Introduction to Business Analytics ISE

Introduction to Business Analytics recognizes that students need to develop the skills to ask the right questions, learn to use common workplace tools (such as Excel (R), Tableau (R), and Power BI (R)) to examine and analyze data, and interpret results accurately and effectively to make business decisions. Richardson 1e provides a framework for developing a business analytics mindset called the SOAR analytics model which is composed of four steps- Specify the question, Obtain the data, analyze the data, and report the results.

This model is used throughout the text in conjunction with the various types of data analysis that analysts need to perform. The lab activities, which appear at the end of each chapter, follow this framework to reinforce the analytical process. A capstone in the final chapter provides three projects that apply the complete SOAR model.

About the Authors

Vernon J. Richardson is a Distinguished Professor of Accounting and the G. William Glezen Chair in the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas and a visiting professor at Baruch College. He received his BS. Masters of Accountancy, and MBA from Brigham Young University and a PhD in accounting from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has taught students at the University of Arkansas, University of Illinois, Brigham Young University, and University of Kansas and internationally at Chinese University of Hong Kong Shenzhen, Aarhus University, the China Europe International Business School (Shanghai), Xi'an Jiaotong Liverpool University, and the University of Technology Sydney. Dr. Richardson is a member of the American Accounting Association. He has served as president of the American Accounting Association Information Systems section. He previously served as an editor of The Accounting Review and is currently an editor at Accounting Horizons. He has published articles in The Accounting Review, Journal of Information Systems, Journal of Accounting and Economics, Contemporary Accounting Research, MIS Quarterly, International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Journal of Management Information Systems, Journal of Operations Management, and Journal of Marketing. Dr. Richardson is also a co-author of McGraw-Hills Introduction to Data Analytics for Accounting, Data Analytics for Accounting and Introduction to Business Analytics textbooks.

Katie L. Terrell is an instructor in the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas. She received her B.A. degrees in English Literature and in the Spanish Language from the University of Central Arkansas, and received her MBA from the University of Arkansas. She expects a doctoral degree by 2019. She has taught students at the University of Arkansas, Soochow University (Suzhou, China), the University College Dublin (Ireland), and at Duoc UC, a branch of the Catholic University of Chile (a del Mar, Chile). She is a member of the American Accounting Association and has published a Statement on Management Accounting for the Institute of Management Accountants on managing organizational change in operational change initiatives. She has recently been recognized for her innovative teaching by being the recipient of the Mark Chain/FSA Teaching Award for innovative graduate-level accounting teaching practices in 2016. She has worked with Tyson Foods, where she held various Information System roles focusing on business analysis, project management for ERP implementations and upgrades, and organizational change management.