Guide Me in Analysis: A Framework for Guidance Designers

Guidance is an emerging topic in the field of visual analytics. Guidance can support users in pursuing their analytical goals more efficiently and help in making the analysis successful. However, it is not clear how guidance approaches should be designed and what specific factors should be considered for effective support. In this paper, we approach this problem from the perspective of guidance designers. We present a framework comprising requirements and a set of specific phases designers should go through when designing guidance for visual analytics. We relate this process with a set of quality criteria we aim to support with our framework, that are necessary for obtaining a suitable and effective guidance solution. To demonstrate the practical usability of our methodology, we apply our framework to the design of guidance in three analysis scenarios and a design walk-through session. Moreover, we list the emerging challenges and report how the framework can be used to design guidance solutions that mitigate these issues

Implications to the Audit Process of Auditing that uses Data Analytics Tools and New Business Models

Paper II is excluded from the dissertation until it is published.New advances in information technology have created a wave of technological innovations which affect the audit firms. Audit firms are now investing large sums of money to acquire and adopt data analytics tools. Using three studies in this dissertation, I investigated questions relating to the impact of digital tools in the audit process. These studies are briefly summarized below. The first study investigates whether the audit evidence from a process mining tool provides information that adds to the appropriateness (relevance) of the audit evidence collected by traditional analytical procedures. The results shows that auditors do perceive evidence from a process mining tool to express information that is relevant for both the planning and substantive stages of the audit even though the auditor’s risk assessment was higher in the substantive stage as compared to the planning stage. In addition, the results also shows that there was no difference in the auditor’s assessment of the relevance of the information presented in graph format and in written text format as both are considered equally relevant in the planning and substantive stages. The second study investigates the unintended consequences in auditor’s decision making of using digital tools with powerful visualization abilities in the audit process. Specifically, the study investigates whether auditors make their decisions based on the relevance of the information to the decision to be made when using both visual audit evidence and text evidence or their decision will be based on a bias. The results shows that when auditors are presented with different information presented in different formats (visual or text), they are most likely to use the piece of information presented in visual rather than using the piece of audit evidence which is relevant to the decision. The third paper analyses the fraud case of a financial technology company Wirecard using the fraud triangle as the theoretical framework. The results shows that of the three factors identified in the fraud triangle, opportunity was the most prevalent factor and rationalization was least observable.publishedVersio

Media Literacy Beyond the National Security Frame

The Trump administration’s delegitimizing refrain characterizing legacy media as “fake news” institutions has doubtless exacerbated growing public distrust in government and accountability institutions. It has also promoted arrogation of power by the Executive. Media literacy must be broadened to encompass the more capacious goal of helping citizens understand the structure, operations, and structural role in democracy, and the interconnected ways in which it is threatened. Expanding the public’s understanding of the proper role of the press and the ways in which modern information industries operate attention markets, promoting the audience’s awareness of its own cognitive blind spots, increasing reporters’ critical acumen when dealing with information, and reframing newsworthiness norms and awareness of disinformation techniques in order to lessen the mainstream press’s vulnerability to informational manipulation can all be positive expansions of the notion of media literacy beyond the ability to spot factual errors in particular articles

Management decision making in the age of big data : an exploration of the roles of analytics and human judgment : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Management at Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand

This thesis explores the effects of data analytics and human judgment on management decision making in an increasingly data-driven environment. In recent years, the topics of big data and advanced analytics have gained traction and wide-spread interest among practitioners and academics. Today, big data is considered a buzzword by some and an essential prerequisite for future business success by others. Recent research highlights the potential of big data analytics for decision making, but also points out critical challenges and risks. The aim of this research is to take an in-depth look at management decision making by using qualitative case studies and critical incidents to carefully examine managers' decision-making processes. This exploration evolves around the two main research questions: i) How do managers perceive the role of advanced analytics and big data in the decision-making process? ii) How do managers perceive the alignment of advanced analytics and big data with more traditional decision-making approaches such as human judgment? The content and thematic analyses of data from 25 semi-structured interviews with managers, executives, and business analysts from nine organizations provided several key insights. Managers were found to rely on data and human judgment in their decision making to varying extents and in different roles. The processes followed by the decision makers depended on the decisions at hand, the managers’ characteristics and preferences, as well as environmental factors. The findings empirically support the development of an ecological systems framework, which provides a holistic picture of managerial decision making in the age of big data. The study contributes by applying the dual process theory to the context of data-driven decision making. Practical implications for organizations are derived from the findings and identify organizational considerations and prerequisites. The influence of the managers’ environments on decision making emphasizes the organizations’ need to utilize a holistic approach when adopting a data-driven decision-making culture

Development of a predictive model for research paradigms and philosophies

Text in EnglishAlthough research paradigms and philosophies are highly regarded as frameworks and guides for choices of methods, application thereof is not evident. One of the reasons for the relatively limited application is the complexity and understanding surrounding paradigms and philosophies, making it hard for scholars to determine their stances and implications. This study describes a model for automatically predicting peoples’ paradigm and philosophical stance, including meaning, and their impact on research by helping the user determine the paradigm and philosophical stance closest to their beliefs. Paradigm and philosophical attributes are automatically derived from a set of structured questions that use information matching techniques. The development of a model for Research Paradigm and Philosophy Index (RPPI) follows a two-phase approach. The first phase involves automatic extraction of key indicators from a composed database that utilises an indexing scheme with different philosophies and associated implications. The second phase applies a matchmaking technique that automatically draws information reflecting the user’s attribute. This type of technology exists, but mainly in the dating and career matching fields. None exists for research paradigm and philosophical stances. The prototype system was designed and implemented to serve as a proof of concept, and was developed in Angular, using the Visual Studio Code, and Java, using Eclipse. The database was created using MySQL. The prototype system was designed and implemented to serve as a proof of concept due to the Intellectual Property nature of the product. Usability testing was conducted and results show that the participants agreed the system was simple, straight-forward to use, quite user-friendly and easy to learn, with easy navigation through menu items.Computer ScienceM.Sc. (Computing