The key operation in Bayesian inference is to compute high-dimensional integrals. An old approximate technique is the Laplace method or approximation, which dates back to Pierre-Simon Laplace (1774). This simple idea approximates the integrand with a second-order Taylor expansion around the mode...

The planning process is usually an integrated mixture of top‐down issues prepared at the senior levels of the organization, and bottom‐up work that goes on within the operating units. A question for this distinguished panel of CPOs is, “How can companies optimally balance the process?”

In global businesses there's often a question about what you can plan for on a worldwide basis and what needs to be managed on a local basis. How does a company know it has an equity or an economy of scale that is truly global?

Space-varying regression models are generalizations of standard linear models where the regression coefficients are allowed to change in space. The spatial structure is specified by a multivariate extension of pairwise difference priors thus enabling incorporation of neighboring structures and...