Oliver Schaer

Oliver Schaer is an Assistant Professor of Business Analytics at the Department of Decision Sciences & MSI. He is a business analyst with a focus on forecasting and industry application. Prior to joining Drexel, he was a research associate at Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia. He has PhD in Management Science and MSc in Marketing Analytics from Lancaster University in the UK. Oliver Schaer has multiple years working in industry, primarily as a project manager at a global medtech company in Switzerland. He is a member of INFORMS, the International Institute of Forecasting and visiting research fellow of the Centre for Marketing Analytics and Forecasting at Lancaster University.

Research interest Oliver’s research develops predictive decision tools that integrate unstructured data, time-series econometrics, diffusion modelling, and natural language processing to address uncertainty in product management and sustainable operations. In one of his current projects, he investigates how uncertainty in LLM classification impacts decsion outcomes in healthcare industry. Another project combines life-cycle modelling with temporal aggregation and user-generated content.

Industry collaboration Oliver is keen to work with industry and provide decision-makers with practical tools to maximize their analytical capabilities. He is an expert in time-series modelling and business forecasting, but also has industry experience that enables him to intuitively understand managers’ problems and address their needs. He is always open to speaking with business leaders about their problems and ideas. He built and maintains the R package diffusion that contains a variety of tools to forecast life-cycle products.