Course content

Business Analytics is an interdisciplinary field that combines data science with business, economics and management. Business analytics deals with the collection, processing and analysis of data as well as the development of explanatory, predictive and normative models to support decisions and solve problems.

Learning outcome

Knowledge

The student will acquire knowledge about:

• the drivers and trends of business analytics,
• the business analytics life cycle,
• how business analytics is useful in central business functions,
• central concepts of business analytics,
• data collection and data sources,
• data visualization,
• basic statistical and regression methods,
• basic concepts of optimization,
• basic methods for classification and clustering,
• basic concepts of artificial neural networks.

Skills

• The student can retrieve data from different open and proprietary data sources and import these data into Excel spreadsheets or data frames.
• The student knows how to visualize data with tables, plots and diagrams in Excel and Python.
• The student acquires basic programming skills in Python.
• The student can carry out statistical analyses by means of Excel and Python.
• The student can implement optimization and simulation models in Excel and Python
• The student can discuss and reflect on the usefulness of analytics tools for business decisions.

General competence

The student gains expertise in how business analytics can be used to address and solve business problems and decision making. The student becomes familiar with the processes involved in collecting, analyzing and reporting business data. The student acquires skills to handle business analytics with appropriate software.

Learning methods and activities

Lectures (physical or digital), videos, written exercises, data exercises and essay writing.

Compulsory assignments

• Mandatory Essay

Specific conditions

Required previous knowledge

Elementary course in mathematics, statistics and managerial economics.

Course materials

The curriculum will be announced when the course commences.