A Nonstochastic Information Theory for Communication and State Estimation

In communications, unknown variables are usually modelled as random variables, and concepts such as independence, entropy and information are defined in terms of the underlying probability distributions. In contrast, control theory often treats uncertainties and disturbances as bounded unknowns having no statistical structure. The area of networked control combines both fields, raising the question of whether it is possible to construct meaningful analogues of stochastic concepts such as independence, Markovness, entropy and information without assuming a probability space. This paper introduces a framework for doing so, leading to the construction of a maximin information functional for nonstochastic variables. It is shown that the largest maximin information rate through a memoryless, error-prone channel in this framework coincides with the block-coding zero-error capacity of the channel. Maximin information is then used to derive tight conditions for uniformly estimating the state of a linear time-invariant system over such a channel, paralleling recent results of Matveev and Savkin

Impact of Service Quality on Business Performance in Hospitality Industries: An empirical study

This research focusses on the impact of service quality on business performance in the hospitality industry in Qatar. The study basically deals with the testing of fifteen hypotheses built on the existing theoretical models. The empirical data was collected through the tourists of ten 5-star hotels in Qatar using the simple random sampling technique (n = 243). The findings have confirmed the significant interrelationship of tangibles, reliability and empathy with financial, non-financial, and operational performance of the hospitality industry. Responsiveness and assurance had significant interrelationship with non-financial performance and operational performance respectively. Based on the revelation of the study, implications have been drawn to the managers of the hospitality industry to better the specific dimensions of the service quality so that it may lead to enhanced business performance. The paper is of specific relevance to the Qatari hospitality industry as is witnessing a steady growth and there is an emphasis on the improvement in service quality for a sustainable business performance. Keywords: Service Quality, Business Performance, Hospitality Industry

Development of a real-time business intelligence (BI) framework based on hex-elementization of data points for accurate business decision-making

The desire to use business intelligence (BI) to enhance efficiency and effectiveness of business decisions is neither new nor revolutionary. The promise of BI is to provide the ability to capture interrelationship from data and information to guide action towards a business goal. Although BI has been around since the 1960s, businesses still cannot get competitive information in the form they want, when they want and how they want. Business decisions are already full of challenges. The challenges in business decision-making include the use of a vast amount of data, adopting new technologies, and making decisions on a real-time basis. To address these challenges, businesses spend valuable time and resources on data, technologies and business processes. Integration of data in decision-making is crucial for modern businesses. This research aims to propose and validate a framework for organic integration of data into business decision-making. This proposed framework enables efficient business decisions in real-time. The core of this research is to understand and modularise the pre-established set of data points into intelligent and granular “hex-elements” (stated simply, hex-element is a data point with six properties). These intelligent hex-elements build semi-automatic relationships using their six properties between the large volume and high-velocity data points in a dynamic, automated and integrated manner. The proposed business intelligence framework is called “Hex-Elementization” (or “Hex-E” for short). Evolution of technology presents ongoing challenges to BI. These challenges emanate from the challenging nature of the underlying new-age data characterised by large volume, high velocity and wide variety. Efficient and effective analysis of such data depends on the business context and the corresponding technical capabilities of the organisation. Technologies like Big Data, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), play a key role in capitalising on the variety, volume and veracity of data. Extricating the “value” from data in its various forms, depth and scale require synchronizing technologies with analytics and business processes. Transforming data into useful and actionable intelligence is the discipline of data scientists. Data scientists and data analysts use sophisticated tools to crunch data into information which, in turn, are converted into intelligence. The transformation of data into information and its final consumption as actionable business intelligence is an end-to-end journey. This end-to-end transformation of data to intelligence is complex, time-consuming and resource-intensive. This research explores approaches to ease the challenges the of end-to-end transformation of data into intelligence. This research presents Hex-E as a simplified and semi-automated framework to integrate, unify, correlate and coalesce data (from diverse sources and disparate formats) into intelligence. Furthermore, this framework aims to unify data from diverse sources and disparate formats to help businesses make accurate and timely decisions

Dynamics of Locus of Control, Financial Knowledge, Financial Behaviour and Financial Position: An Empirical Study

Qatar has witnessed significant economic growth since 2008 with Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increasing by about 10 percent annually on an average, and it is consistently listed among the richest nations in the world since then. A study on the financial behaviour of the Qatari nationals would reveal their role in this achievement. This research tests the hypothesis that the locus of control, income, financial knowledge, financial behaviour and financial position of the citizens are causally related. The research methodology is typical to the empirical studies using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). The evidence collected from randomly chosen 204 respondents supported five out of seven hypotheses which indicated that internal locus of control, financial knowledge, financial behaviour and financial position were causally related. For policy implementation, it is imperative that household of a country should be educated in terms of financial knowledge to control the financial behaviour which affects the financial position

Hosting Major International Sports Events in a Country: A Socioeconomic Impact

This research focuses on the impact of sponsoring major sports events concerned with the socioeconomic aspects of Qatar. Context is the hosting of FIFA 2022 in Qatar. A questionnaire has been developed based on the underpinning theory, which included seven dimensions of measuring socioeconomic impact that covered Micro, Meso, Macroeconomic, Employment, Quality of Life, Social Cohesion and Environmental aspects. Questionnaire survey was conducted for a sample size of 126, which included the managers from tourism industry and sponsoring of sports events. The research methodology involved descriptive statistics calculations using MS Excel and SPSS. The response score was collected on a 5-point Likert scale for quantitative measures and the Mean, Standard Deviation, Kurtosis, Skewness and Frequency Distributions were computed for seven dimensions. The responses were later categorized into degrees of agreement with a priori scale to understand the relative impact of sponsoring sports events concerned with socioeconomic aspects. The results have indicated that, the highest impact would be on the creation of Environmental Consciousness among the citizens of Qatar followed by the impact on the Micro, Meso and Macroeconomic aspects of the country. These revelations have led providing suggestions to policy makers, which would be useful particularly in the present situation where Qatar is planning for FIFA 2022