Dear all,
We would like to invite you to DESI seminar by Prof. Jermain C. Kaminski (Maastricht University)
When & Where: 10 April 2024 (Wednesday) @ 12:15-13:15 [Internef 237]
Title: On the Role of Humans in Causal Machine Learning Strategy: An Epistemological and Experimental Perspective
Abstract:
In this talk, I will present two joint projects with Carla Schmitt and Paul Hünermund. The first part of the presentation will focus on a more epistemological perspective. We’ll highlight the critical role of causal knowledge in shaping strategic and organizational decision-making processes. Despite the prevalence of standard machine learning approaches in data science, which often prioritize correlation and prediction, many of these methods prove inadequate for addressing the diverse array of managerial decision problems. Through a mixed-methods approach encompassing semi-structured interviews with data scientists, senior decision-makers, and expert survey data, we will underscore how causality serves as a crucial boundary condition for the effective application of machine learning in a business context. The second part of the presentation will have a more experimental angle. Despite the growing attention towards causal machine learning in strategic management research and managerial theorizing, the successful integration of causality into strategic decision-making remains challenging. Through a pre-registered experiment featuring three scenarios of causal decision-making, we evaluate the importance of graphical causal models for human causal inference in data-driven decision-making processes. Our presentation concludes with a discussion on the current boundaries of causal machine learning in strategy.
Short bio:
Jermain Kaminski is an Assistant Professor at the School of Business and Economics at Maastricht University. In his research, Jermain combines methods in machine learning and natural language processing, with a specific focus on high dimensional text, audio and video data in entrepreneurship. Another recent venue of research concentrates on strategic decision-making with causal machine learning. His work with co-authors has been published in the Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Small Business Economics, ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Harvard Business Review, among others.
Jermain studied at Witten/Herdecke University, Germany, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. At MIT, he was a visiting student and researcher at the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence at the Sloan School of Management and the MIT Media Lab. Jermain completed his PhD studies at RWTH Aachen University. He is a co-founder and co-chair of the Causal Data Science Meeting (causalscience.org), and manages the website for the Academy of Management TIM Division.
