IMPORTANT NOTE:
Data Analysis and Statistics is a required course for UMD MBA students. This course will provide practicing managers an introduction to research design and analysis. The objective is to make students more intelligent consumers of statistical information. As a result the emphasis of this course will be on the appropriate and inappropriate use of research designs and statistics. At the successful completion of this course, MBA students should:
You are expected to have a background on statistics before entering the program. Given the time constraints, we will not be able to go over basic statistical techniques during class - we will keep the focus on the managerial applications and implications of statistics. You should get yourself a quick and easy reference book if you think you need to brush up on the basics of statistics (hypothesis testing, ANOVA, regression, t-tests, F-tests, etc.). Here are a few recommendations.
The course format includes some lecture, extensive class discussion, in-class activities, etc. Please come prepared for class. Keep up with the readings so you can get the most out of our class time. I firmly believe that students, especially at the MBA level, learn a great deal from each others' experiences and interpretations of the course material. I will give you ample opportunity to discuss the readings in class and present your perspective to the class.
Remember that you are graduate students in management and my expectations of you will be considerably higher than expectations of undergraduate students. Once you are enrolled in the class, you will be assumed to have the time to devote to this class. You will be responsible for all the reading assignments. You will also be held responsible for intelligent class discussion of the assigned materials. You need to ensure that you have sufficient time set aside outside of class each week to work on the course material. Make sure you have (and preferably write down) your opinions on the readings for each class meeting.
According to University of Minnesota policy, for undergraduate courses, one credit is defined as equivalent to an average of three hours of learning effort per week (over a full 15-week semester) necessary for an average student to achieve an average grade in the course. For example, a student taking a three credit course that meets for three hours a week should expect to spend an additional six hours a week on coursework outside the classroom. So, for this two credit class, an "undergraduate student" should plan on spending an additional sixty hours outside of class (30 hours per credit) to get an "average grade" in the course.
| Dr. Rajiv Vaidyanathan Department of Marketing Office: SBE 118 (UM-Duluth) Phone: (218) 726-6817 Office Hours: by appointment E-mail: rvaidyan@d.umn.edu |
Required texts:
Exploring Research, 7/e by Neil J. Salkind, Prentice Hall 2009. (Buy
Online from Pearson for only $80)
Freakonomics : A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything,
by Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner, William Morrow 2005, ISBN:
978-0061234002.
You can get a handy-dandy study guide to this book for
FREE here.
SPSS Software - Free download for LSBE students
Recommended Reading:
The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Forbes, Business Week, the daily newspaper, research reports at work, etc.
Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki
Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb (maybe also check out The Black Swan)
You'll find great examples of statistics abuse at these sites:
- The Wall Street Journal's
"NumbersGuy" column
- The STATS
web site
This session, your final class grade will be based on the following components:
| Component | Points |
|---|---|
| Santa Fe Grill Assignment | 10 |
| Internal Validity Assignment | 10 |
| Freakonomics Assignment | 10 |
| Group Survey Presentation | 10 |
| Group Survey Report | 20 |
| Exam | 40 |
| TOTAL | 100 |
Each component is discussed in further detail below. The final grades for this class will be assigned based on the following scale:
| Percentage | Grade |
|---|---|
| 90+ % | A- (93+=A) |
| 80-89 % | B (>87=B+; <83=B-) |
| 70-79 % | C (>77=C+; <74=C-) |
| 60-69 % | D (>66=D+) |
| <60 % | F |
As you will learn when we delve into this course, the course is primarily focused on the appropriate interpretation, use, and misuse of statistics rather than the calculation of statistics. We do not have the time in this course to get into the actual calculation of statistical values. However, a fairly good understanding of statistics is assumed (everyone should have met the statistics prerequisite prior to entering the program). In order to refresh students' memories of basic statistics without using up the limited class time on this, it was suggested by prior students that there be a mechanism to provide that background before starting this class. As a result, I have started a list of recommended books that serve as a quick and easy refresher on basic stats. Please plan on purchasing and reading one of the books on this list early in this term. While there is no graded element to this requirement, your apparent mastery of basic statistics will become an element of your class grade.
This year, you are also the beneficiary of LSBE's use of the technology fees to purchase a site license for SPSS - a widely used professional statistical software package. Normally, the limited student version costs about $100 and the full version costs over $500. You can download your copy here. Please install it on your computer as you will need to use it to run some statistical analysis for the Santa Fe Grill case that you will have done by the second weekend. The download site also has links to product documentation.
Some of you may be wondering why I require you to read Freakonomics in this class. Hopefully, that will become apparent to you once you read the book and have a chance to discuss my objectives for this class. In brief, Steven Levitt does a brilliantly eloquent job of demonstrating the importance of scientific inquiry through data analysis and the application of analytical thinking to every day problems. He shows how an understanding of data analysis and statistics can be used to better interpret all sorts of everyday problems you will encounter in your workplace whether they are accompanied by reams of statistics or not. Once you have the tools of statistical thinking, this book will give you ideas on how to be a creative problem solver to use data to gain substantive insights into managerial issues. The book also provides ample examples of the dangers of superficially analyzing data. All of this will help you to think differently and consume data more intelligently. Careful reading of this book will give you insights into problem definition, research design, cause-effect/correlation issues, and data misinterpretation. It is also important for you to understand the difference between building evidence of an effect as opposed to providing "proof" of the effect. Our class (using the prayer vs. medicine readings) will allow you to take a positive (versus normative) view of data analysis. Ideally, his innovative approach to analyzing data to uncover meaningful explanations will lead you to realizing that there are vast amounts of data you have access to in your organizations that you can use to improve your decision making. If you enjoy this book as much as I did, I urge you to read the original New York Times Magazine article that led to this book as well as other articles by Dubner. If this still intrigues you, browse the "Freakonomics Blog" at the New York Times and the collection of Dubner-Levitt columns here.
There will be one exam on Saturday, April 26, 2008. The exam will cover the readings, class discussion and activities, homework, and guest speaker talks. You will have approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes for the exam. Most of the exam will consist of short answer questions that will expect you to apply the content of the class to a variety of problems.
Borderline Bump: If you are on the borderline of making the next higher grade, YOU now have the ability to force me to bump you up to the higher grade by earning up to 1 point of extra credit for making a brief 3-minute presentation to the class on an example of faulty data analysis or interpretation that you have encountered. I will grade these on the basis of how well you are able to relate the content of the class to your experiences with specific examples (provide examples of how what you learned changed how you interpreted something at work, in the paper, or in a magazine). Along with the class presentation, you will also submit a written report of no more than 2 single-spaced typed pages. The focus is on relating the material covered in class to your jobs and experiences. What I'm looking for here is evidence that you are able to use the material you have learned to critically evaluate research that you read. You should relate specific concepts covered in the readings to the example you share. If you're still not clear exactly what I'm looking for, let me give you an example of a detailed analysis that raises questions that demonstrate critical thinking abilities. For example, read the introduction to the book It Ain't Necessarily So: How Media Make and Unmake The Scientific Picture of Reality by Murray, Schwartz, and Lichter (2001) that is available online (yes, I know p. 9 is missing). This, by the way is another great book that forces a more scientific, data-driven, analytical view of everyday issues. Anyway, in the introduction, search for the paragraph beginning with "How well do we understand ..." and read through their analysis of a Washington Post report on radiation. The four or five paragraphs raise the kinds of questions I would like to see you raise with reports you come across (ideally business-related reports). If you can perform an in-depth analysis that shows that the data are being misinterpreted in the original piece, it will be even better. The STATS web site has numerous such stories from the news that will give you an idea of what makes a good analysis. Another great column that regularly exposes poor use of statistics is WSJ online's NumbersGuy column. This is another great model for the InfoGems reports. Obviously, it would be considered by me to be highly unethical to use one of the analyses already published on these sites.
For all assignments, please follow the instructions below.
As a group, you will also be responsible for designing, conducting, and analyzing a brief survey. Preferably, the topic of the survey should be one that would be of interest to one or all of you at your workplaces. You will be responsible for getting all the appropriate permissions from your employers to conduct this survey. You will also be responsible for appropriately protecting the privacy of your survey subjects. I have blanket "Human Subjects Review Board" approval for up to 150 subjects (this includes all subjects contacted whether finally used in your analysis or not). On the other hand, if you collect data as part of your job responsibilities (and make no mention of the University of Minnesota, this class, or the course requirements), you are limited only by the restrictions placed by your place of employment. Please check their regulations. In effect, you will be using "secondary data" for the purposes of this class as the data you collect will not be something collected for this class, but as an ongoing part of your job responsibilities. If you collect data as part of the class project, you are also required to make sure you get "informed consent" of your subjects. This can be in the form of a verbal or written consent to participate. Please see this sample consent statement form for this information. If it is impossible for anyone in your group to conduct the survey at their workplaces, you may decide to do a little theory testing using friends and relatives as subjects. You will still be held to the same standards as the other groups in terms of the quality of research design. You should focus on identifying the limitations in your study imposed by design, time, and other resource constraints. It is also very important that you follow our departmental guidelines for citations and references. Please read that document carefully. In terms of writing style, my pet peeve is reports that are not well structured. I urge you to use headings and subheadings liberally to make your report more readable. I have actually had entire reports submitted as one paragraph, which I hate! Your final project will be presented to class at our final meeting. Here are the rubrics I will be using for grading your presentation and written report. Your written report will be due the week of the last class meeting (on April 26, 2008). As in all written assignments for this class, you will lose 1/2 (half) point for each spelling and grammar error in what you turn in.
Of course, as MBA students (most of you with significant work experience), I expect you will actively participate in class discussions. I am assuming that you are as uninterested as I am in 6-hour lectures. At the same time, I may have to occasionally cut short or redirect discussions in the interests of time, as we have a lot of material to cover in each class meeting. You should continuously strive to bring in examples of statistical misuse to each of our class meetings. These are easily obtainable once you know what to look for (and this class will develop that skill!) and will serve as interesting discussion points in class.
In today's age, it is not unusual for students to want to use a laptop during class for taking notes. However, I am very concerned by the distractions offered by having a laptop in front of you during class - especially when wireless internet access is the norm. While I have no objection to your using a laptop for notes during class (in fact, having a laptop is a big advantage when we talk of using SPSS for data analysis), I am going to appeal to your decency and honesty by asking you NOT to access the Internet in any way or form when class is in session. That means no email, no web, and importantly no instant messaging. Please do not violate this rule. Just as answering a cell phone in class would be rude and disruptive, I personally consider it extremely rude when students are messaging each other or checking their email during class. Of course, if I get tips that you may be using the Internet during class, it will affect your class participation grade. If you are one of the many people obsessive about online communications, I urge you to control yourself during this class.
Uniform class policy is NO rescheduling of exams, quizzes, or late assignments. Once you have signed up for class, you are expected to be there. Recognizing that most of you work full-time and may be unavoidably called away for work or family reasons, I have a variety of components that make up your grade. An assignment or class missed cannot be made up. If you think you will miss a significant portion of the term, you may want to consider dropping the class this term and taking it next term.
The official form of communication for University business is e-mail. This is a great way of keeping in touch with me and the rest of your classmates during the week. I strongly encourage you to use the "class alias" to communicate regularly with the class. You may ask questions or clarifications of your fellow students as you work on your project analyses and assignments by sending an e-mail to: mba8211-800-s2008@d.umn.edu. Any message sent to this address will go to all the students registered for this class (and to me). Please use this convenient communication tool extensively. If you have e-mail access at work, you may want to forward all the messages from your University e-mail account to your "work" e-mail account (or any other account you check regularly). You can do this by going to the following web page: http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/email/faq.html and following the link to "How do I forward my email?".
You should also probably have access to the University's library databases. As UMD students, you have access to these resources, but need to set up a virtual private network in order to access them from off-campus. To set up your computer correctly, simply go to the library home page at http://www.d.umn.edu/lib/ and click on the "Connect from Off Campus" button. This page will tell you how to connect to library databases with a variety of off-campus connections.
| Group 1 | Group 2 | Group 3 |
| Group 4 | Group 5 | Group 6 |
Here is a brief bibliography of some interesting books on the topics we cover in this class. If you start reading these books, you will come across familiar examples (that I may have used in class) and find some explanations that may give you the "aha" feeling that you thought you were (at times) close to in class. I'll keep adding my comments (and yours) to this page, so send me your comments.
UMD Library's
Electronic Resources
Jim Vileta's Business Research Links
American Psychological Association (APA) Reference Style Guide
- for electronic references
- for traditional references
Connecting to the Library
Databases from Off Campus
Department
Policy on Citation, References, and Plagiarism
We truly believe in the mission our department has adopted. If you feel we can do anything in this class to better meet this mission, please let me know without fear of negative reprisal!
| University of Minnesota Duluth The Department of Marketing COMMITTED TO THE INTELLECTUAL GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF PEOPLE |
| WE WILL STRIVE TO MAKE THIS VISION A REALITY: Through our commitment to the creation, interpretation, application, and dissemination of knowledge about organizations, their behavior and management. By working to create an environment in which students are encouraged to consume knowledge, think, ask questions, analyze and explore problems and their solutions, and to articulate their own emerging theories of organizations, their behavior, and management. |
It is University policy to provide, on a flexible and individualized basis, reasonable accommodations to students who have disabilities that may affect their ability to participate in course activities or to meet course requirements. Students with disabilities that might affect their ability to perform in this class are encouraged to inform the instructor at the start of the quarter.