A general model for automated business diagnosis

In this paper we develop a formalism to support diagnostic reasoning in the domain of business and finance. A theoretic description of the process of diagnosis of company performance, and the implementation thereof is outlined. A new concept of explanation comprises the basis of our framework and enables us to deal with both qualitative and quantitative information in diagnosis. The system was tested on a case-study involving the comparison of nine firms operating in the mechanical engineering industry. Comparison of textbook analysis and model output shows that our system is able to produce the correct diagnostic analyses. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.