Big 3 with Dean H. Rao Unnava: October 2023

Dean H. Rao Unnava's October 2023 edition of the Big 3 features:

1. Professor Hemant Bhargava Honored for Dedication to Information Systems
   Distinguished Professor Hemant Bhargava, director of the UC Davis Center for Analytics and Technology in Society, has been recognized with a 2023 INFORMS Information Systems Society President's Service Award for his extraordinary dedication to the information systems community. Read more about the award.
    
2. Are Robots Better Stock Analysts?
   Assistant Professor Keer Yang says not quite yet. He explains his latest research showing that AI offers certain advantages, but it doesn't strictly outperform human analysts and develops similar biases. His research was featured in The Financial Times. Read more about Yang's latest research.
    
3. QS Ranks MSBA No. 1 Globally for Return on Investment
   Recent UC Davis MSBA grads enjoyed record-breaking salaries and bonuses, leading QS to rank the program in the top spot for return on investment once again and #2 worldwide for “Value for the Money." Read news release.

Transcript

More global recognition for our graduate business programs and faculty trailblazers in tech management and AI on Wall Street.

Welcome to the October 2023 edition of the Big 3 Video Newsletter.

Professor Hemant Bhargava Honored for Dedication to Information Systems

Distinguished Professor Hemant Bhargava is a pioneer in addressing the huge opportunities and challenges that technological change brings to business and society.

This month, the INFORMS Information Systems Society honored Hemant with a 2023 President's Service Award for his extraordinary dedication to the information systems community.

Hemant is a leader in the INFORMS community. He’s served as department editor for INFORMS’ flagship journal Management Science and as a Distinguished Fellow of the INFORMS Information Systems Society,

He has served as president of INFORMS' eBusiness section, co-chair and board member of the Biannual Conference of INFORMS Computing Society, and co-founder of the Theory in Economics of Information Systems Conference.

He’s won several best paper awards from INFORMS, including the "Test of Time" award for his 2007 paper on search engines.

Here at UC Davis, Hemant holds our Suran Chair in Technology Management and co-founded our Master of Science in Business Analytics program. He launched the UC Davis Center for Analytics and Technology in Society which is on the forefront on the use of analytics and technology in health care, media and entertainment, and platform businesses.

We congratulate Professor Bhargava on this well-deserved honor.

Machine Learning Algos vs. Wall Street Stock Analysts

Speaking of tech platforms . . . The financial world and investment professionals are turning to big data and machine learning algorithms to improve their forecasting accuracy and sophistication.

But are robots better stock analysts than humans?

Assistant Professor Keer Yang says not quite yet.

In new research, Keer’s team found that just like human forecasts, corporate earnings predictions generated by the machine learning algorithms also tend to overreact to news, showing excessive optimism during favorable times and pessimism during unfavorable times.

Their findings are gaining attention in the behavioral finance and investment field.

The Financial Times explained that the researchers loaded up a sophisticated algorithm with a big sample of company financial information, macroeconomic data and equity analysts’ forecasts, and set it to work predicting company earnings.

After running this simulation, Keer’s team set out to see if they could observe a similar pattern in the real world.

They manually collected data on stock analysts' training, distinguishing between those trained in machine learning methods and those with a more traditional background.

The found that although the use of machine learning methods offers certain advantages, it doesn't strictly outperform human analysts.

Why is this? Simply that humans incorporate information beyond what’s available in standard databases of macroeconomic variables and firm accounting attributes.

Score one for humans—for now.

QS Ranks MSBA No. 1 Globally for Return on Investment

We are thrilled about our recent recognition for our degree programs:

Our Online MBA program has debuted at No. 10 in the Americas region in the latest QS rankings. Our Online MBA also ranked 5th based on the QS employer survey.

Our Master of Science in Business Analytics program was ranked No. 1 globally for return on investment by QS. It marks the second consecutive year that QS has rated our MSBA program the best in world for ROI.

Our MSBA program also ranked No. 2 worldwide for Value for the Money, the fifth consecutive year the program has been in the top 10 in this QS rating. This recognition reflects the continued high demand for our MSBA graduates and their career success.

QS also ranked our Full-Time MBA among the top 50 in the U.S. overall and among the top third for the employability of our MBA graduates.

And our Full-Time MBA moved up 14 spots into the top 50 programs in Bloomberg Businessweek’s 2023-2024 Best B-Schools MBA ratings. Our MBA program ranked 18th among public institutions and 13th for student diversity.

Thank you for watching the Big 3!