Analytics in the Business School: Insights from the Literature

The demand for business and data analysts is growing. The business school is well positioned to offer programs to meet these needs. This paper presents both the findings from a review of the existing literature on data analytics job roles, skills required for those roles and also feedback from industry experts on findings. Three different types of articles are included in the design: faculty writing about their personal experiences and observations (faculty voice), data gathered from expert practitioners and other academics (nonresident expertise), and empirical data from online job service platforms (content analysis). The narrative review method is used to integrate these disparate sources of information and deliver cohesive observations. This knowledge can be used to build better analytics programs in business schools

Expectation Formation in the Information System Development Process

The concept of consumer expectations has been widely used by information systems (IS) researchers to explain the outcome of information system development (ISD) efforts (Suh et al, 1994; Lawrence and Low, 1993; Ginzberg, 1981). These IS studies assume that users are IS consumers. However, ISD is substantially different from many other product development efforts. Information systems are highly customized, requiring more user involvement in the development. Also, analysts and users can interact directly, rather than through indirect mechanisms requiringlimited consumer input such as marketing research, focus groups, and consumer attitude surveys. Therefore, the ISD process provides more opportunities to develop and manage user expectations. This fact has been overlooked by the IS literature, which mainconcern is in linking user expectations to perceived system performance. Based on this observation, this paper contributes by explaining how user expectations are formed and updated throughout an ISD process. Using the ISD model developed by Newman and Robey (1992), we conceptualize user expectations as two distinct constructs, desiredand predictiveexpectations (Spreng and Olshavsky, 1992), which are modified through a series of encounters and episodes

Aligning Business Analytics Programs with Industry Required Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

This paper describes results from a topic modeling analysis of online data analytics-related job advertisements. Five distinct clusters emerged, each with a focus on different knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) profiles. We labelled these clusters big data, systems analysis, business, healthcare, and technical research. Identification of these clusters provides a framework that can be used by information systems and business analytics faculty to offer customized and specialized information systems and business analytics programs that prepare graduates to fill specific roles in the data ecosystem of the workplace

Corporate Posts and Tweets: Brand Control in Web 2.0

Social networking, through media such as Twitter and Facebook, is changing influence streams on consumer (customer) attitudes and behaviours. The direct and readily available consumer-to-consumer communication, made accessible through social networking, provides a repository of information from one's referent group, as well as an organisation's customer-facing facade. Therefore as connections among customers increase, the customers assume a higher degree of brand control at the expense of corporate marketing efforts to establish a specific brand image. This paper presents the results of interviews with four organisations that have created interactive marketing strategies built upon social networking. These companies are using social media and social networks to create online communities where they can leverage peer-to-peer network influence and use this influence to reinforce or increase a positive brand image.Brand control, social media, social networking, Web 2.0