Impact of Ensemble Member Size on Confidence-based Selection in Bankruptcy Prediction

The prediction model is the main factor affecting the performance of a knowledge-based system for bankruptcy prediction. Earlier studies on prediction modeling have focused on the building of a single best model using statistical and artificial intelligence techniques. However, since the mid-1980s, integration of multiple techniques (hybrid techniques) and, by extension, combinations of the outputs of several models (ensemble techniques) have, according to the experimental results, generally outperformed individual models. An ensemble is a technique that constructs a set of multiple models, combines their outputs, and produces one final prediction. The way in which the outputs of ensemble members are combined is one of the important issues affecting prediction accuracy. A variety of combination schemes have been proposed in order to improve prediction performance in ensembles. Each combination scheme has advantages and limitations, and can be influenced by domain and circumstance. Accordingly, decisions on the most appropriate combination scheme in a given domain and contingency are very difficult. This paper proposes a confidence-based selection approach as part of an ensemble bankruptcy-prediction scheme that can measure unified confidence, even if ensemble members produce different types of continuous-valued outputs. The present experimental results show that when varying the number of models to combine, according to the creation type of ensemble members, the proposed combination method offers the best performance in the ensemble having the largest number of models, even when compared with the methods most often employed in bankruptcy prediction.