Exploratory Analysis to Identify Concepts, Skills, Knowledge, and Tools to Educate Business Analytics Practitioners

摘要

Recent technological advancements in data storage and processing have changed howcompanies conduct their business. An increasing number of firms have started puttingtheir efforts in extracting information from their databases to improve profitability andreduce costs using quantitative approaches. Thus, the job market has been experiencinga rapidly growing demand for business analytics (BA) practitioners, and universitiesacross the globe are increasingly responding to this newly emerged field by offeringboth undergraduate and graduate level degrees as well as certificate programs. Thus, thisresearch aims to provide a framework for academic institutions to develop a state-of-theart master’s in business analytics (MSBA) curriculum by identifying concepts, skills,knowledge, and tools (CSKT) that industry seeks in BA practitioners. Our data-drivenmethodology utilizes peer institution analysis, indeed.com web scraping, and focusgroup analysis with mid- and senior-level analytics leaders from major companies. Ourcontribution to the literature and recommendations to institutions developing MSBAprograms are offered at the end.