BIG DATA AND BUSINESS ANALYTICS - D2B

About the project

The availability of large databases and artificial intelligence–based tools is transforming the business environment. Expert assessments grounded in experience are increasingly giving way to data-driven approaches. Business digitalization generates vast amounts of data whose potential goes beyond descriptive analyses and simple forecasts; however, fully automated decision-making continues to face a number of challenges.

This project encompasses four aspects of business analytics: trend forecasting, measurement and detection of sentiment effects, and the evaluation of economic policy impacts. The first part of the proposal focuses on the retail sector, including the analysis of market shares of retail chains, the development of a forecasting model, and the assessment of the effects of the ban on Sunday trading. Fiscalized transaction data enable daily monitoring of the sector and, when combined with Google search intensity, provide deep insights into consumer behavior. The second part of the project addresses the measurement of entrepreneurial sentiment, that is, the intention to establish a business. Business creation is preceded by searches for regulatory requirements on Google, the intensity of which reflects entrepreneurial intent. In addition, the content of news published on online portals may signal entrepreneurial activity, thereby indicating the prevailing entrepreneurial climate. By analyzing statistics on business formation and performance together with sentiment measures, the project will examine how EU accession, COVID-19, and international developments have affected entrepreneurial activity. In conclusion, the project combines machine learning methods and econometric modeling applied to large digital datasets in order to better understand and predict retail trade turnover and entrepreneurial activity.

Total project value: 68.149,52 EUR

Project duration: October 1, 2025 until September 30, 2029

Project holder: University of Zagreb, Faculty of Economics & Business

Contact

Project leader: doc. dr. sc. Ivana Lolić

E-mail: ilolic@net.efzg.hr

Address: Faculty of Economics & Business – Zagreb

     Trg J. F. Kennedyja 6

     10000 Zagreb, CROATIA