Test Bank for Essentials of Business Analytics

1. The decisions concerning an organization’s goals and future plans are called a. financial decisions. b. tactical decisions. c. strategic decisions. d. operational decisions. 2. Tactical decisions are concerned with a. the day-to-day activities of the organization. b. the goals and plans of the organization. c. the domain of operations managers, who are close to the customer. d. how the organization should achieve the goals and objectives set by its strategy. 3. Picks and Axes Inc. is an Internet-based retail seller of hiking boots and mountaineering gear. The company decides to open retail stores across the major areas of the city to help complement its Internet-based strategy. This activity would be categorized as a(n) a. tactical decision. b. operational decision. c. strategic decision. d. financial decision. 4. __________ is the most critical step of the decision-making process. a. Choosing an alternative b. Identifying and defining the problem c. Evaluating the alternatives d. Determining the set of alternatives 5. Which of the following is not an approach to making decisions? a. Tradition b. Rules of thumb c. Intuition d. Guess and check 6. Data-driven decision making tends to decrease a firm's a. market value. b. productivity. c. risk. d. profit. 7. Data dashboards are a type of _________ analytics. a. predictive b. descriptive c. prescriptive d. decision 8. The extraction of information on the number of shipments, how much was included in each shipment, the date each shipment was sent, and so on from the manufacturing plant’s database exemplifies a. spreadsheet models. b. data dashboards. c. data mining. d. data queries. 9. Corporate-level managers use ______ to summarize sales by region, current inventory levels, and other company-wide metrics all in a single screen. a. simulations b. crosstabulation c. data dashboards d. tables Page 1 10. A forecast that helps direct police officers to areas where crimes are likely to occur based on past data is an example of a. predictive analytics. c. prescriptive analytics. b. decision analysis. d. descriptive analytics. 11. Which one of the following is used in predictive analytics? a. Data dashboard b. Linear regression c. Data visualization d. Optimization model 12. A retail store owner offers a discount on product A and predicts that the customers would purchase products B and C in addition to product A. Identify the technique used to make such a prediction. a. Data query b. Simulation c. Data mining d. Data dashboards 13. __________ are used in the pharmaceutical industry to assess the risk of introducing a new drug. a. Data dashboards b. Charts c. Spreadsheet models d. Simulations 14. Which of the following analytical techniques helps us arrive at the best decision? a. Predictive analytics b. Data mining c. Prescriptive analytics d. Descriptive analytics 15. Simulation optimization helps a. in identifying the constraints of the situation. b. to find good decisions in highly complex and highly uncertain settings. c. in assigning values to outcomes. d. to model certainty using optimization techniques. 16. When a decision maker is faced with several alternatives and an uncertain set of future events, s/he uses __________ to develop an optimal strategy. a. utility theory b. predictive analytics c. data mining d. decision analysis 17. __________ assigns values to outcomes based on the decision maker’s attitude toward risk, loss, and other factors. a. Simulation optimization b. Utility theory c. Optimization model d. Data dashboard 18. Which of the following best exemplifies big data? a. Five hundred Facebook users upload one thousand pictures per day. b. Cellphone owners around the world generate vast amounts of data by calling, texting, tweeting, and browsing the Web on a daily basis. Page 2 c. A local grocery store collects data from those that scan their loyalty card. d. A pharmacy keeps track of customer purchases to send its customers coupons. 19. Which of the following sources of big data is not publicly available? a. Twitter b. Weather data c. Medical records d. Sports records 20. Advanced analytics generally refers to a. descriptive and prescriptive analytics. c. predictive and prescriptive analytics. b. simulation. d. decision analysis. 21. In the financial sector, __________ are used to construct financial instruments such as derivatives. a. descriptive and prescriptive models b. predictive models c. descriptive models d. prescriptive models 22. Optimization models can be used to a. assess the risk of investment portfolios. b. forecast future financial performance. c. successfully manage commercial real estate risk. d. decide on how to invest cash received from insurance policies. 23. Utility theory is the study of the __________ or relative desirability of a particular outcome that reflects the decision maker’s attitude toward a collection of factors, such as profit, loss, and risk. a. total worth b. total cost c. feasibility d. financial wellness 24. __________ refers to the technology that allows data, collected from sensors in all types of machines, to be sent over the Internet to repositories where it can be stored and analyzed. a. Internet of Things (IoT) b. MapReduce c. Hadoop d. Advanced analytics 25. __________ refers to a programming model used within Hadoop that performs the two major steps for which it is named: the map step and the reduce step. a. MapReduce b. Internet of Things (IoT) c. Advanced analytics d. Optimization model Page 3 26. __________ is an open-source programming environment that supports big data processing through distributed storage and distributed processing on clusters of computers. a. Hadoop b. Excel c. Java d. MapReduce 27. _________ analytics are techniques that use models, constructed from past data, to predict the future or to ascertain the impact of one variable on another. a. Predictive b. Descriptive c. Simulation d. Prescriptive 28. A __________ decision involves higher-level issues and is concerned with the overall direction of the organization, defining the overarching goals and aspirations for the organization’s future. a. strategic b. tactical c. intuitive d. operational 29. A __________ decision is concerned with how the organization should achieve the goals and objectives set by its strategy. a. tactical b. strategic c. intuitive d. operational 30. __________ analytics use techniques that take input data and yield a best course of action. a. Prescriptive b. Simulation c. Strategic d. Operational 31. In the spectrum of business analytics, which is the most complex? a. Descriptive b. Predictive c. Prescriptive d. Operational 32. In order to manage an organization’s human resource activities, such as hiring employees, tracking, and influencing employee retention, HR personnel use Page 4 a. descriptive and predictive analytics. c. predictive and prescriptive analytics. b. descriptive and prescriptive analytics. d. predictive analytics. 33. A better understanding of consumer behavior through analytics directly leads to a. more profits. b. better pricing strategies. c. reduced advertising costs. d. reduced risk. 34. A light bulb manufacturer uses descriptive analytics a. to present supply chain to managers visually. b. to achieve efficiency in delivery of goods. c. to schedule staff and vehicle for delivery. d. to plan capacity utilization by incorporating the inherent uncertainty in commodities pricing. 35. The U.S. Internal Revenue Service uses _____________ to identify patterns that distinguish questionable annual personal income tax filings. a. utility theory b. prescriptive analytics c. data mining d. decision analysis Subjective Short Answer 36. __________ may be used to develop an optimal strategy when a decision maker is faced with several decision alternatives and an uncertain set of future events. ANSWER: Decision analysis 37. An increase in data __________ would help to protect stored data from destructive forces or unauthorized users. ANSWER: security 38. __________ are analytical tools that describe what has happened. ANSWER: Descriptive analytics 39. The use of analytical techniques for better understanding patterns and relationships that exist in large data sets is ______________. ANSWER: data mining 40. A dashboard is a collection of tables, charts, and maps to help management ____________ selected aspects of the company’s performance. ANSWER: monitor 41. A decision concerned with how the organization is run from day to day is known as a(n) _______________. ANSWER: operational decision 42. A mathematical model that gives the best decision, subject to the situation’s constraints, is an a(n) _________. ANSWER: optimization model 43. A data __________ is a request to obtain information with certain characteristics from a database. ANSWER: query Page 5 44. Business analytics is the __________ process of transforming data into insight for making better decisions. ANSWER: scientific 45. A data __________ is trained in both computer science and statistics and knows how to effectively process and analyze large amounts of data. ANSWER: scientist 46. The use of probability and statistics to construct a computer model to study the impact of uncertainty on the decision at hand is called __________. ANSWER: simulation 47. Predictive and prescriptive analytics can also be referred to as __________. ANSWER: advanced analytics 48. __________ analytics is the analysis of online activity, such as visits to websites or social media. ANSWER: Web 49. One of the 4 Vs of big data that refers to uncertainty due to data inconsistency and incompleteness, ambiguities, latency, deception, and model approximations is _________. ANSWER: veracity 50. Data that are too large or too complex to be handled by standard data-processing techniques and typical desktop software are called __________. ANSWER: big data 51. Veracity has to do with how much __________ is in the data. ANSWER: uncertainty 52. What are the four V’s of big data? ANSWER: Volume, Velocity, Variety, Veracity Page 6