BMGT7078-The Practice of Data Analysis Individual Portfolio OBU

About this 

There are two important aspects of business analytics: (1) market research and (2) good communication. You are asked to produce a managerial report to explain the importance of analytics when it comes to merchandising and selling. In doing so, you need to research on techniques in store merchandising and show what can be done with the current dataset and what could have been done if more data were collected. 

Task 1: Exploring ideas using Generative AI (GenAI) 

Ask any GenAI prompt (like ChatGPT or Google BARD) to explain how merchandisers use analytics to improve sales and manage inventory. Limit that explanation to 1000 words and paste it in the appendix. 

Task 2: Writing a critical report (~ 1,500 words) 

Read the generated text and start to critique (either by opposing or by supporting) the points generated by the GenAI while showing evidence from research. Your reference-intensive critique should not exceed 1,750 words. It should have a debate element in it. The below is  just an example of how to write critically (the references are not true, so do not look them up): 

“While Kirkby et al. (2013) and Zakaria (2019) believed that descriptive analytics can help in  saving storage costs and finding best suppliers for each item much easier, Li and Wang  (2021) surveyed 200 companies, 56% of which said that the cost of implementing analytics  has exceeded their budgets and it is hard to recognise savings. Having said that, analytics  include visualisation, predictive and prescriptive techniques (Tomova, 2009), so this report  supports the use of descriptive analytics when managing inventory.” 

Additionally, how would analytics help MountainView and its community overcoming any  sustainability issues? 

Task 3: Analyse the dataset (~ 750 words) 

The analysis dedicated to explaining what you did in the dataset (supported by screenshots,  tables and graphs) and what other data you would need from other potential internal sources and/or external provider of data as well as the additional variables found in those sources.

For example (not real example), a data provider can be ‘the national cycle association  (www.xyz.co) of X country’ (external) or the addresses of customers from the CRM system  (internal). In addition to the inventory dataset provided and the 6 variables in it, additional  variables can be ‘post code’, ‘residential type’, etc. 

You need to argue how would those be beneficial to the type of analytics, type of decisions,  etc. 

Also, need to address the following: 

•  The types of variables in the dataset classified to the most detailed sub-category. • Summaries of variables in the dataset and explain what those summaries indicate  about the variables (for example, what it means for the mean to be less than another  statistic or what a standard deviation tells you about certainty of a variable).  Summaries can also take the shape of tables and can involve more than one variable.
• Graphical representations of some of the variables by including each one of the  variables in one graph at least while commenting on trends, distributions and/or  relationships.
• The correlation coefficient between any two variables and the reasoning behind  choosing those two variables.
•  The expected range (known as ‘interval’) of the population mean (μ) of the selling price  of all bicycles in Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia at 95% confidence. Comment on that and  what would happen to that range if you collect a larger sample. 

Task 4: Conclude your report (~ 250 words) 

Your report should have actionable recommendations, where you use insights from data and  evidence from research to inform MountainView how to proceed in improving its sales and benefit from an efficient inventory. 

Task 5: Submit the report and the solved dataset 

A submission link will appear on the module’s Moodle page under the ‘assessment’  section via Moodle drop box, where you will be able to upload the elements of your portfolio  (a 2,500-word analytical report and a solved Excel file).

Presentation of the report: 

1. Your report should have an executive summary, which summarises the whole report  in a few words (usually about ~200 words)
2. Your report is expected to use the Harvard Referencing style and a minimum of 10 references from a mix of web articles, academic papers, industry reports and books should be cited.
3. Aim to include tables, figures and graphs whether produced from the datasets or sourced from another secondary source.
4. Do not exceed 2,500 words (excluding title page, table of contents, references and  appendix)
5. Use an Arial font with size 12, 1.5 spacing and justify your lines.
6. Add a table of contents for section headings and sub-sections.
7. Use simple explanations and avoid jargon whenever possible. 

While performing the above tasks, document your steps of answering the questions by using screenshots of the functions you are applying in Excel. Add those to the appendix section. You are expected to submit an analytical report and, at least,  one worked Excel file with your solutions saved in it.