Big Data Analytics in Business
Question 1
Prices for round-shaped diamonds taken from an online trader are given in Table 1. Weight is the independent variable x and price is the dependent variable y. We will analyze this data in the computer. For Windows users, I suggest using Excel (Microsoft Office). For Mac users, I suggest using Numbers (iWork ’09). For Excel and Numbers, enter chart into the Help menu to find out how to create charts, and enter trend into the Help menu to find detailed instructions on creating and manipulating trendlines for data series.
In Excel, you can adjust the precision in the trendline equations by clicking on the trendline equation.
Table 1. Prices for round-shaped diamonds Weight (carats)
Weights
Price
0.5
2790
0.6
3191
0.7
3694
0.8
4154
0.9
5018
1.0
5898
The data into a spreadsheet (including the header Weight and Price).
Create a scatter plot of the data. Note that the scatter plot for this data appears roughly linear.
Compute the linear regression equation (trendline). The trendline will be y = ax + b for some values of a and b.
Adjust the minimum/maximum values on the axes of the graph to 0.4 and 1.2 for the weight and 2000 and 6500 for the price to make the graph look nice.
Question 2
An article discussed the number of Internet search results that Web surfers typically scan before selecting one. The following table represents the results for a sample of 2369 people.
Number of Internet Search Results Scanned
Percentage (%)
A few search results
23
First page of search results
39
First two pages
19
First three pages
9
More than first three pages
19
Construct a bar chart and a pie chart.
Which graphical method do you think is best for portraying these data?
What conclusion can you reach concerning how people scan Internet search results?
Question 3
Consider an example of a retail store chain that wants to optimize its products’ prices for boosting its revenue. The store chain has thousands of products over hundreds of outlets, making it a highly complex scenario. Once you identify the store chain’s objective, you find the data you need, prepare it, and go through the Data Analytics lifecycle process.
You observe different types of customers, such as ordinary customers and customers like contractors who buy in bulk. According to you, treating various types of customers differently can give you the solution. However, you don’t have enough information about it and need to discuss this with the client team.
How would you apply the data analytics life cycle to this problem?
What would business understanding look like?
What would data understanding look like?
aracteristics have a required behaviour to ensure maximum group performance, they also have a preferred behaviour to ensure the satisfaction of group members, if the leaders actual behaviour matches both the required behaviour and preferred behaviour of the situation the consequence is maximum group performance and satisfaction. However, if the group are not performing and achieving goals or are not satisfied or both, then the leader is able to amend their actual behaviour to improve this. Leaders able to monitor performance and satisfaction, and understand what is required to amend the situation will achieve optimum group performance in Chelladurai’s model.
The one limitation of Chealldurai’s model is that it assumes the leader is in a position of complete positional power over the group, and can implement any leadership style of their choosing without constraints. Positional power is the authority and influence a leader has over a group, if the leader has positional power, they will be able to implement the leadership style they best see fit for the situation. Positional power cannot be measured or quantified, making it highly ambiguous and hard for a leader to understand whether they have it or how then can gain it. It becomes the responsibility of the organisation to have policies in place to provide leaders with some positional power, usually by establishing a clear hierarchal structure. By establishing a hierarchy, the leader is perceived by the group to be able to make demands and expect compliance from them giving the leader legitimate power (French and Raven, 1959). Secondly, by providing the leader with the ability to reward compliance and punish non compliance from the group, the leader has reward and coercive power (French and Raven, 1959). To obtain complete power over the group the leader must gain the trust and belief of the group that they are capable of success, by ensuring the group are both satisfied and meeting performance goals.
The importance of establishing a hierarchy became evident during the planning stage of the outdoor management course for the red team, the coordinators within the team assumed leadership roles but were unable to gain positional power due to the team being a peer group (Pettinger, 2007). The leaders selected had little authority and influence over the group as everyone was perceived to have the same rank, status and occupation, hence the leaders had none of French and Ravens five bases of power (Pettinger, 2007). The result was leaders with no positional power over the group, so could not direct the group with the method of leadership required for the situation. The task had significant constraints, particularly a short time frame and a large group size, for this situation Chelladurai recommends an autocratic leadership style would be most favourable (Chelladurai and Madella, 2006). The leaders attempted an autocratic leadership style, setting individual tasks for the group, however due to the poor leader member relations and lack of positional power the leadership structure quickly became a democracy. The product was an extremely unproductive workforce initially because of the time spent discussing how was best to approach the task. Because of how the leaders were perceived by the group there was little mutual trust, respect or confidence that the leaders were making the correct decisions, and as a result any management style they tried to implement would have been unsuccessful (Pettinger, 2007). Ultim