Konstantinos Bozos

On the predictability of firm performance via simple time-series and econometric models: evidence from UK SMEs

This article examines the predictive accuracy of simple time-series and econometric models on forecasting firm performance in terms of sales turnover. Evidence from Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) in the United Kingdom are presented. The study identifies operational rules under which the class of simple econometric regression models is more accurate than simple time-series forecasting alternatives, thus more appropriate to back-up multiple investment decisions.

Improving the forecasting function for a Credit Hire operator in the UK

This study aims to test on the predictability of Credit Hire services for the automobile and insurance industry. A relatively sophisticated time series forecasting procedure, which conducts a competition among exponential smoothing models, is employed to forecast demand for a leading UK Credit Hire operator (CHO). The generated forecasts are compared against the Naive method, resulting that demand for CHO services is indeed extremely hard to forecast, as the underlying variable is the number of road accidents – a truly stochastic variable.