CHAPTER 1: Introduction to Management Science

Note: just familiarize yourself with the terms. No need to memorize

Management Science
 is a discipline that attempts to aid managerial decision making by applying a scientific approach to managerial problems that involve
quantitative factors.
 also called operations research – it is the traditional name given to the discipline and still is widely used today outside of business
schools.
 aids managerial decision making. Business analysts employing management science don’t make managerial decisions. Managers do.

Business Analytics
 can be defined as the art and the science of transforming data into insight for making better business decisions.
 A primary focus of business analytics is on how to make the most effective use of all these data.
 Business analytics has grown in prominence over the past couple decades largely because we have entered the era of big data where
massive amounts of data (accompanied by massive amounts of computational power) are now commonly available to help guide
managerial decision making.

Three Categories of Business Analytics

a. Descriptive Analytics
i. Uses innovative techniques (including algorithms) to explore the data, locate and extract the data that are relevant, and then
identify the interesting patterns and summary data.
ii. A key tool of descriptive analytics is data visualization. After exploring the data to identify the insights, the goal of data
visualization is then to communicate those insights through the careful selection of the most effective visual graphics.
b. Predictive Analytics
i. Involves applying statistical models to predict future events or trends.
ii. Includes classification and prediction models (Chapter 3), forecasting models (Chapter 4), and computer simulation
models (Chapters 14 and 15).
c. Prescriptive Analytics
i. Involves applying decision models to the data to prescribe what should be done in the future.
ii. The powerful optimization models and techniques of management science are commonly used here.

The role of DATA SCIENCE

 Data science is an interdisciplinary field that uses scientific methods, processes, algorithms, and systems to extract knowledge or
insights from even massive amounts of data in various forms.
 Although business analytics also is interdisciplinary and uses scientific methods, the important differences in these definitions are that
data science is more interdisciplinary, more based on scientific methods, and more applicable to various areas beyond business.
 Highly trained practitioners of data science frequently are given the title of data scientists.

The role of MACHINE LEARNING

 The goal of machine learning is to allow computers to learn automatically from historical relationships and trends in the data in order
to do such things as making data-driven predictions.
 A few of the applications of machine learning include: self-driving cars, practical speech recognition, effective web search, image
recognition, medical diagnosis, and a vastly improved understanding of the human genome.

The role of ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

 The goal of artificial intelligence (AI) is to build intelligent computer programs and machines that can simulate human thinking
capability and behavior.
 Machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) are closely related technologies. The terms often are used interchangeably, but
ML actually is just one important part of AI.

The Relationship Between Management Science and Business Analytics

 They complement each other. A management science specialist now needs to be trained in business analytics.
 Management science became an established discipline in the middle of the 20th century and has been active ever since with further
developing and extending its techniques. Business analytics only became well established starting in the early years of the 21st century.
 Business schools now need to train future business analysts who have a solid foundation in the traditional disciplines of both
management science and business analytics.

Performing Descriptive Analytics to Explore the Data

 Descriptive analytics needs to be performed to explore the data to better understand the relationship between advertising and sales.
 One main technique of descriptive analytics is called data visualization. The goal of data visualization is to improve the
communication of numerical information.
 A relatively straightforward visual graphic called a scatter plot.
Performing Predictive Analytics to Predict the Impact of Advertising
 The key technique is causal forecasting with regression.
 The with regression part of the name of the technique refers to the generation of a trendline in the scatter plot, where each point on the
trendline shows the predicted sales for the corresponding value of the advertising budget.
 The trendline can be either a straight line (for linear regression) or a smooth curve (for nonlinear regression).

LINEAR REGRESSION
 Linear regression in this case involves approximating the relationship between the sales (the dependent variable) and the
advertising budget (the independent variable) by a straight trendline.
 In general, the equation for the linear regression trendline has the form
y = a x + b. (Note: alternatively, this is taught as y=mx+b, m being the slope of the intercept.)
 Where
y = Estimated value of the dependent variable.
a = Slope of the linear regression trendline.
x = Value of the independent variable.
b = Intercept of the linear regression trendline with the y-axis.

Linear Trendline Polynomial Trendline Sixth-Order Polynomial Trendline

V R X 2000 Spreadsheet Model Excel’s Solver Dialog Box

 Excel’s Solver will find the value of decision variable cells (in this case
Advertising Budget, or C9) that will maximize the value of an objective
cell (in this case Total Profit, or C22).
 This is an example of what is called optimization (finding the best
solution for a decision model).