{"id":83914,"date":"2023-03-01T14:19:19","date_gmt":"2023-03-01T19:19:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=83914"},"modified":"2023-03-01T19:44:21","modified_gmt":"2023-03-02T00:44:21","slug":"brock-partners-with-local-analytics-company-to-create-new-model-for-market-predictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2023\/03\/brock-partners-with-local-analytics-company-to-create-new-model-for-market-predictions\/","title":{"rendered":"Brock partners with local analytics company to create new model for market predictions"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Brock-Niagara Validation, Prototyping and Manufacturing Institute (VPMI) connects Brock University\u2019s advanced scientific and applied research expertise, state-of-the-art equipment assets, and testing and training capabilities with industry in the bioproducts, bioscience, bioagriculture and chemical manufacturing sectors. Examples of these successful VPMI-industry partnerships are highlighted in this series<\/a>. For more information, contact\u00a0<\/em>vpmi@brocku.ca<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

When one company buys out another, introduces a new service or raises the price of their products, how do these and other changes affect players in the same market?<\/p>\n

Anteneh Ayanso and post-doctoral researcher Leila Tahmooresnejad aim to take the guesswork out of such predictions.<\/p>\n

The Brock University experts are investigating whether a collection of methods and tools called social network analysis combined with current prediction models can help companies be nimbler and more responsive to market changes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe traditional approach is to try to understand where the market is heading in any sector through official company information such as annual surveys and reports,\u201d says Ayanso. \u201cOr maybe you can have faster understanding of the market by using advanced analytics and rich databases to enhance accuracy in the prediction process.\u201d<\/p>\n

To test this out, the Brock Professor of Information Systems contacted Rel8ed – a Coface Company<\/a>, a local firm specializing in data analytics.\u00a0 Rel8ed was recently acquired by Coface, a French insurance giant with growth plans for the company\u2019s Niagara-built technology for artificial intelligence and data processing.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnteneh always brings us amazing product ideas to consider,\u201d says Rel8ed founder and General Manager Bob Lytle. \u201cOver the years, this partnership in primary and practical research has led to several new products and a chance to work with, and often hire, some great students and post-graduate and faculty data scientists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lytle says research partnerships with organizations like Ayanso\u2019s Centre for Business Analytics<\/a> are of \u201csignificant interest\u201d to Rel8ed\u2019s new global parent.<\/p>\n

The Brock team is conducting this research with one of Rel8ed\u2019s clients.<\/p>\n

Social network analysis uses sophisticated mathematical modelling called \u2018graph theory\u2019 that maps out relationships between groups of people, referred to as \u2018nodes.\u2019<\/p>\n

The mapping is done by inputting a wide array of data \u2014 in this case, purchases, sales, advertising, media reports and other information concerning individual companies \u2014 into the model.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where Rel8ed comes into the picture \u2014 by supplying this company data and the market thinking behind the product idea.<\/p>\n

One of the company\u2019s key products is the Advanced Business Database<\/a>, which gathers open and public information about corporations from multiple sources over many years.\u00a0 This product, along with unique customer data, served as the basis of the research question.<\/p>\n

Rel8ed is interested in the possibility of using social network analysis to create new prediction products for its customers, says Rel8ed Project Manager Mirelle Mwiza Iradukunda.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew this research could develop into something interesting, but we had no idea how powerful the outcomes would be,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

A social network analysis method could more easily identify market signals than conventional approaches, says Tahmooresnejad, who is a member of the research team.<\/p>\n

A \u2018market signal\u2019 is an activity \u2014 such as a price reduction, new marketing campaign or plant expansion \u2014 that could be interpreted to yield insights into a company\u2019s reputation, future plans or other deeper information.<\/p>\n

Ayanso says he and his team aim to build a \u201csignals engine\u201d that Rel8ed could offer to its clients.<\/p>\n

The hope is that social network analysis could boost not only a company\u2019s performance but an industry overall, says Tahmooresnejad.<\/p>\n

“Firms that have strong connections with one another are more likely to have greater access to new opportunities in the market than firms that have weak connections with others,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen we use the social network analysis method, we can identify gaps in relationships between firms. When we find these gaps, these can be opportunities to develop new markets.\u201d<\/p>\n

This latest project funded by the Brock-Niagara Validation, Prototyping and Manufacturing Institute (VPMI) builds on a partnership between Rel8ted and Brock stretching back to 2018<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At that time, the Centre for Business Analytics (CBA) at the Goodman School of Business was working with Rel8ed to research how artificial intelligence could be used to create more effective ways of targeting advertisements to potential customers.<\/p>\n

For that research, Ayanso was awarded funding from the then-Ontario Centres of Excellence and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When one company buys out another, introduces a new service or raises the price of their products, how do these and other changes affect players in the same market? Anteneh Ayanso and post-doctoral researcher Leila Tahmooresnejad aim to take the guesswork out of such predictions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":83915,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[39,9794,7,1,5],"tags":[4166,12456,12458,4303,12461,1833,5800,12453,594,12454,12460,12457,12455,12462,12459,8207],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83914"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83914"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83918,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83914\/revisions\/83918"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}