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Purpose: The present study aims to test the Quadratic Programming model for Optimal Portfolio selection empirically.

Need for the Study: All the investors who buy financial products are motivated to obtain higher profits or, in other words, to maximise their returns. However, the high returns are often accompanied by higher risks, and avoiding such risks has become the primary concern for all investors. There is a great need for such a model to maximise profits and minimise risk, which can help design an investment portfolio with minimum risk and maximum return. The Quadratic Programming model is one such model which can be applied for selected shares to build an optimised portfolio.

Methodology: This study optimises the stock samples using a two-level screening of correlation coefficient and coefficient of variation. The monthly closing prices of the NSE-listed Indian pharmaceutical stocks from December 2019 to January 2022 have been used as sample data. The Lagrange Multiplier method is used to apply the model to achieve the optimal portfolio solution. Based on the market reality, the transaction costs have also been considered. The Quadratic programming model is further optimised to achieve the optimal portfolio for the select stocks.

Findings: The traditional portfolio theory and the modified quadratic model gives similar and consistent results. In other words, the modified quadratic model asserts the accuracy of the conventional portfolio model. The portfolio constructed in the present study gives a return much higher than the return of the benchmark portfolio of Nifty Fifty, indicating the usefulness of applying the Quadratic Programming model.

Practical Implications: The construction of an optimal portfolio using the traditional or modified Quadratic model can help investors make rational investment decisions for better returns with lower risks.

Purpose: Innovation is a multi-dimensional phenomenon influenced at the organisational level by internal and external factors that can determine how innovative an organisation can be, determining a firm’s business performance. This chapter measures and predicts how innovative a company can be, considering key internal factors using modern data analytics/science.

Need for Study: The increasing challenge of modern business operations is affected by how quickly, sustainably, effectively, and efficiently companies can innovate to mitigate the dynamic challenges of current business environments and evolving customer needs. The ability to predict, measure, and manage innovation becomes necessary to ensure that businesses are fit for purpose.

Methodology: A model was designed following the study hypotheses and statistically tested. A historical data sample from the OECD global industry dataset for eight years was used for the analysis. The ordinary least square method was used to test for model fit. Also, in machine learning engineering, predictive analysis using the multivariate linear regression analysis method was carried out.

Findings: The results support the hypotheses that an organisation’s capacity to be innovative can be measured and predicted, and it is influenced by a good number of internal factors or independent variables at various degrees.

Practical Implications: Managers must understand how to measure and predict innovation metrics to manage innovation better, ultimately leading to better business outcomes and performance. Also proposed are new measurement matrices for innovation management: innovation capacity (I_C), business innovation value (BIV), innovation creation factor (ICF), and a practical data-driven innovation management and prediction system.

Estimation of (in)efficiency became a popular practice that witnessed applications in virtually any sector of the economy over the last few decades. Many different models were deployed for such endeavors, with Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) models dominating the econometric literature. Among the most popular variants of SFA are Aigner, Lovell, and Schmidt (1977), which launched the literature, and Kumbhakar, Ghosh, and McGuckin (1991), which pioneered the branch taking account of the (in)efficiency term via the so-called environmental variables or determinants of inefficiency. Focusing on these two prominent approaches in SFA, the goal of this chapter is to try to understand the production inefficiency of public hospitals in Queensland. While doing so, a recognized yet often overlooked phenomenon emerges where possible dramatic differences (and consequently very different policy implications) can be derived from different models, even within one paradigm of SFA models. This emphasizes the importance of exploring many alternative models, and scrutinizing their assumptions, before drawing policy implications, especially when such implications may substantially affect people’s lives, as is the case in the hospital sector.

Teacher professional development is a perennial topic in teaching and teacher education. While it is largely agreed that the professional development of teachers is a necessity, what that professional development entails and who decides its content and delivery is disputed. This chapter revisits critical issues in the professional development of teachers. Different forms of professional learning, the influence of collaboration, the pursuit of inclusion and social justice, and the role of technology are discussed. In the future, it is expected that professional development contexts and opportunities will be reimagined along with a new calibration of face-to-face and virtual pedagogies.