Big Data, Innovations and New Business Models
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Warwick
Department Name: Warwick Business School
Abstract
Decision-making is the essence of management. Mammoth amounts of data are being generated through society's interactions with technology, documenting stages of collective human decision making on a scale previously impossible to achieve. Such digital traces of individuals create new scientific and commercial opportunities in the digital economy. The goal of this project is to explore the possibility to make use of massive new data sources capturing online information streams that can provide insight into large-scale trends and decision-making.
The project will take a two-pronged approach. Firstly, we will develop an open Big Data platform that mines, merges and models publicly available Internet data on human activity to explore relationships between these online information flows and real world processes. Our cross disciplinary and cross institutional efforts will focus on core markets including pharmaceuticals, banking, healthcare and telecoms, in which insight into aggregated behaviour of their users and customers has the potential to make a huge impact on a company's competiveness. Our open Big Data platform will provide the possibility to integrate external corporate data streams and relate these to online information flow, using standard methods including correlation analyses, as well as newly developed methods inspired by complexity science.
Secondly, we will form a highly interdisciplinary think tank that aims to realise substantial potential synergies between the two partner institutions, Warwick Business School and University College London. We will reach out to leading experts and interested stakeholders in academia and private sector to explore and develop case studies of new data driven business models, building on our Big Data platform.
The project will take a two-pronged approach. Firstly, we will develop an open Big Data platform that mines, merges and models publicly available Internet data on human activity to explore relationships between these online information flows and real world processes. Our cross disciplinary and cross institutional efforts will focus on core markets including pharmaceuticals, banking, healthcare and telecoms, in which insight into aggregated behaviour of their users and customers has the potential to make a huge impact on a company's competiveness. Our open Big Data platform will provide the possibility to integrate external corporate data streams and relate these to online information flow, using standard methods including correlation analyses, as well as newly developed methods inspired by complexity science.
Secondly, we will form a highly interdisciplinary think tank that aims to realise substantial potential synergies between the two partner institutions, Warwick Business School and University College London. We will reach out to leading experts and interested stakeholders in academia and private sector to explore and develop case studies of new data driven business models, building on our Big Data platform.
Planned Impact
We envisage that this project will have impact for researchers, industry, and policy makers.
Within academia, we aim to alleviate barriers to collaboration, by creating a think tank bringing researchers together across a variety of disciplines including digital economy, economics and management.
Within industry and policymaking, our open Big Data platform will provide the possibility for stakeholders to easily access aggregated information. It will furthermore allow integration of external corporate or government data streams which can be merged and linked with public information flows, using a variety of methods. Our cross disciplinary and cross institutional efforts will focus on core markets including pharmaceuticals, banking, healthcare and telecoms, where insight into aggregated behaviour of their users and customers has the potential to make a huge impact on a company's competiveness.
Crucially, we will reach out to leading experts and interested stakeholders in academia and the private sector to explore and develop case studies of new data driven business models, building on our Big Data platform.
Overall, our Big Data platform aims to facilitate and support the efforts of researchers, business leaders, and policymakers to improve operations, profitability, and communications within their organizations.
Within academia, we aim to alleviate barriers to collaboration, by creating a think tank bringing researchers together across a variety of disciplines including digital economy, economics and management.
Within industry and policymaking, our open Big Data platform will provide the possibility for stakeholders to easily access aggregated information. It will furthermore allow integration of external corporate or government data streams which can be merged and linked with public information flows, using a variety of methods. Our cross disciplinary and cross institutional efforts will focus on core markets including pharmaceuticals, banking, healthcare and telecoms, where insight into aggregated behaviour of their users and customers has the potential to make a huge impact on a company's competiveness.
Crucially, we will reach out to leading experts and interested stakeholders in academia and the private sector to explore and develop case studies of new data driven business models, building on our Big Data platform.
Overall, our Big Data platform aims to facilitate and support the efforts of researchers, business leaders, and policymakers to improve operations, profitability, and communications within their organizations.
Publications
Alanyali M
(2013)
Quantifying the relationship between financial news and the stock market.
in Scientific reports
Alanyali M
(2016)
Tracking Protests Using Geotagged Flickr Photographs.
in PloS one
Alis C
(2015)
Estimating tourism statistics with Wikipedia page views
Barchiesi D
(2015)
Quantifying International Travel Flows Using Flickr.
in PloS one
Barchiesi D
(2015)
Modelling human mobility patterns using photographic data shared online.
in Royal Society open science
Botta F
(2015)
Quantifying crowd size with mobile phone and Twitter data
in Royal Society Open Science
Botta F
(2015)
Quantifying Stock Return Distributions in Financial Markets.
in PloS one
Botta F
(2019)
Measuring the size of a crowd using Instagram
in Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science
Chater N
(2016)
Language as skill: Intertwining comprehension and production
in Journal of Memory and Language
Chater N
(2015)
Can cognitive science create a cognitive economics?
in Cognition
Chater N
(2018)
Mind, rationality, and cognition: An interdisciplinary debate.
in Psychonomic bulletin & review
Chater N
(2016)
The under-appreciated drive for sense-making
in Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization
Christiansen M
(2017)
Towards an integrated science of language
in Nature Human Behaviour
Christiansen MH
(2016)
The Now-or-Never bottleneck: A fundamental constraint on language.
in The Behavioral and brain sciences
Christiansen MH
(2015)
The language faculty that wasn't: a usage-based account of natural language recursion.
in Frontiers in psychology
Curme C
(2017)
Quantifying the diversity of news around stock market moves
in The Journal of Network Theory in Finance
Curme C
(2014)
Quantifying the semantics of search behavior before stock market moves.
in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Hsu AS
(2017)
When Absence of Evidence Is Evidence of Absence: Rational Inferences From Absent Data.
in Cognitive science
Kristoufek L
(2016)
Estimating suicide occurrence statistics using Google Trends.
in EPJ data science
Kristoufek L
(2015)
Detrended fluctuation analysis as a regression framework: estimating dependence at different scales.
in Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics
Kristoufek L
(2015)
What are the main drivers of the Bitcoin price? Evidence from wavelet coherence analysis.
in PloS one
Kristoufek L
(2015)
Power-law correlations in finance-related Google searches, and their cross-correlations with volatility and traded volume: Evidence from the Dow Jones Industrial components
in Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications
Kunar MA
(2017)
The influence of attention on value integration.
in Attention, perception & psychophysics
Letchford A
(2016)
The advantage of simple paper abstracts
in Journal of Informetrics
Letchford A
(2016)
Quantifying the Search Behaviour of Different Demographics Using Google Correlate.
in PloS one
| Description | Key research outputs of this award have deepened our understanding as to how data on human behaviour online can inform decisions in both policy making and business, by (1) reducing delays in measurement of human behaviour, (2) allowing us to measure behaviour which previously could not be measured, and (3) informing predictions of future behaviour. |
| Exploitation Route | Our analyses provide evidence that online data could be used to reduce delays and cost in measuring human behaviour, measure aspects of human behaviour and experience that were previously difficult to measure, and potentially predict future behaviour. Such online data based indicators could be of use in decision making in both policy and business, as the level of external interest in our results serves to demonstrate. |
| Sectors | Construction,Creative Economy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Environment,Financial Services, and Management Consultancy,Healthcare,Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism,Government, Democracy and Justice,Retail,Security and Diplomacy,Transport |
| URL | http://datasciencelab.co.uk |
| Description | Research from this award on the value of big data for prediction of human behaviour has been cited in a Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) note for MPs. The UK Office for National Statistics has begun to replicate and extend results from a paper we published demonstrating that online data on the time and location at which photos were taken can be used to estimate migration statistics. Within the financial sector, we are aware of a number of individuals and teams who have replicated and further developed the analyses we reported on the relationship between online data and subsequent stock market moves. Through extensive engagement activities, relationships have been initiated with a range of further stakeholders, across the official statistics, health and business domains. Impact achieved through these connections will be reported on in future submissions. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2014 |
| Sector | Financial Services, and Management Consultancy,Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Impact Types | Economic,Policy & public services |
| Description | Citation in Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology MP briefing (POSTnote) |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Citation in other policy documents |
| URL | http://www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/POST-PN-468/big-data-overview |
| Description | Behavioural Science GRP Small Grants Scheme |
| Amount | £3,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Warwick |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 02/2016 |
| End | 06/2016 |
| Description | University of Warwick Chancellor's International Scholarship |
| Amount | £109,445 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Warwick |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2014 |
| End | 03/2018 |
| Description | University of Warwick Undergraduate Research Support Scheme |
| Amount | £1,001 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Warwick |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 06/2014 |
| End | 08/2014 |
| Description | Using online data to inform the generation of official statistics / Warwick ESRC Impact Acceleration Account |
| Amount | £19,984 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Economic and Social Research Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 11/2016 |
| End | 04/2017 |
| Description | Warwick Business School Doctoral Training Studentship |
| Amount | £72,544 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Warwick |
| Department | Warwick Business School |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2014 |
| End | 10/2018 |
| Description | Warwick Public Engagement Fund |
| Amount | £2,990 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Warwick |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2016 |
| End | 05/2016 |
| Description | Creation of MOOC on Big Data with more than 16,000 learners |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Suzy Moat and Tobias Preis designed and delivered a Big Data Analytics MOOC with more than 16,000 learners. The outstanding success of this MOOC is not only clear from a number of personal messages of appreciation and congratulation which Tobias, Suzy and Warwick Business School's eLearning Team received but also in the overwhelmingly large interest in subsequent runs of this MOOC, where over 7,000 people registered interest before opening of course subscription. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/big-data |
| Description | Featured interview on BBC Click |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Tobias Preis explained research outputs of this grant in an interview on BBC Click. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06g7rs8/click-03102015 |
| Description | Live interview on BBC World News |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Federico Botta from the Data Science Lab talks to Philippa Thomas live on BBC World News about research associated with this award, into estimating crowd size with mobile phone and Twitter data. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TY59bJIZs2s |
| Description | Media coverage in 2013 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | In 2013, research outputs of this grant were covered by various media outlets including Scientific American (Nov 2013), Forbes (Sep 2013, Oct 2013), Neue Zürcher Zeitung (Oct 2013), Bloomberg (Dec 2013), El País (June 2013), Australian Financial Review (Nov 2013), Women in Business (Nov 2013), Washington Post (May 2013), Daily Mail (May 2013) and Financial Times (Nov 2013). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Media coverage in 2014 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | In 2014, research outputs of this grant were covered by various media outlets including: The Guardian (Apr 2014), Scientific American (Jul 2014), IEEE Spectrum (Jul 2014), The Times (May 2014, Jul 2014), Daily Mail (Jul 2014), Wall Street Journal (Aug 2014), BBC Focus (Jan 2014), Sunday Telegraph (Mar 2014) and Financial Times (Jan 2014). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | Media coverage in 2015 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | In 2015, research outputs of this grant were covered by various media outlets including: Scientific American (Aug 2015), Nature (Aug 2015), Science (May 2015 and Aug 2015), Wired.it (Jun 2015), The Times (Sep 2015), BBC Online (May 2015), BBC Radio 4 (Dec 2015) and a featured interview on BBC Click (Oct 2015) (http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06g7rs8/click-03102015). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | Radio 4 programme with Jim Al-Khalili |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Suzy Moat was one of three invited guests contributing to a 30 minute episode of "Putting Science to Work", a new Radio 4 programme hosted by Jim Al-Khalili. During the 30 minute programme, Suzy explained how the team had used mobile phone data to estimate the size of crowds. The programme led to a number of enquiries about the research from both high-profile businesses and policymakers. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06sgxjk |
| Description | TEDxWarwick talk in 2013 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Tobias Preis explains research outputs of this grant in a TEDxWarwick talk. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwk0mfpOi_s |
| Description | TEDxZurich talk in 2013 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Suzy Moat explains research outputs of this grant in a TEDxZurich talk. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvZ4jXQNKas |