by Paulo J G Lisboa (Liverpool John Moores University, England) , Alfredo Vellido (Liverpool John Moores University, England) , & Bill Edisbury (Npower Limited, England)

Neural networks are increasingly being used in real-world business applications and, in some cases, such as fraud detection, they have already become the method of choice. Their use for risk assessment is also growing and they have been employed to visualise complex databases for marketing segmentation. This boom in applications covers a wide range of business interests — from finance management, through forecasting, to production. The combination of statistical, neural and fuzzy methods now enables direct quantitative studies to be carried out without the need for rocket-science expertise.

This book reviews the state-of-the-art in current applications of neural-network methods in three important areas of business analysis. It includes a tutorial chapter to introduce new users to the potential and pitfalls of this new technology.

• Preface: Business Applications of Neural Networks (P J G Lisboa & A Vellido)
• On the Use of Neural Networks for Analysis Travel Preference Data (S Cumings)
• Extracting Rules Concerning Market Segmentation from Artificial Neural Networks (R Setiono et al.)
• Characterization and Segmenting the Business-to-Consumer E-Commerce Market Using Neural Networks (A Vellido et al.)
• A Neurofuzzy Model for Predicting Business Bankruptcy (A H Boussabaine & M Wanous)
• Neural Networks for Analysis of Financial Statements (K Kiviluoto et al.)
• Developments in Accurate Consumer Risk Assessment Technology (M Somers & G Piper)
• Strategies for Exploiting Neural Networks in Retail Finance (I Sandhu)
• Novel Techniques for Profiling and Fraud Detection in Mobile Telecommunications (J Shawe-Taylor et al.)
• Detecting Payment Card Fraud with Neural Networks (K Hassibi)
• Money Laundering Detection with a Neural-Network (B Chartier & T Spillane)
• Utilising Fuzzy Logic and Neurofuzzy for Business Advantage (B Edisbury et al.)