing it all is hard, and leading in today's hyper-paced world is even harder. The good news is that leadership expert Steve McClatchy makes it easier. In Decide, McClatchy—who works with Fortune 1000 people every day to help them achieve outstanding levels of performance—shows you how to cut through the complexities and excuses to start realizing real gains simply by changing one thing: the way you make decisions. With McClatchy's help, you can quickly begin to: Use the time you have each day to move your business and your life forward Make decisions that yield better results Waste less time, reduce stress and regain balance Again and again, McClatchy has helped people learn for themselves how great decision-making habits yield a lifetime of accomplishments. Follow McClatchy's no-nonsense and practical approach, and you'll soon manage—and even lead—at your highest level of personal performance.
Decide
by David WetheyLife presents us with a steady stream of decisions that we have to make. So, like it or not, we need to practice this skill every day - at work, at home, and in every aspect of our lives. Yet, we often make decisions without properly considering the context, options and implications of our actions. Or worse still, we end up managing the consequences of avoiding taking difficult decisions. Decide sets out a clear and easy to follow model that will enable you to make or contribute to effective decisions, proving that it does not have to be a long drawn out process, as long as you use a mixture of rational and lateral thinking. Free from business jargon, and filled with relevant case studies, Decide is a vital book for everyone whose life revolves around successful decision making. Thought-provoking and practical, it will help you always make the right decisions, and choose from your options wisely, whether you have 60 days, 60 minutes or just 60 seconds.
Decide and Conquer: 44 Decisions that will Make or Break All Leaders
by David SiegelSuccess boils down to one thing: making good decisions. Learn the right framework now that can make all the difference later when faced with terrible options, deep anxiety and fear of failure.Access the decision framework David Siegel used when he took over as CEO of Meetup, the world&’s leading platform for making connections and finding your community. Let David&’s success during one of the most tumultuous times in his company&’s history help guide you on your own path. Decide and Conquer helps all leaders navigate the big decisions that will impact their future and make their organizations a success. David outlines the 44 challenges leaders face when starting a new position, then shows you the decision framework he applied to overcome challenges in his own role. David takes you on an epic journey of corporate and personal survival that includes industry titans like Adam Neumann, Barry Diller, Jack Welch, Bill Ackman, and other leaders.In Decide and Conquer, you will learn to:Apply principles like open communication, transparency, and kindness to inform great decision making.Set yourself up to succeed, even before you start, by removing potential roadblocks before they become a problem.Be a bold and decisive leader and not succumb to fear. By applying the principles he had learned in previous leadership positions, David was able to make the many critical decisions that would mean life or death for Meetup when WeWork decided to sell the company.From deciding to accept the position and negotiating terms to managing a seemingly endless series of crises during the sale and global pandemic, Decide and Conquer walks readers through the key decisions they will face with invaluable advice for each one.
Decide and Deliver
by Marcia Blenko Michael C. Mankins Paul RogersDithering. Decisions that turn out wrong. Decisions that people sabotage or don't know how to implement. If your company's experiencing these problems, it's not alone. Most organizations don't know how to make and execute good decisions. And they're paying a high price--as profitability and competitiveness erode.It doesn't have to be this way. In Decide and Deliver, the authors draw on Bain & Company's extensive research to present a five-step process for improving your firm's decision effectiveness:1. Assess your decision effectiveness--and how your organization affects it.2. Identify your critical decisions.3. Set individual critical decisions up for success.4. Ensure that your company enables and reinforces great decision making and execution.5. Embed the changes in everyday practice.Master this process, and you see immediate results: people across your organization collaborate to make crucial decisions better and faster than your rivals. And they execute them flawlessly-fueling unprecedented financial performance.Filled with powerful hands-on tools and detailed examples from companies as varied as Ford Motor Company, British American Tobacco, Telstra, Lafarge, and ABB UK, Decide and Deliver helps you make decision management a potent competitive weapon in your company.
The Deciding Factor
by Larry E. Rosenberger John Nash Ann GrahamPraise for The Deciding Factor"Both companies and governments have made some poor decisions recently, and almost all would benefit from more fact-based and analytical approaches. This book provides clear methods and extensive examples for organizations that want to make better, faster, and more consistent decisions."-Thomas H. Davenport, author, Competing on Analytics, and President's Distinguished Professor of Information Technology and Management, Babson College"The secrets of the decision-making processes employed by the most successful corporations of the world are revealed in The Deciding Factor. Both corporate decision makers as well as analysts will gain invaluable insights from this treasure trove of case studies and expert guidelines." -Robert Heller, former president and CEO of VISA U.S.A., and former governor, Federal Reserve Board"Information, used correctly and creatively, can be a source of tremendous customer value, competitive advantage, and company profitability. The Deciding Factor will help you understand if you have this opportunity, and how you might seize it."-Nigel Morris, co-founder, Capital One Financial Services"There has never been a more important time in business history to truly understand both the technical strengths and conceptual weaknesses of decision analytics. If you're prepared to be serious, The Deciding Factor offers the insider's insights that matter when managing innovation risk."-Michael Schrage, author, Serious Play, and research associate, MIT Sloan School of Management
Deciding Who Leads: How Executive Recruiters Drive, Direct, and Disrupt the Global Search for Leadership Talent
by Joseph Daniel McCoolDeciding Who Leads offers a front-row seat from which to witness the high-stakes drama, victories, and missteps that characterize the executive search process amid what has become an intense, truly global competition for leadership talent.Enter the secret world of executive search consulting . . . and discover how this influential-but largely invisible-profession is charting the course of global business. Executive search expert Joseph Daniel McCool delivers a rich exposé of the elite world of search consulting-the single most influential form of management consulting engaged by organizations - and its powerful impact on the future of organizational performance, culture, and profits. Deciding Who Leads offers a front-row seat from which to witness the high-stakes drama, victories, and missteps that characterize the executive search process amid what has become an intense, truly global competition for leadership talent.(P)2017 John Murray Press
Deciphering India's Services Sector Growth
by Shashanka Bhide; V.N. Balasubramanyam; K.L. KrishnaThis book addresses a range of issues relating to the nature and implications of growth of India’s services sector, including factors contributing to the rise of services, output measurement and heterogeneity, growth of services exports, and employment in services sectors. From service tax, exchange rate and services exports, policy interest, employment potential and diversity of the sector to challenges in financial inclusion, trajectories of ICT services and contribution of education to GDP, it brings together diverse themes to highlight major concerns in the wake of the prominent role that services have played in placing India among the fast-growing economies in the world in recent years. The services sector in India accounts for more than 60 per cent of the GDP of the country and 28.6 per cent of its employed across government, private or state corporations and non-government organisations. The volume explores whether the services sector (beyond agriculture and industry) holds the promise of fulfilling the benefits from India’s demographic dividend for its economic transformation through sustainable growth. With key empirical analyses of household, enterprise and macroeconomic data for India within both formal and informal sectors, this topical book will be useful to scholars and researchers of economics, Indian economy, political economy, development economics, development studies, public policy and South Asian studies and also to development professionals, policy makers and industry specialists.
Deciphering the Enterprise Culture: Entrepreneurship, Petty Capitalism and the Restructuring of Britain (Routledge Revivals)
by Roger BurrowsThe idea of the ‘enterprise culture’ has been much vaunted over the last few decades: the growth of self-employment and small business ownership has been an important feature of the restructuring of the British economy. Because it is a concept that is difficult to evaluate, controversial and politically sensitive, social scientists were slow to analyse it. Consequently, it had been caricatured and many questions about its impact on society and the economy had been left unanswered. This collection, which was first published in 1991, presents a critical analysis of the various manifestations of the enterprise culture. Drawing upon a range of research, it deals with a number of related topics. The result is a powerful analysis of the material and ideological role of the petty bourgeoisie in contemporary capitalism. Its multidisciplinary approach, which contributions from leading scholars in the field, makes this book of interest to anyone wanting to make sense of the socio-economic restructuring of Britain.
Decision Analysis
by George WuDescribes decision analysis, a systemic approach for analyzing decision problems. A running example illustrates problem structuring (decision trees), probability assessment and endpoint evaluation, folding back the tree as a method of analysis, and sensitivity analysis.
Decision Analysis
by George Wu Kathleen L. McginnDescribes decision analysis, a systemic approach for analyzing decision problems. A running example illustrates problem structuring (decision trees), probability assessment and endpoint evaluation, folding back the tree as a method of analysis, and sensitivity analysis.
Decision Analysis Applied to the Field of Environmental Health (Professional Practice in Earth Sciences)
by Dilber Uzun Ozsahin Berna Uzun Tamer Sanlidag James LaMoreauxThis book provides students and researchers with a resource that includes the current application of the multi-criteria decision theory in a variety of fields, including the environment, health care, engineering, and architecture. There are many critical parameters (criteria) that can directly or indirectly affect the consequences of various decisions. The application of the multi-criteria decision theory focusses mainly on the use of computational methods which include multiple criteria and orders of preference for the evaluation and the selection of the best option among many alternatives based on the desired outcome. The theory of multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) is an approach that can be extremely useful for students, managers, engineers of manufacturing companies, etc.
Decision Analysis for Management Judgment
by Paul Goodwin George WrightDecision Analysis for Management Judgment is unique in its breadth of coverage of decision analysis methods. It covers both the psychological problems that are associated with unaided managerial decision making and the decision analysis methods designed to overcome them. It is presented and explained in a clear, straightforward manner without using mathematical notation. This latest edition has been fully revised and updated and includes a number of changes to reflect the latest developments in the field.
Decision Analysis for Management Judgment
by Paul Goodwin and George WrightDecision Analysis for Management Judgment is unique in its breadth of coverage of decision analysis methods. It covers both the psychological problems that are associated with unaided managerial decision making and the decision analysis methods designed to overcome them. It is presented and explained in a clear, straightforward manner without using mathematical notation. This latest edition has been fully revised and updated and includes a number of changes to reflect the latest developments in the field.
Decision Analytics and Optimization in Disease Prevention and Treatment
by Nan Kong Shengfan ZhangA systematic review of the most current decision models and techniques for disease prevention and treatment Decision Analytics and Optimization in Disease Prevention and Treatment offers a comprehensive resource of the most current decision models and techniques for disease prevention and treatment. With contributions from leading experts in the field, this important resource presents information on the optimization of chronic disease prevention, infectious disease control and prevention, and disease treatment and treatment technology. Designed to be accessible, in each chapter the text presents one decision problem with the related methodology to showcase the vast applicability of operations research tools and techniques in advancing medical decision making. This vital resource features the most recent and effective approaches to the quickly growing field of healthcare decision analytics, which involves cost-effectiveness analysis, stochastic modeling, and computer simulation. Throughout the book, the contributors discuss clinical applications of modeling and optimization techniques to assist medical decision making within complex environments. Accessible and authoritative, Decision Analytics and Optimization in Disease Prevention and Treatment: Presents summaries of the state-of-the-art research that has successfully utilized both decision analytics and optimization tools within healthcare operations research Highlights the optimization of chronic disease prevention, infectious disease control and prevention, and disease treatment and treatment technology Includes contributions by well-known experts from operations researchers to clinical researchers, and from data scientists to public health administrators Offers clarification on common misunderstandings and misnomers while shedding light on new approaches in this growing area Designed for use by academics, practitioners, and researchers, Decision Analytics and Optimization in Disease Prevention and Treatment offers a comprehensive resource for accessing the power of decision analytics and optimization tools within healthcare operations research.
Decision Analytics Applications in Industry (Asset Analytics)
by Uday Kumar P. K. Kapur Gurinder Singh Yury S. KlochkovThis book presents a range of qualitative and quantitative analyses in areas such as cybersecurity, sustainability, multivariate analysis, customer satisfaction, parametric programming, software reliability growth modeling, and blockchain technology, to name but a few. It also highlights integrated methods and practices in the areas of machine learning and genetic algorithms. After discussing applications in supply chains and logistics, cloud computing, six sigma, production management, big data analysis, satellite imaging, game theory, biometric systems, quality, and system performance, the book examines the latest developments and breakthroughs in the field of science and technology, and provides novel problem-solving methods. The themes discussed in the book link contributions by researchers and practitioners from different branches of engineering and management, and hailing from around the globe. These contributions provide scholars with a platform to derive maximum utility in the area of analytics by subscribing to the idea of managing business through system sciences, operations, and management. Managers and decision-makers can learn a great deal from the respective chapters, which will help them devise their own business strategies and find real-world solutions to complex industrial problems.
Decision Analytics for Sustainable Development in Smart Society 5.0: Issues, Challenges and Opportunities (Asset Analytics)
by Vikram Bali Vishal Bhatnagar Joan Lu Kakoli BanerjeeThis book covers sustainable development in smart society’s 5.0 using data analytics. The data analytics is the approach of integrating diversified heterogeneous data for predictive analysis to accredit innovation, decision making, business analysis, and strategic decision making. The data science brings together the research in the field of data analytics, online information analytics, and big data analytics to synthesize issues, challenges, and opportunities across smart society 5.0. Accordingly, the book offers an interesting and insightful read for researchers in the areas of decision analytics, cognitive analytics, big data analytics, visual analytics, text analytics, spatial analytics, risk analytics, graph analytics, predictive analytics, and analytics-enabled applications.
Decision and Game Theory for Security: 9th International Conference, GameSec 2018, Seattle, WA, USA, October 29–31, 2018, Proceedings (Lecture Notes in Computer Science #11199)
by Linda Bushnell Radha Poovendran Tamer BaşarThe 28 revised full papers presented together with 8 short papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 44 submissions.Among the topical areas covered were: use of game theory; control theory; and mechanism design for security and privacy; decision making for cybersecurity and security requirements engineering; security and privacy for the Internet-of-Things; cyber-physical systems; cloud computing; resilient control systems, and critical infrastructure; pricing; economic incentives; security investments, and cyber insurance for dependable and secure systems; risk assessment and security risk management; security and privacy of wireless and mobile communications, including user location privacy; sociotechnological and behavioral approaches to security; deceptive technologies in cybersecurity and privacy; empirical and experimental studies with game, control, or optimization theory-based analysis for security and privacy; and adversarial machine learning and crowdsourcing, and the role of artificial intelligence in system security.
The Decision Book: Fifty models for strategic thinking
by Mikael Krogerus Roman TschäppelerMost of us face the same questions every day: What do I want? How can I get it? How can I live more happily and work more efficiently?This updated edition of the international bestseller distils into a single volume the fifty best decision-making models used on MBA courses, and elsewhere, that will help you tackle these important questions - from the well known (the Eisenhower matrix for time management) to the less familiar but equally useful (the Swiss Cheese model). It will even show you how to remember everything you'll have learned by the end of it.Stylish and compact, this little book is a powerful asset. Whether you need to plot a presentation, assess someone's business idea or get to know yourself better, this unique guide will help you simplify any problem and take steps towards the right decision.
The Decision Book: 50 Models For Strategic Thinking (The\tschäppeler And Krogerus Collection)
by Jenny Piening Philip Earnhart Roman Tschäppeler Mikael KrogerusA short, sharp guide to tackling life's biggest challenges: understanding ourselves and making the right choices. Every day offers moments of decision, from what to eat for lunch to how to settle a dispute with a colleague. Still larger questions loom: How can I motivate my team? How can I work more efficiently? What is the long tail anyway? Whether you're a newly minted MBA, a chronic second-guesser, or just someone eager for a new vantage point, The Decision Book presents fifty models for better structuring, and subsequently understanding, life's steady challenges. Interactive and thought-provoking, this illustrated workbook offers succinct summaries of popular strategies, including the Rubber Band Model for dilemmas with many directions, the Personal Performance Model to test whether to change jobs, and the Black Swan Model to illustrate why experience doesn't guarantee wisdom. Packed with familiar tools like the Pareto Principle, the Prisoner's Dilemma, and an unusual exercise inspired by Warren Buffet, The Decision Book is the ideal reference for flexible thinkers.
Decision Cases for Advanced Social Work Practice
by Terry A. Wolfer Lori D Franklin Karen A GrayThese fifteen cases take place in child welfare, mental health, hospital, hospice, domestic violence, refugee resettlement, veterans' administration, and school settings and reflect individual, family, group, and supervised social work practice. They confront common ethical and treatment issues and raise issues regarding practice interventions, programs, policies, and laws. Cases represent open-ended situations, encouraging students to apply knowledge from across the social work curriculum to develop problem-solving and critical-thinking skills. An instructor's manual is available on the press's website.
Decision-Driven Analytics: Leveraging Human Intelligence to Unlock the Power of Data
by Bart De Langhe Stefano PuntoniCompanies have more data at their fingertips than ever before. Yet, studies show that many executives and organizations fail to extract real value from it.Challenging the conventional wisdom of data-driven decision-making, marketing professors and behavioral scientists Bart De Langhe and Stefano Puntoni argue that many analytics efforts flounder because data analyses are disconnected from the decisions to be made. In their important book, they offer a new approach they call decision-driven analytics. Counterintuitively, they argue that the key to making good decisions with data is to start by putting data in the background.Drawing from their own research and teaching, as well as real-world business cases, De Langhe and Puntoni offer four pillars of decision-driven analytics and guide you around common mistakes that have held back many organizations from using data for impact.In Decision-Driven Analytics, you will learn how to:+ Avoid common pitfalls in data-driven decision-making;+ Close the gap between managers and decision-making on one side, and data scientists and data analytics on the other;+ Enhance the impact of data analytics on business outcomes;+ Think without data to make better decisions;+ Prepare for artificial intelligence’s impact on data analytics; and+ Evaluate the costs and benefits of decision-driven analytics.A must-read for anyone who wants to harness the power of data for competitive advantage, Decision-Driven Analytics will equip you with the skills and tools you need to more effectively use data for business outcomes and to make better decisions in today’s complex and data-rich world.
Decision Economics: In the Tradition of Herbert A. Simon's Heritage
by Edgardo Bucciarelli Shu-Heng Chen Juan M. CorchadoThe special session on Decision Economics (DECON) is a scientific forum held annually which works to share ideas, projects, research results, models and experiences associated with the complexity of behavioural decision processes and socio‐economic phenomena. DECON 2017 took place at the Polytechnic of Porto,ISEP, Portugal, as part of the 14th International Conference on Distributed Computing and Artificial Intelligence. For the second consecutive year, the Editors of this book have drawn inspiration from Herbert A. Simon''s immense body of work and claimed that Simon has precipitated something like a revolution in microeconomics focused on the concept of decision‐making. In the entire history of scientific progress, very few scientists produce seminal works in more than one field: Herbert A. Simon was one of them. Nonetheless, no other single scientist has won the Nobel Memorial Prize for Economics (1978), the Turing Award of the Association for Computing Machinery (shared with Allen Newell, 1975), the Orsa/Ti s John von Neumann Theory Prize (1988), the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award of the American Psychological Association in 1969 and the National Medal of Science in 1986. That is exactly what happened to Herbert Alexander Simon. In the tradition of Simon''s interdisciplinary heritage, this book is dedicated to the study of decision‐making involving different fields of expertise and across several fields of study. It is worth noting that the recognition of relevant decision‐making takes place in a range of critical subject areas and research fields, including economics, finance, information systems, small and international business, management, operations, and production. Therefore, decision‐making issues are of fundamental importance in all branches of economics addressed both deductively and inductively. Not surprisingly, the study of decision‐making has seen growing empirical research efforts in the economic literature over the last sixty years and, more recently, a variety of insightful cutting‐edge experimental, behavioural and computational approaches. Additionally, the awareness regarding generalizations and reductions to express economic concepts has led, on the one hand, to an increasing risk in spreading the language of mathematics as a rhetorical tool and, on the other hand, to oversimplify and overlook some crucial details especially when to comes to human decisions and, hence, economic behaviour. That awareness, however, has helped to produce an extraordinary volume of empirical research aimed at discovering how economic agents cope with complex decisions. In this sense, the international scientific community acknowledges Herbert A. Simon''s research endeavors to understand the processes involved in economic decision‐making and their implications for the advancement of economic professions. Within the field of decision‐making, indeed, Simon''s rejection of standard decision‐making models of neoclassical economics inspired social scientists worldwide to develop research programs in order to study decision‐making empirically. The main achievements regard decision‐making for individuals, firms, markets, governments, institutions, and, last but not least, science and research.
Decision Economics: Complexity of Decisions and Decisions for Complexity (Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing #1009)
by Shu-Heng Chen Juan Manuel Corchado Edgardo BucciarelliThis book is based on the International Conference on Decision Economics (DECON 2019). Highlighting the fact that important decision-making takes place in a range of critical subject areas and research fields, including economics, finance, information systems, psychology, small and international business, management, operations, and production, the book focuses on analytics as an emerging synthesis of sophisticated methodology and large data systems used to guide economic decision-making in an increasingly complex business environment.DECON 2019 was organised by the University of Chieti-Pescara (Italy), the National Chengchi University of Taipei (Taiwan), and the University of Salamanca (Spain), and was held at the Escuela politécnica Superior de Ávila, Spain, from 26th to 28th June, 2019. Sponsored by IEEE Systems Man and Cybernetics Society, Spain Section Chapter, and IEEE Spain Section (Technical Co-Sponsor), IBM, Indra, Viewnext, Global Exchange, AEPIA-and-APPIA, with the funding supporting of the Junta de Castilla y León, Spain (ID: SA267P18-Project co-financed with FEDER funds)
Decision Economics. Designs, Models, and Techniques for Boundedly Rational Decisions (Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing #805)
by Edgardo Bucciarelli Shu-Heng Chen Juan Manuel CorchadoThe special session on Decision Economics (DECON) is a scientific forum held annually, which is focused on sharing ideas, projects, research results, models, and experiences associated with the complexity of behavioural decision processes and socio‐economic phenomena. In 2018, DECON was held at Campus Tecnológico de la Fábrica de Armas, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Toledo, Spain, as part of the 15th International Conference on Distributed Computing and Artificial Intelligence. For the third consecutive year, this book have drawn inspiration from Herbert A. Simon’s interdisciplinary legacy and, in particular, is devoted to designs, models, and techniques for boundedly rational decisions, involving several fields of study and expertise. It is worth noting that the recognition of relevant decision‐making takes place in a range of critical subject areas and research fields, including economics, finance, information systems, small and international business management, operations, and production. Therefore, decision‐making issues are of fundamental importance in all branches of economics addressed with different methodological approaches. As a matter of fact, the study of decision‐making has become the focus of intense research efforts, both theoretical and applied, forming a veritable bridge between theory and practice as well as science and business organisations, whose pillars are based on insightful cutting‐edge experimental, behavioural, and computational approaches on the one hand, and celebrating the value of science as well as the close relationship between economics and complexity on the other. In this respect, the international scientific community acknowledges Herbert A. Simon’s research endeavours to understand the processes involved in economic decision‐making and their implications for the advancement of economic professions. Within the field of decision‐making, indeed, Simon has become a mainstay of bounded rationality and satisficing. His rejection of the standard (unrealistic) decision‐making models adopted by neoclassical economists inspired social scientists worldwide with the purpose to develop research programmes aimed at studying decision‐making empirically, experimentally, and computationally. The main achievements concern decision‐making for individuals, firms, markets, governments, institutions, and, last but not least, science and research. This book of selected papers tackles these issues that Simon broached in a professional career spanning more than sixty years. The Editors of this book dedicated it to Herb.
Decision Economics: Minds, Machines, and their Society (Studies in Computational Intelligence #990)
by Edgardo Bucciarelli Shu-Heng Chen Juan M. Corchado Javier Parra D.This book is the result of a multi-year research project led and sponsored by the University of Chieti-Pescara, National Chengchi University, University of Salamanca, and Osaka University. It is the fifth volume to emerge from that international project, held under the aegis of the United Nations Academic Impact in 2020. All the essays in this volume were (virtually) discussed at the University of L’Aquila―as the venue of the 2nd International Conference on Decision Economics, a three-day global gathering of approximately one hundred scholars and practitioners—and were subjected to thorough peer review by leading experts in the field. The essays reflect the extent, diversity, and richness of several research areas, both normative and descriptive, and are an invaluable resource for graduate-level and PhD students, academics, researchers, policymakers and other professionals, especially in the social and cognitive sciences. Given its interdisciplinary scope, the book subsequently delivers new approaches on how to contribute to the future of economics, providing alternative explanations for various socio-economic issues such as computable humanities; cognitive, behavioural, and experimental perspectives in economics; data analysis and machine learning as well as research areas at the intersection of computer science, artificial intelligence, mathematics, and statistics; agent-based modelling and the related. The editors are grateful to the scientific committee for its continuous support throughout the research project as well as to the many participants for their insightful comments and always probing questions. In any case, the collaboration involved in the project extends far beyond the group of authors published in this volume and is reflected in the quality of the essays published over the years.