Examine the following research question and subset of the information to answer this research question. This is a small component of a research paper I just published.
Research Question:
What factors affect use of information from a Business Intelligence System in management decision making?
In my research, I examined multiple factors, but for this project we are going to look at one factor – information content quality. In plain English, we want to examine if information content quality is high, then will managers use the information more in decision making. To determine this, we have Likert scale survey items to measure information content quality and Likert scale survey items use of information from a Business Intelligence System. The hypotheses for this research are shown below:
Hypotheses
Ho: There is no relationship between information content quality and use of information from a Business Intelligence System in management decision making.
Ha: There is a positive relationship between information content quality and use of information from a Business Intelligence System in management decision making.
Note: The positive relationship we are hypothesizing means that as information content quality increases then use of information from a Business Intelligence System in management decision making increases. This is what we expect to happen, but we must conduct the survey to find out if this is true.
Survey Questions
A Likert scale was used for each question. The participant taking the survey was expected to evaluate each of the items on a scale of 1 to 7 with 1 = Strongly Disagree and 7 = Strongly Agree.
Information Content Quality
CQ1. The scope of the information is adequate (neither too much nor too little)
CQ2. The information is precise enough and close enough to reality
CQ3. The information is easily understandable by the target group
CQ4. The information is to the point, void of unnecessary elements
CQ5. The information is not contradictory
CQ6. The information is free of distortion, bias, or error
Use of Information from the Business Intelligence System in management decision making
UI2. It is our organization’s policy to incorporate available information within any decision-making process.
UI3. We consider the information provided regardless of the type of decision to be taken.
UI4. The available information within our organization’s business processes provides a valuable input for assessing business processes against standards, for continuous process improvement programs, and for business process change projects.
UI5. The available information within our organization’s business processes stimulates innovation in internal business events and external service delivery.
UI6. The information reduces uncertainty in the decision-making process, enhances confidence, and improves operational effectiveness.
UI7. The information enables us to rapidly react to business events and perform proactive business planning.
UI8. We are using the information provided to make changes to corporate strategies and plans, modify Key Performance Indicators, and analyze newer Key Performance Indicators.
Take the EXCEL spreadsheet for this assignment and create two columns CQTOT and UITOT. For each row in the spreadsheet, add up CQ1, CQ2, CQ3, CQ4, CQ5 and CQ6 to get CQTOT. Add up UI2, UI3, UI4, UI5, UI6, UI7, and UI8 to get UITOT for each row. You need to use the equal sum function for these totals. Each row is a person that took the survey. Notice there are some blanks in the survey. These are questions that the person taking the survey did not answer.
Save this spreadsheet. You will use this spreadsheet for Problem Set 2.
Answer the following questions:
1. How many people completed this survey as shown in the EXCEL spreadsheet?
2. If someone answered questions UI2 with a “7”, what does this mean?
Upload this document with your answers and your EXCEL spreadsheet.