Word Count : 2500 words
Learning outcomes
1.Define and evaluate key concepts of business analytics.
2.Critically apply business analytics skills for decision making.
3.Critically analyse and interpret the outputs of data mining models and for ecasting results for end-users.
4.Solve managerial problems and make systematic decisions by applying business data analysis techniques.
5.Haveability to apply business analytics to various international business contexts by selecting appropriate techniques.
Task One-Business analytics concepts [20 marks]
- Describe what you have learned about the Clustering Analysis. Give proper example for that [8 marks]
- Critically discuss and analyse five published papers which have used Clustering method with proper explanation. The technique, its application and the results need to be interpreted properly [12 marks]
Task Two– Marketing Analytics [40 marks]
By analyzing previous historical data for a sofa sale company, it can be seen that the sale volume has been changed according to its price in different periods. The values have been reported in the following table. This company is going to launch a new product and the price needs to be decided based on the market analysis. Determine the appropriate price for the new developed sofa with the aim of maximizing the company’s profit. The demand of new product has a direct relationship to its price.
The main objective of the company is to maximize profit regarding to the new product. It is assumed that the unit production and supply cost of each sofa is £880, so the profit of each unit will be (the sale price – unit production cost).
- Use Excel to determine the estimated demand quadratic equation function and describe why quadratic form is preferred. [5 marks]
- Use Excel solver to find the optimal price which maximizes the company’s profit. [5 marks]
- Determine the optimal demand. [5 marks]
- Compute the optimal profit. [5 marks]
- Interpret the results. [5 marks]
- If the supply cost of each sofa is 750 and then 1050 determine the optimal price and interpret the results appropriately. [10 marks]
- The company has decided to set the price more than 1200 GBP, then what will be the optimal price? Interpret the results [5 marks]
Task Three- Forecasting [40 marks]
Suppose that you have gathered sales data of company XYZ from 2014-2020 in different quarters. You are going to consider the company sales value and to forecast the company amount of sales in 2021 in different quarters.
a.Plot the data and describe the main features of the series. [5 marks]
b. Compute the four-period moving average and enter your values in the appropriate columns. Calculate the
Centered Moving Average (CMA)/Baseline. Interpret it. [5 marks].
c. Calculate the Trend and interpret the trend. [5 marks].
d. Determine the Seasonality (St) and interpret it properly [5 Marks].
e. Forecast the revenue for 8th year [5 Marks].
f.Calculate the Error, mean absolute percentage error (MAPE), Mean Square Error (MSE) and Mean Absolute Deviation (MAD). [10 marks]
g. Write a brief report to explain and evaluate and make comments on the error variables, the forecasted and actual revenues [5 marks].
Criteria for Assessment
Knowledge and Understanding (Addresses LOs)-30%
Critical Analysis, Evaluation and Application of Theory-30% Academic writing (accurate citations and referencing)-10%
Quality of Research (Evidence of reading, use of resources and research)-20%
Presentation style (present work in a professional manner, grammatical errors, pitch, pace and tone at the appropriate levels, visually appealing)-10%