UWCISA 8th Symposium & Data Analytics and Data Visualization Workshop

 

The Centre for Information Integrity and Information Systems Assurance at the University of Waterloo (UWCISA) is pleased to announce its 8th biennial symposium to be held in Toronto, Canada. Our symposia are recognized for the extensive interaction between practitioners and academics. Papers and panels will be presented by academics and practitioners addressing risks, controls and assurance issues.

http://saf.uwaterloo.ca/uwcisa/symposiums/index.html

There is pre-conference workshop on Data Analytics and Data Visualization (Oct 1, 2015 8:30 am - 5:30 pm)
Learn through hands-on workshops and post-workshop online material; featuring
IDEA Analytics (data analytics software)
Tableau (data visualization software)
R (the open source analytics solution)

Can every [accounting] course be a big data and analytics course?

During the Accounting IS Big Data conference I was a member of the panel on “How does Big Data Change What We Teach?” One of the issues that was raised during the panel discussion was the following: Can every [accounting] course be a big data and analytics course?

In my opinion, we as teachers need to ask ourselves two questions:

• Does my course aim to help students understand decision making under conditions of uncertainty (does the decision making require some judgment)? For example, does the budgeting process,  calculation of accruals, transfer pricing or auditing process involve some judgment? If the answer is yes, then your course is a good candidate for making it an analytics class, and you should proceed to the next question.

• Are there data (structured or unstructured - you may want to think outside the traditional data box) that we can use to remove some of this uncertainty?

If you answered yes to both questions then you can add an analytics components in your class. The two questions that I have raised are the necessary and sufficient conditions for making your course an analytics course. If your course meets these conditions, may I suggest that you start by focusing on just one specific topics of your course. You don’t have to make your entire course an analytics course overnight.

Teaching Opportunities - Big Data IS Accounting conference

Flipping my Course: Strategic Accounting Analytics  (Notes for the panel presentation on Teaching Opportunities - Big Data IS Accounting conference)

Bargaining power proxies based on text mining of financial reports

The paper "Financial reports based proxies for the bargaining power of buyers and suppliers" is available from the following SSRN link:
http://ssrn.com/abstract=2650793

Class Update - Week 12

We started the course with the WHR case study and the mandate to perform the capital budgeting analysis. We have reached the point, that we are ready to not only generate the NPV of this project, but be able to perform sensitivity/risk analysis, and make recommendations on how to monitor this process to ensure that it delivers its expected value. This is the first objective for week 12.

While our focus has been on the value of IT investments and how to ensure that we maximize the value from these investments, another topic that deserves attention is that of IT budgets and IT portfolio management. Investment like the one undertaken by WHR constitute a substantial request for financial and human resources. The second objective for this week will be to review corporate budgets (pros and cons), the IT budgeting process & factors affecting levels of IT budgets, and IT portfolio management

Topics and Readings for Week 12

Theory: Chapter 8 (monitoring IT investments) and chapter 9 (IT budgets and IT portfolio management).

Seminar: We will use the Whirlpool case study to review the NPV analysis and  perform a risk analysis (sensitivity analysis). We will use the feedback from the analysis to develop an ERP implementation balanced scorecard for WHR.

Assignments for Week 12

The online quiz will be a based on chapters 8  & 9 and material covered in the seminars of week 11 and 12. The quiz will be available on Friday at 12:30 pm.

Class Update - Week 11

The NPV (expected payoffs) of a technology investment depends on the assumptions made by managers involved in the adoption of the new technology. These assumptions reflect their expectations regarding implementation (budget, time, and functionality), expectations regarding users’ ability to extract value from the new technology (increase sales or contain cost), as well as expectations regarding reactions of competitors and trading partners.

In previous chapters, we focused on factors that may affect these assumptions, such as business and IT strategy, IT capability, stage of technology adoption, and industry structure. This week, we shift our focus to implications of failure to meet these assumptions (risk analysis) on NPV. We will use this risk analysis to make recommendation on  how to monitor the progress during implementation and value extraction. The aim of the monitoring process is to introduce an element of accountability and ensure that proper action would be taken to ensure the maximization of the value of the technology investment.

Topics and Readings for Week 11

Theory: We will focus on Chapter 8 (monitoring IT investments). The primary focus of this chapter is on the idea of causality (cause and effect) as the foundation for the creation of a balanced scorecard for technology implementation and use.

Seminar: We will use the mini-case of BlueBikes  to perform a risk analysis (sensitivity analysis). We will try to estimate the expected effect of a failure to meet an assumption on NPV. In parallel, we will look at the statistical analysis for the team project.

Assignments for Week 11

The online quiz will be a based on chapters 8  and material covered in the seminar (this includes material related to the team project). The quiz will be available on Friday at 12:30 pm.

The team project is due on Friday at 8:30 am. Please follow instructions to upload your project in the Learn dropbox.

Class Update - Week 10

We started our course with the discussion about a firm (WHR) that wants to perform capital budgeting analysis of a major information technology investment. An investment in an enterprise system. Our objective has been on how to approach this evaluation from a strategic standpoint. We started by looking at technology innovation adoption and how the position that a firm takes will affect the expected payoffs. We combined Rogers’ innovation adoption theory with Gartner’s Hype cycle to estimate expected payoffs and duration of competitive advantage.

We learned that technological innovations have the potential to disrupt the competitive landscape and it is important for a firm to consider its technology related investments in the context of its strategic priorities. We used information generated in financial reports to make sense of business strategy and industry structure, and looked at how technology adoption (such as data analytics) can shape the competitive position of adopting firms.

For firms to leverage data analytics they must have access to data, and this justified the need to have at a minimum a basic understanding of database theory. We used the examples of database schemas capturing business processes of different firms as a way of envisioning the foundation of an enterprise system. This brought the realization that even though enterprise systems constitute a mature technology today, they are critical for any firm that wants to leverage data analytics, because they are the source of all internal data.

Understanding the importance of implementing or upgrading a firm’s enterprise systems, brought us back to the place we started, i.e., perform the capital budgeting analysis for WHR, which is the topic of Week 10.

Topics and Readings for Week 10

Theory: We will focus on Chapter 7 (evaluation of IT investments). The primary focus of this chapter is on the expected benefits from IT investments.

Seminar: We will use the mini-case of BlueBikes in order to understand the foundation of the capital budgeting setting used in the WHR case. In parallel, we will look at the statistical analysis that we will need for the team project.

Assignments for Week 10

The online quiz will be a based on chapters 7  and material covered in the seminar (this includes material related to the team project). The quiz will be available on Friday at 12:30 pm.

The role of accouting on big data and analytics

AAA is organizing a conference on big data and analytics.
See the following link for details: Accounting IS Big Data

Could you research and write an article like this?

McKinsey & Company published a very interesting article named "Raising your Digital Quotient." The article explains that "... For incumbent companies, the stakes continue to rise. From 1965 to 2012, the “topple rate,” at which they lose their leadership positions, increased by almost 40 percent1 as digital technology ramped up competition, disrupted industries, and forced businesses to clarify their strategies, develop new capabilities, and transform their cultures. Yet the opportunity is also plain. McKinsey research shows that companies have lofty ambitions: they expect digital initiatives to deliver annual growth and cost efficiencies of 5 to 10 percent or more in the next three to five years."

Please read it, and as you read consider the following question: Can you identify the theory behind the key points of this article? You should be able to map key points in corresponding topics we covered in class.

Maybe,  I could use it to make some of the final exam questions!

Class Update - Week 9

During  week 8, we looked at several examples (mini-cases) of business processes and their corresponding  database schemas. Our first objective was to familiarize ourselves with relevant database terminology and theory. The second objective was to learn how to visualize the basic database structure and information flow behind a business process.

The third objective, and focus of our seminar, was an introduction to sql queries. Motivated by the experience of Harrah’s, we learned how to develop and use a query to identify a firm’s most valuable customers (observe the Pareto 80:20 principle in terms of sales and customers).

Topics and Readings for Week 9

Theory: We will focus on two topics. Chapter 6 (enterprise systems) and Appendix A.8 (team project)

The 6th chapter provides an introduction to enterprise systems, the role that they play within the company, expected benefits, risks as well as critical success factors associated with implementation and adoption. One of the main themes that you will see through this chapter is that there is no one silver bullet in any of the choices that the firm has to make regarding ES implementation. Consistent with what we have learned so far the choice will depend on the company's strategic priorities.

Appendix A.8 provides you with a complete discussion on how to develop proxies for the bargaining power of buyers and suppliers. This will give you a good idea of what we hope to achieve with the team project.

Seminar: Because of Canada day (two of the seminars meet on Wednesday), we are not going to have an in class seminar this week. We are going to have an online seminar. I will provide you with the dataset for the project, instructions on how to start working in order to develop the appropriate proxies for your project, and practice problems. I will be available during office hours and via the discussion board to assist you with any questions you may have.

Assignments for Week 9

The online quiz will be a based on chapters 6, Appendix A.8,  and material related to the project. The quiz will be available on Friday at 12:30 pm.

Class Update - Week 8

Our focus in week 8 will be on database theory. We will concentrate on the following topics:

1. Reading entity-relationship diagrams. An entity-relationship (E-R) diagram is the blueprint of a database. It provides us with a concise way of seeing the  entities (tables) and how these entities are related. This is critical if we want to design queries for data extraction.

2. Understanding the process for designing a normalized database. We will look at several examples based on mini cases and see how we can design a normalized data base. One of these examples is for a transportation company. As we will see this database covers many different areas within the company. We will use this as an example for transitioning into the discussion on enterprise systems.

3. In our seminar, we will use the sqldf package in R in order to write sql queries for data extraction. We will start with queries based on data from a single table and make our way to more advanced queries based on multiple tables.

Topics and Readings for Week 8

Reading: Read chapters 5 and 6

Assignments for Week 8

The online quiz will be a based on chapters  5,  and material from the seminar. The quiz will be available on Friday at 12:30 pm.

Class Update - Week 7

During week 6, we used the case of Harrah’s (now known as Caesar’ Entertainment) to review the material on data analytics and we had a brief introduction to database theory.

In the seminar, we used data from the wireless market to explore and try to understand hypercompetition.

Topics and Readings for Week 7

Theory: Continue or introduction to database theory (Chapter 5) and how to create sql queries. Answer questions related to the midterm.

Reading: Read chapter 5.

Seminar: There is no seminar in Week 7. In lieu of the seminar, I will hold extra office hours for the midterm.

Assignments for Week 7

The data collection part of the project is due on Monday, June 15th.

The midterm exam is scheduled for Friday, June 19th from 5:30-7:00 pm. The exam is open books - open notes, and it will be based on  everything we covered in lectures and seminars, except for database theory.

Class Update - Week 6

During week 5, we reviewed theory related to IT strategy and payoffs from IT investments. We used the Whirlpool case study as a two part exercise that would let us a form of sentiment analytics to identify the firm’s business strategy and the focus in financial performance metrics that could best capture the expected payoffs from the firm’s IT investment. The results, especially those related to the firm’s days of inventory, were quite interesting and thought provoking.

Topics and Readings for Week 6

Theory: While we have been using data analytics from the beginning of the term, Chapter 4 provides a formal introduction to the topic, as well as historical presentation of what is perceived one of the most celebrated success stories of competing with data analytics, i.e., Harrah’s entertainment (the firm is now known as Caesars Entertainment Corporation).

Our discussion on data analytics serves as the transition to the introduction to database theory (Chapter 5). Obviously, you need data to perform data analytics. The focus in Chapter 4 will be to understand the basic behind the theory on how to organize and extract data needed for performing data analytics.

Reading: Scan through Read chapter 4 and 5.

Seminar: Hypercompetition is a term that has been introduced since the late nineties to reflect an increasing level of competition and to account for the growing percentage of firms reporting losses. Use exercise 4.7.1 to generate percentage of firms reporting losses in the wireless market. Compare the US versus Canadian side of the market. You may want to generate proxies for rivalry among existing competitors between the two countries.

Analyzing the Whirlpool case, we explored considered one performance metric that could capture the expected payoffs from their ERP investment. If you were to repeat this exercise with Harrah’s which variable would you select and why (exercise 4.7.4)? Feel free to consider/suggest a new variable, i.e., a variable not listed in the Appendix.

Assignments for Week 6

The sixth online quiz will be a based on chapters 4 and 5,  and material from the seminar. The quiz will be available on Friday at 12:30 pm.

If you have not done this yet, please provide your data to the auditor as soon as possible (the deadline is June 5th).

Class Update - Week 5

During our 4th week, we looked at an example of how to assess the expected duration of an advantage due to technology adoption by synthesizing material from Chapter 1 (technology adoption) and 2 (resource based view). Reviewing the discussion on industry structure and its effect on profitability formed the transition to the role of technological innovation adoption on competitive environment (Chapter 3). As I mentioned in the last class update, the special report in the Economist about the effect of financial technological innovation in the banking industry provides an excellent reading on this topic.

In our seminar, we looked at the ROA decomposition as a way of assessing drivers of a firm’s financial performance, and we looked at market to book values as a way of assessing its market valuation. Combining the two of them lets us see what element of ROA seem to drive market valuation.

Topics and Readings for Week 5

Theory: We will look at IT strategy, alignment between IT and business strategy, and payoffs from IT investments.

Read Chapter 3 and revisit the Whirlpool case

Seminar: We will use sentiment analytics as a way of assessing alignment between IT and business strategy.

Read the discussion on sentiment analytics (pp. 397-400) and review the data analytics practice problems 3.9.1 and 3.9.3.

Assignments for Week 5

The fourth online quiz will be a based on Chapter 3  and material from the seminar. The quiz will be available on Friday at 12:30 pm.

You must provide your data set to your auditor no later than June 5th.

Class Update - Week 4

During our 3rd week, we completed an exercise on strategic data analytics. Our objective was to first, develop a process for comparing average profitability in the utility industry between US and Canada; and second, examine whether any differences could be associated to differences of the industry structure. We used confidence intervals to compare the average profitability between the two countries, and we learned how to leverage  accounting data to develop proxies for barriers to entry and rivalry among existing competitors.  While our discussion was specific to an industry the same process (and R script) can be used to compare difference between US  and Canada for any other industry, or for comparing two industries within US or Canada.

Topics and Readings for Week 4

Theory: Our goal this week will be to finish the discussion on business strategy (chapter 2) and transition into IT strategy (Chapter 3). While relative performance has been the major theme in our first section of chapter 2, leveraging accounting data to make sense of business strategies, such as cost leadership and product differentiation, will be our focus in the second half.

The most recent issue of the Economist has a special section on the effect of technological innovations (fintech) in the finance industry. The article will serve as our  transition to IT strategy (Chapter 3) and relates to our first topic in Chapter 3, which is the effect of IT on industry structure.

Read pp. 56-69 from chapter 2, and pp. 82-102 from Chapter 3.

Seminar: We will evaluate a firm’s competitive position and market valuation (2.9.1 and 2.9.2) and make sense of business strategy with accounting data (2.9.4). Read section A.4 (pp. 362 - focus only on market to book value) and A.5 (pp. 364-5) from Appendix A.

Assignments for Week 4

The fourth online quiz will be a based on Chapter 2  and material from the seminar. The quiz will be available on Friday at 12:30 pm.

There is going to be a quiz on SharpScholar based on material from the Seminar of Week 3. The quiz will become available on Tuesday morning and you will have till Saturday 8:0o am to complete it.

Class update - Week 3

During our second week, we worked on the following topics: We used the keywords - innovation, adoption, spending, payoffs - to summarize the content of chapter 1. The logic behind these keywords is that an new technological innovations are introduced, firms decide whether and when to adopt. Adoption implies spending, which is expected to lead to positive payoffs. Discussion on payoffs served as our transition to Chapter 2 (business strategy) and more specifically the association between industry structure and profitability.

In the seminar we reviewed briefly the theory of confidence intervals, and looked at an example of how we can use confidence intervals to classify industry in terms of their IT spending.

There is no Lecture in Week 3 (Victoria Day). In the seminar, we are going to work on the creation of accounting based proxies for industry structure. More specifically, we are going to generate accounting proxies for rivalry among existing competitors and barriers to entry. We are going to use these proxies to contrast US and Canadian wireless market (problem 2.9.3).

Readings for Week 3

Read Chapter 2 (Read pp. 40-69). For the seminar you will need to read the following material from the Appendix: How to extract data from Compustat (pp. 355-357), how to calculate performance measures using Compustat data (pp. 358-361), and how to calculate proxies for barriers to entry and for rivalry among existing competitors with accounting data (pp. 368-377).

SharpScholar is a new tool for testing your knowledge and learning from each other.  SharpScholar shows as a hyperlink on the lower left corner on Learn. If you have not visited SharpScholar yet, please do this as soon as possible.

Assignments for Week 3

The third online quiz will be a based on Chapter 2 (pp. 40-56)  and material from the seminar. The quiz will be available on Friday at 12:30 pm.

New: SharpScholar based Quiz for material from the Seminar of Week 2 (WEEK 02: Seminar). I have added a set of 12 questions associated with the material from Week 2. The questions are similar to the numeric questions from the second online quiz. You can try to answer these questions multiple times and without a time limit. I will treat this as an additional quiz. If you want this to count, you will have to answer all 12 questions before Friday 8:0o am.

Enjoy the long weekend.

Class Update - Week 2

Our primary objective during the first week was to understand the value adding proposition of the course. We discussed patterns and trends in IT spending, and explored some of the issues that firms, such as WHR face, when they invest in IT. We leveraged a combination of theory (technology adoption theory) and analytics (statistical theory and R) to demonstrate the value of data analytics in an accounting and finance setting.

Topics and Readings for Week 2

Lecture: When firms invest in IT, they expect to achieve certain objectives. The justification, possible manifestations, and expected payoffs of IT spending are the remaining topics that we will discuss in the rest of chapter 1. (Read pp. 25-29)

Firms invest in IT hoping to increase sales, reduce costs, or both. While the argument sounds reasonable, early empirical evidence showed that this expected positive association between IT spending and firm performance should not be taken for granted. Maximizing the payoffs from IT investment requires planning and the development of a vision regarding the role of IT in the organization (IT strategy) that is aligned with the firm's business strategy. We will start exploring strategic management related topics and business strategy in Chapter 2 (Read pp. 40-69)

Seminar: We will compare IT spending patterns between two industries over time (problem 1.9.1),  and leverage Compustat data to generate estimates of IT spending at WHR (problem  1.9.2).

Assignments/Quizzes

The second online quiz will be a based on Chapter 1  and material from the seminar. The quiz will be available on Friday at 12:30 pm.

Class Update - Week 1

Welcome to AFM241 - Spring 2015

Every week, we will provide you with a class update. Typically each update will summarize what we have done in the previous week, what we are planning to do in the following week, as well as a reminder of assignments/quizzes which are due in the following week. Please start by reviewing the syllabus. You can access the syllabus from the following link: Syllabus 2015.

Course delivery will be based on a combination of lectures and hands on seminars.

During the first week’s lecture, we will use the Whirlpool case study as a way of exploring the main questions examined in this course (i.e., why firms invest in information technology, what investments they make, and how they justify/evaluate these investments). In chapter one (p. 1-25), we will explore patterns and trends in information technology spending, and adoption of new technological innovations.

During the first week’s seminar, we will start using data analytics (we will use R, a statistical analysis package) to understand technology adoption and patterns/trends of information technology spending.

Readings (read/review the following material before you come to class)

1. Read the Whirlpool case before you come to class. You will have to purchase the case from the following URL: http://hbr.org/product/whirlpool-europe/an/202017-PDF-ENG?Ntt=%2520whirlpool%2520europe
2. Read pages 1-25 from the text. You can access these pages from the following link: AFM241-pp. 1-25. The text is available from the bookstore.
3. Follow the directions in the slides “Seminar: Intro to R & RStudio” to install R and RStudio in your computer. Read and try to replicate the R script in these slides.

Assignments/Quizzes

There is going to be a quiz on Friday based on the Whirlpool case, pages 3-18 from Chapter 1, and material covered in the “Seminar: Intro to R & RStudio.” The quiz is open books,  you will take it online (via Learn), and you will have to take it during a specific time (12:30 pm).

Again welcome to AFM241 and best wishes for a healthy and productive term.

Prof. Theo Stratopoulos & Ms. Paula Bridgewater

Data Analytics and Data Visualization Workshop

9th Biennial Symposium on 

Information Integrity & Information Systems Assurance

Pre-conference workshop: 

Data Analytics and Data Visualization

http://accounting.uwaterloo.ca/uwcisa/symposiums/index.html

Learn through hands-on workshops and post-workshop online material; featuring

• IDEA Analytics (data analytics software)
• Tableau (data visualization software)
• R – the open source analytics solution

Big Data/Data Analytics Workshop

2015 Joint Mid-Year Meeting of the  

Accounting Information System Section 

and the  Strategic and Emerging Technologies Section

Presenters: Theophanis Stratopoulos, University of Waterloo
Daniel O'Leary, University of Southern California
Date: Thursday, January 22, 2015
Time: 1:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Registration Fee: $50 (IS/SET members), $75 (All Others)
Field of Study: Accounting
Program Level: Basic
Method of Delivery: Group-Live
Credit Hours: 4.5


Intended Audience: Accounting faculty.

Learning Objectives: The focus of the workshop will be on business analytics and big data concepts/issues and how they relate to today's accounting teaching and research. The workshop is a combination of concepts and hands on exercises. The presenters will discuss cases and show examples of integrating accounting theory and data with business analytics and big data.

01 - Analytics and Big Data - Introduction
02 - Using accounting data to make sense of strategy