Data-Driven Decision Making
An organization develops a new strategic plan and seeks ways to measure its performance over a specific period of time. Which system enables the organization to measure performance based upon established global standards? - Six Sigma - Balanced scorecard - ISO - Value Chain
ISO
A college is reviewing statistics concerning student retention. The college would like to determine the most important factors that cause students to leave and asks the researcher to display this information using one of the Seven Basic Tools of Quality. Which tool should be used in this case? - Histogram - Run Chart - Flow Chart - Pareto Chart
Pareto Chart
What is a significant disadvantage of KPI's? - They cannot be connected to external databases - They cannot be used for internal benchmarking. - They fail to offer data-driven results - They require significant ongoing maintenance
They require significant ongoing maintenance
Given the following data set: 9, 12, 14, 10, 8, 11, 12 What is the mode?
12
An analyst used multiple linear regression to explore how Store A's sales (y) are predicted by Store A's advertising expenditure dollars (variable x1) and the advertising expenditure dollars of Store A's competitor (variable x2). The estimated regression is y = 532 + 80.5x1 — 35.6x2. Which scenario would be predicted if x1 is $1,000 and x2 is also $1,000? - 45,432 - 116,632 - 44,900 - 44,367
45,432
A nonprofit organization ran an email campaign with three different messages to solicit additional donations. What should the nonprofit organization use to determine if the average donation differs for the different messages? - T-test - Mean - ANOVA - Median
ANOVA
Match each action with the appropriate statistical procedure Answer options may be used more than one or not at all. Correlation, ANOVA, and Control Charts. - Compare outcomes of different drug testing results. - Understand effective marketing to spend advertising dollars efficiently. - Monitor production process
ANOVA, Correlation, and Control Charts
In a statistical process control analysis, sample data are collected from an assembly line and measured to see if they fall within a tolerated measurement range. If an observation does fall within the range, a "yes" is recorded. If it falls outside the range, a "no" is recorded. Which kind of data do the "yes" and "no" represent? - Big data - Biased data - Variable data - Attribute data
Attribute data
A researcher looks at moving average data on store sales and wishes to perform a multiple regression of interest rates and disposable income. What is a particular concern when performing time series multiple regression? - Multicollinearity - Heteroscedasticity - Homoscedasticity - Autocorrelation
Autocorrelation
Which approach uses financial, customer, internal business processes, and innovation/learning measures? - Balanced scorecard - Key performance indicators - Results-based management - Management by objectives
Balanced scorecard
A hardware store has found that there is a 0.25 probability that a customer buys an electrical product, a 0.45 probability that a customer buys a plumbing product, and a 0.10 probability that a customer buys an electrical product if they purchase a plumbing product. Which statistical rule can be used to determine the probability that a customer buys a plumbing product given that this customer has purchased an electrical product? - Bayes' theorem - Multiplication - Combination - Conditional probability
Bayes' theorem
A county government must reduce spending. It wishes to eliminate incremental budgeting and align budget allocations with each of its units' strategic business objectives. How can the county apply data analytic approaches to attain this goal? - By benchmarking like strategies of successful counties - By measuring number of voter complaints per department - By surveying the county controllers - By surveying employees on strategy matters
By benchmarking like strategies of successful counties
How can organizations implement an effective performance management evaluation system? - By establishing a balanced scorecard - By surveying employees about management - By benchmarking against other organizations - By studying trends in management evaluation
By establishing a balanced scorecard
A county government wishes to convert government vehicles from gasoline to natural gas. How can the county evaluate the effectiveness of the conversion? - By estimating the payback period - By analyzing budgetary impacts of county contracts - By aligning fund allocations with number of departmental employees - By conducting best practices research regarding audit performance
By estimating the payback period
How does probability theory inform decision-making for managers? - By quantifying risk - By quantifying data - By quantifying quality - By quantifying costs
By quantifying risk
A healthcare study follows a particular sample over time to identify how the health habits of teenagers impact their likelihood of acquiring various diseases later in their life in the hope that the healthcare organization will be able to create early prevention programs. Which type of research design does this study describe? - Double-blind study - Systematic Study - Cohort Study - Experimental Study
Cohort Study
A researcher concludes that bananas create healthy children because the researcher's notes indicate that children who eat a banana every day are healthy What misuse of statistics would this study be an example of if these children also eat a balanced diet and exercise daily? - Unfounded assumptions - Lack of blinding - Faulty operationalization - Confusion of association and causality
Confusion of association and causality.
A check sheet indicates that of 100 returned items, 50 were damaged upon delivery, 30 were the wrong size, 10 were poor quality, 5 were a mistaken order, and 5 were returned due to the customer no longer wanting the item. What is the appropriate way to represent these data? - Construct a control chart - Construct a pareto chart - Construct a cause-and-effect diagram - Construct a flow chart
Construct a pareto chart
Which two decision considerations describe fact-based decision making, according to the quality management principles? Choose 2 answers - Decisions reduce external bias - Decisions have marginal effect on relationships with suppliers - Decisions foster trust in plans - Decisions use diversity of experience
Decisions reduce external bias. Decisions foster trust in plans.
Which two items represent steps of results-based management? Choose two answers - Define resources - Develop control charts - Develop four performance perspectives - Study the long-term effects of the output
Define resources. Study the long-term effects of the output
A manager uses a linear regression to examine how the store's retail sales are predicted by advertising expenditures. Which type of variable do retail sales represent in this regression? - Independent variable - Dependent variable - Control variable - Predictor variable
Dependent variable
A national manufacturer is building an overseas factory to be closer to one of its largest markets. Which analysis technique would be appropriate when evaluating location options under risk in order to strengthen the firm's competitiveness in the new market? - Develop a network diagram - Develop a decision tree - Develop a draw flow diagram - Develop a run chart
Develop a decision tree
In the month of December, there is a strong positive correlation between airline tickets and retail sales. Which question should the researcher consider before concluding that the correlation statistic implies that the airline sales drive retail sales? - Does a causal relationship truly exist? - Are the data biased? - Is the sample size large enough? - Does the sample accurately reflect the population?
Does a causal relationship truly exist?
A hotel chain is interested in improving its customer service by reducing the amount of time it takes customers to check in. Which analysis technique should they use? - Flowchart - Tree diagram - Network diagram - Matrix diagram
Flowchart
Which phrase is a description of quality assurance? - Is reactive and causal - Is able to be replaced by quality control activities - Recommends corrective action - Focuses on training
Focuses on training
What is the most important analytic to determine the success or failure of a particular year's flu vaccine? - Incidence accounting for all new cases - Cost/benefit comparing the advantages and disadvantages - Consumer satisfaction survey of all existing cases - Number of persons who failed to get the flu vaccine
Incidence accounting for all new cases
A medical care provider determines the probability that a patient needs treatment for a broken bone, the probability that a patient needs treatment for a concussion, and the probability that a patient needs treatment for both a broken bone and a concussion. Which two techniques apply in finding the probability that a patient needs treatment for a broken bone and a concussion? Choose 2 answers - Intersection - Union - Multiplication principle - Mutually exclusive
Intersection and Multiplication principle
What is true of cost-effective analysis? - It analyzes the cost of achieving a quantifiable goal - It balances a government budget - It is often used in the private sector, but not the public sector - It analyzes the cost of intangible assets
It analyzes the cost of achieving a quantifiable goal
What is a description of data mining? - It identifies causal relationships in large data sets. - It discovers patterns or trends in large data sets. - It is typically performed in extraction industries - It evaluates the validity of data extraction
It discovers patterns or trends in large data sets.
Which two statements describe how the dedication of leadership and a focus on process enhance quality? Choose 2 answers - It ensures a systems approach - It enhances customer loyalty - It ensures clearly aligned goals - It makes results easier to manage and achieve
It ensures clearly aligned goals.
What are two aspects of data quality management? Choose 2 - It calculates spurious data - It reduces the amount of incomplete data - It monitors data input rates - It cleans data
It reduces the amount of incomplete data. It cleans data.
What is a disadvantage of a balanced scorecard? - It can weaken internal and external communication - It has difficulty linking on organizations operations with its strategy - It weakens organizational alignment - It requires significant time and effort to establish a meaningful scorecard
It requires significant time and effort to establish a meaningful scorecard
How do balanced scorecards differ from KPI dashboards? - Balanced scorecards focus only on financial data - KPI dashboards improve organizational alignment - KPI dashboards provide visual representations of KPI's such as charts and graphs - Balanced scorecards are better to use for graphical or visual representations than KPI dashboards
KPI dashboards provide visual representations of KPI's such as charts and graphs
Which approach focuses on eliminating activities that fail to add value or satisfy customers? - Lean operations - International Organization for Standardization (ISO) certification - Six Sigma - Design for Six Sigma
Lean Operations
A company that raises turkeys is hoping to increase the rate of growth of the birds while controlling the cost of feeding the birds. It has been determined that feeds containing both nutrients and protein can be used. What decision making technique is most appropriate for this company to minimize the cost of feeding the birds. - Correlation - Linear Programming - Chi-square - Z-score
Linear Programming
A manager analyzes a data set that includes information on individual incomes. The manager knows that the data set is fairly representative of the general population and includes several millionaires. Based on this data set, which measure of central tendency best represents the middle of the distribution? - Mean - Median - Frequency - Mode
Median
Which two attributes indicate potential data quality issues when evaluating a set of nominal data? Choose 2 answers. - Outlier Data - Missing Data - Out-of-range Data - Misspelled Data
Missing data and misspelled data
A professional services firm is undergoing a business process improvement exercise to improve productivity, staff morale, and client satisfaction. Which technique should the firm use to evaluate the strength of customer service relations? - Net promoter score - KPI dashboard - Balanced scorecard - Results-based management
Net promoter score
A company is trying to increase its online sales revenue by improving its email advertising campaign for repeat customers as well as new customers. Which two variables would be used in determining a campaign to maximize revenue gain? Choose 2 answers - Number of purchases per email - E-mail content - Spending per purchase - Cost per email
Number of purchases per email and spending per purchase
A researcher wants to predict student test scores based on hours spent studying. Which type of regression would be more appropriate? - Weighted least squares regression - Ordinary least squares regression - Logistic regression - Multiple regression
Ordinary least squares regression
Which type of data are the Olympic medals of gold, silver, and bronze examples of? - Nominal data - Ordinal data - Interval data - Ratio data
Ordinal data
An organization is concerned about whether quality control standards are being met and develops a strategy to test quality control metrics. Which step does this represent in the plan-do-check-act cycle? - Plan - Do - Check - Act
Plan
Analytics is a broad term that refers to a variety of tools that inform managerial decisions. Which term can be used to describe managerial decisions? - Prescriptive - Descriptive - Pareto Chart - Biased
Prescriptive
A joint venture is established between two firms to use their core competencies to increase their market share. How would a SIPOC (suppliers, inputs, process, outputs, and customers) diagram benefit the joint venture? - Tracks financial performance - Logs production errors - Provides a holistic view of the entire operation - Measures client satisfaction
Provides a holistic view of the entire operation
A company decides to auction excess inventory on an auction website. The company has performed a regression analysis to identify how the length of the auction impacts the final price. Which statistic indicates the strength of the relationship between the length of the auction and final price? - R-squared - Z-score - P-value - F-statistic
R-squared
What are two reasons for the increasing use of analytics in organizational decision-making? Choose 2 answers. - Relatively lower cost of computer storage - Lower availability of statistical experts - Higher cost of obtaining data - Higher computer processing power
Relatively lower cost of computer storage. Higher computer processing power
An advertising manager creates a research study by presenting low, medium, or high frequency of the same ad in matched markets. The manager then reports on sales in each market location. What is the term for the different sales in this study? - Experimental Unit - Treatment - Response Variable - Intervention
Response Variable
A professional services firm wants to track and monitor important financial performance measures of the company (e.g., year-over-year change in revenues and profits). Which performance approach would meet the company's objective? - Incidence rate - True score method - Results-based management - Net promoter score
Results-based management
Which of Ishikawa's Seven Basic Tools of Quality is used to illustrate performance measurements over time? - Run chart - Cause and effect diagram - Pareto chart - Flowchart
Run chart
A doctoral student surveys CEOs to understand their relationships with their governing boards. The student determines the years of business experience for each CEO as well as their rating, on a 10-point scale, of satisfaction with the governing board. Which statistical approach should be used to display the data for analysis? - Scatter plot - Median - Bell curve - Mean
Scatter plot
Which graphical tool is used to illustrate a possible relationship or correlation between two variables? - Run chart - Scatterplot - Box plot - Histogram
Scatterplot
A retail store notices a spike notices a spike in turkey sales every November. Which time series pattern are turkey sales likely to exhibit? - Trend - Cyclical - Seasonal - White noise
Seasonal
Which common analytic measure is used to improve business performance? - Base period index - Simple composite index - SIPOC index - Consumer price index
Simple composite index
A soft-drink manufacturer performs a control chart analysis and the results indicate that the soft-drink bottles are consistently under-filled by a large amount according to specifications. The system was evaluated three months prior and was determined to be stable and filling bottles within accepted limits. What is this consistent under-filling an example of? - Incapable process - Common cause variation - Subjective cause variation - Special cause variation
Special Cause Variation
After evaluating manufacturing times for a particular product, a manager determines that the times are spread out across the distribution. The manager has been asked to determine how far, on average, the time is from the mean. Which statistic roughly measures the average distance of a data point from the mean of the distribution?
Standard Deviation
A manager of a call center is in charge of creating a staffing plan. The number of calls received per day is normally distributed. Which two statistics would be needed in order to estimate the number of calls that would be received 95% of the time? Choose 2 answers - Standard Deviation - Mean - Median - Interquartile range
Standard Deviation and Mean
Which key performance indicator can a hotel chain use to measure its ability to meet client tastes and preferences? - Benchmark other hotel chains' best practices - Analyze national data on tourism for length of stay - Survey staff members for customer service recommendations - Survey customer satisfaction upon checkout
Survey customer satisfaction upon customer checkout
When conducting a study that measures an individual's weight, all scales are calibrated prior to use in measurement. Which type of error should this procedure significantly reduce? - Systematic Error - Omission Error - Random Error - Information Error
Systematic Error
Several missing values in a particular field in a dataset were observed. The likelihood of a record having a missing value is correlated to another variable in the dataset. Which two types of error might be introduced into the dataset if the removed record included missing values? Choose 2 answers. - Systemic Error - Omission Error - Random Error - Typographical error
Systemic Error and Omission Error
A research study examined the impact of product advertisement exposure on that product's brand awareness. The appropriate statistical test indicates that the null hypothesis should be rejected at the 5% significance level. What can be concluded from this study? - The advertisement was effective in increasing sales. - The advertisement was effective in building brand awareness. - Five percent of the subjects did not like the advertisement. - Ninety-five percent of the subjects liked the brand.
The advertisement was effective in building brand awareness.
What does it mean when an individual data point has a z-score of -2? - The data point is greater than the mean of the data set. - The sample standard deviation of the data set is negative. - The data point is equal to the mean of the data set. - The data point is two standard deviations less than the mean of the data set
The data point is two standard deviations less than the mean of the data set.
What does True Score Theory state about a test without systematic error? - The observed score is the true score. - The observed score is the true score plus random error - The observed score contains no error - The observed score contains no random error
The observed score is the true score plus random error
The management of Hospital A conducted a survey of its patients' opinions including gathering demographic data to determine which programs should be pursued during the upcoming fiscal year. Upon analyzing the response on the need for a cosmetic surgery program for the hospital, it was found that there was an r score of 0.75, and a p of 0.03 between a patient's income level and support for the creation of a cosmetic surgery department. What is an effective strategic decision based on an analysis of the given information? - There is a weak positive relationship for a cosmetic surgery program as a function of income, and this program should not be developed in high income areas. - There is a strong positive relationship for a cosmetic surgery program as a function of income, and this program should not be developed in high income areas. - There is a weak positive relationship for a cosmetic surgery program as a function of income, and this program should be developed in high income areas. - There is a strong positive relationship for a cosmetic surgery program as a function of income, and this program should be developed in high income areas.
There is a strong positive relationship for a cosmetic surgery program as a function of income, and this program should be developed in high income areas.
In what two ways are KPI dashboards useful in performance assessment? Choose 2 answers - They are visual representations of key areas of focus - They show trends that represent organizational results over time. - They tell managers how to write action plans. - They inform managers on competitors.
They are visual representations of key areas of focus. They show trends that represent organizational results over time.
A doctoral student is surveying CEOs to understand their relationships with their governing boards. The student receives responses to a survey with 10 questions that rate the respective relationships. Why would the student measure the standard deviation of responses? - To create a bell curve - To measure the spread of the data - To determine if the data is nonlinear - To understand the midpoint location of the data
To measure the spread of the data
The average test score of students taking an exam was 70% with a standard deviation of 8.5%. Which tool should be used to compare a student's score to the group average? - Regression - Correlation - Z-score - Linear Programming
Z-score
