MSc Business Analytics performance & competitor analysis using Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) model

1. Analysis on MSc Business Analytics
GROUP 5 - BMAN73271 DECISION BEHAVIOUR, ANALYSIS AND SUPPORT 2019-2020

2. OUTLINE
GROUP 5
2
1
2
3
4
OBJECTIVE, VALUE & STAKEHOLDER
IDENTIFICATION
INTRODUCTION & INTERPRETATION
ATTRIBUTE TREE, WEIGHTING, SELECTION OF
ALTERNATIVES, SCORING
IMPLEMENTATION
STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS, SWOT ANALYSIS,
PESTEL ANALYSIS, SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS
ANALYSIS & ARGUMENT
CONCLUSION & OPPORTUNITY FOR
IMPROVEMENTS
RECOMMENDATION & INSIGHTS

3. INTRODUCTION
& INTERPRETATION
Assessment of MSc Business Analytics programmes and analysis of competitors
of Alliance Manchester Business School
Objective
Conduct decision analysis to produce a ranked list of MSc programmes
Chief Decision Maker
Head of Teaching and Learning
Stakeholders
3
● Head of Teaching and Learning
● Head of AMBS
● Teaching & research staff
● Local Community
● Ranking Websites
● Prospective Employers
● Current Students
● Prospective Students
● Alumni Students
● Sponsors
● Partners
● Parents of Students

4. PROCESS OF
DECISION ANALYSIS
4
01
02
03
04
IMPLEMENTATION
EVALUATION
APPRAISAL
FORMULATION

5. Power
Stake
STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS
GROUP 5
5
Partners
Prospective
Employers

6. ATTRIBUTE HIERARCHY TREE
GROUP 5
6
MSc Business Analytics
DIVERSITY
ACADEMIC QUALITY
& REPUTATION
ACADEMIC
QUALITY
AWARDS
GENDER
DIVERSITY
INTERNATIONAL
DIVERSITY
REPUTATION
ACADEMIC
RESEARCH
VALUE FOR
MONEY
EMPLOYABILITY
LEARNING
ENVIRONMENT
STAFF
HAPPINESS
LOCATION -
STUDENT CITY
RANK
Sources of Attribute Data:
1 2 3 4
5
6 7
8
9 10
1. QS, Bloomberg, THE
2. Bloomberg, QS, FT
3. QS, FT, THE
4. University Site
5. FT, University Site
6. Glassdoor Rating
7. QS Student City
8. Bloomberg, THE, QS
9. University Site, THE
10. University Site, THE

7. WEIGHTING
GROUP 5
7
Method
● Scored attributes considering every
stakeholder’s perspective
○ See Swing Weighting (Ref App A)
● The weight of every attribute was
measured relative to Employability.
○ Employability is the most important
attribute
○ Gender Diversity is the least
important attribute

8. PROGRAMME SCREENING & SELECTION
Selection Principles:
1. Programmes included in Business Analytics QS ranking.
2. Alternative Rankings: Business Schools included in at least two of the following rankings:
a. Financial Times (FT)
b. Times Higher Education (THE)
c. Bloomberg BusinessWeek
3. Top 10 universities from Business Analytics QS ranking OR from top 100 QS World University
ranking
4. Programmes longer than 1 year were excluded except if they are included in the top 5 of
Business Analytics QS ranking
5. Comparable modules: Programmes must have equivalent course descriptions
6. Special consideration: Include programmes from UK/Ireland since geographic proximity is a
relevant factor to consider
7. Final Selection: 12 alternatives to Manchester were selected
.
8

9. SCORING & RESULTS
GROUP 5
9

10. ANALYSIS
& ARGUMENTS
ANALYSIS INCLUDES:
• PESTEL ANALYSIS
• SWOT ANALYSIS
• SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS
10

11. PESTEL ANALYSIS
GROUP 5
11
P
Political
E
Economic
S
Social
T
Technology
E
Environmental
L
Legal
Brexit:
Political instability.
Unpredictable legal &
economic change.
Public Funding: UK
government is cutting
down resources.
Foreign Students: UK
higher education
depends on foreign
students. US China
trade war may
increase the
proportion of Chinese
choosing Europe.
Recession fears:
The economy
suffered a
recession in the
second quarter of
2019.
Sterling loss of
value: UK currency
has lost almost 20%
of its value against
the dollar in the last
5 years, becoming
more attractive for
foreign students
Strikes: Two
Academic strikes
during 2018-2019
may impact UK
higher education
reputation.
Willingness to
Study: Higher
education is losing
its attractiveness
as a way to achieve
social mobility
Online
Alternative:
Quality improving
and market
increasing.
Potential
disruption if
traditional
education does
not find ways to
differentiate
themself.
Environmental
responsibility:
Universities will be
measured by how
much they promote
sustainable
behaviours among
their students
UK working
visa:
Uncertainty for
EU students due
to unknown
post brexit
regulation.

12. SWOT ANALYSIS
GROUP 5
12
● More collaboration with companies for
dissertation work
● Incorporate the use of database language (e.g.
SQL)
● Link more projects/dissertation to industry real
life problems.
● Offer financial incentives to encourage students
to projects/competitions.
OPPORTUNITY
● New building with better quality of facility
● Well known for research with high impact
● State of the art technology (e.g. machine
learning) on curriculum.
● Excellent team for graduate hiring.
○ Dedicated careers service for Business
School post graduate cohort.
STRENGTH
● New entrants from Asian Universities with
many universities in the region now heavily
featured in rankings.
● The impact of Brexit
THREAT
● Staff happiness needs to be considered,
evident in staff taking part in strike action.
● Limited quantity of rooms and facilities.
● Business school facilities not available on
weekends.
● Not featured on The Economist
WEAKNESS
S W
O T

13. SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS: STUDENT CITY
GROUP 5
13
INSIGHTS
WHEN
WEIGHT
GO UP
Gainer: ESSEC & ESADE
Loser: UC San Diego &
Warwick
Top 1 - 4
remains stableSTABILITY
WHEN
WEIGHT
GO DOWN
Gainer: Texas
Loser: Edinburgh

14. SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS: ACADEMIC QUALITY
GROUP 5
14
INSIGHTS
WHEN
WEIGHT
GO UP
Gainer: UC San Diego
& Warwick
Loser: ESSEC & ESADE
Top 1 - 6
remains stableSTABILITY
WHEN
WEIGHT
GO DOWN
Gainer: ESSEC & ESADE
Loser: UC San Diego &
Warwick

15. SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS: ACADEMIC RESEARCH
GROUP 5
15
INSIGHTS
WHEN
WEIGHT
GO UP
Gainer: Texas & NUS
Loser: Manchester,
Edinburgh, ESSEC
Top 1 - 3
remains stableSTABILITY
WHEN
WEIGHT
GO DOWN
Gainer: ESSEC & ESADE
Loser: UC San Diego &
Warwick

16. SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS: EMPLOYABILITY
GROUP 5
16
INSIGHTS
Top 1 - 3 remains
stableSTABILITY
WHEN
WEIGHT
GO DOWN
Manchester is outranked
by Edinburgh when
weight decreases to 75

17. SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS: VALUE OF MONEY
GROUP 5
17
INSIGHTS
Manchester’s rank remains stable
within feasible range of weight

18. SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS: TRADE-OFF
GROUP 5
18
INSIGHTS
Manchester is a top performer
considering Value in for Money
STABILITY

19. TOP-5 ANALYSIS
GROUP 5
19

20. University of Manchester global competitors:
● MIT:
○ Business analytics programme with best employment rate.
○ Faculty members are recognized for publishing frequent papers
● UCLA:
○ One of the highest reputation in the world
○ Recent scandals related to payments for admissions may harm university
reputation in the future.
● Imperial College of London:
○ Located in a city that is highly valued by domestic and international employers.
● Edinburgh:
○ Higher score for international diversity.
○ Recognized by their awards, including the Fields Medal, the highest honor for a
mathematician.
● Texas:
○ Most successful achieving gender diversity
○ Second one with the best performance in staff reputation
20
TOP ANALYSIS: World Perspective
GROUP 5

21. SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS: Manchester vs Top Alt
GROUP 5
21
STABILITY
Sensitivity on Input Data vs Top Schools
○ Manchester is not able to improve to
the #1 alternative with reasonable
changes
Sensitivity of Input Data on Top Schools

22. TOP ANALYSIS: UK/Ireland Perspective
University of Manchester benchmark per attribute
● Imperial College London:
○ Leader in the UK in the main attributes analysed
● Warwick:
○ Strong competitor in Academic Research
● University College Dublin:
○ Distinguished in employability due to high employment rate
22
GROUP 5

23. SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS: Manchester vs UK Alt
Sensitivity on Input Data vs UK Schools
○ Data shows that making achievable
improvements in Academic Quality,
Research, and Employability will put
Manchester equal or higher than
Imperial.
Sensitivity of Input Data on UK Schools
23
GROUP 5

24. SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS: CONCLUSION
● Model is Robust
○ Top alternatives remain unchanged by changing weights
● Scoring Confidence
○ Manchester’s rank will not change unless there are significant changes to
the weights
● Manchester’s Opportunities
○ Data shows that making achievable improvements in Academic Quality,
Research, and Employability will put Manchester equal or higher than
Imperial.
24
GROUP 5

25. RECOMMENDATIONS
& INNOVATION
Exposure to trends & insights from:
● Guest speakers
● On-site visits to companies
● Invitations to analytics events,
expo, and conferences
● Analytics bootcamp
ANALYTICS TECH &
CAREER SEMINARS
● Fundamental of Database
Technologies, Data
Management & SQL
● Electives of:
○ Specialisation Analytics
(e.g. Healthcare Analytics,
Marketing Analytics,
Financial Analytics, etc)
○ Machine Learning
algorithms & technologies
○ Network, Web & Social
Media Analytics
COURSES/ELECTIVES
BENCHMARK
Internships to gain hands-on real-world
analytics experience that is supervised
by faculty members.
SUMMER INTERNSHIP
● Improve Alliance MBS Research
Centre (e.g. Decision and Cognitive
Science Research Centre)
● Increase academic citations
HIGH QUALITY
RESEARCH CENTRE
Holding competitions and challenges based
on courses and research to drive more
impact and providing financial incentives for
the winners.
MAKING MORE IMPACT
AREA OF IMPROVEMENT:
ACADEMIC RESEARCH
AREA OF IMPROVEMENT:
EMPLOYABILITY
AREA OF IMPROVEMENT:
ACADEMIC QUALITY
AREA OF IMPROVEMENT:
EMPLOYABILITY

26. Thank You
-
Q & A

27. Appendix A: WEIGHTING METHODOLOGY
● One attribute is chosen as the
most important and is increased
by 100 (Longest score).
● The rest are scaled against the
most important attribute
through swing weighting
● As analysts imagine a hypothetical situation where one of the
programmes scores 0 for all the attributes.
27
GROUP 5