Exam and HW related Queries

Hi all,

MKTR class got done today. Whew.

Lot of new, experimental stuff found its way into the course this year.

Hence, 'twas a tad more stressful than I'd first budgeted for. It showed, I guess.

Got quite a few queries re the exam. Here's my attempt at answers:

Exam announcements:

• You'll have plenty of time for the exam. 2.5 hours officially, you probably won't need that long.
• *Only* those pre-reads which we tested for in the class AND which are from your coursepack are within-bounds for the exam.
• I'm traveling from tomorrow, won't be available on campus. Limited email access.
• No intention of making a sample paper solution. Pls consult your peers to compare answers.

HW Announcements:

Session 8 HW is due tonite. Try to get it done ASAP. Submitting by tomorrow midnight is also OK.

• In part 2, take a screen-shot of your named-file network and paste as image onto your PPT. No code to graph your anonymous file was sent.
• In HW part 2, there was a Q on finding out the network metrics for select subclusters. Ignore it. We forgot to send code to enable that one.
• Seems folks with 1000+ friends are having trouble pulling data because the token expires before the pull is complete.
• My advice is to borrow or use a 3G connection for such a data pull. ISB firewalls student access to file downloads and its causing much delay even to install packages.

Project Announcements:

Pls find the project related detailed document here.

Whereas in Homeworks, you've focussed on one tool at a time, the project requires you to bring to bear multiple tools for the same problem.

Important perspective emerges when stitching together different tools for the same substantive business problem.

Use any two tools - no need for large samples or big data collection. You have enough data collection options in your repertoire already.

Unfortunately, the project deadline cannot be pushed further. Pls finish and submit on time.

JSM interpretation explanation:

Some things to remember when interpreting JSMs.

One, when evaluating dots (brands) against attributes (arrows), always drop perpendiculars from the dots to the arrows.

Two, further away from the mean in the positive direction is a brand's projection on an attribute, higher its value on that attribute.

Three, the preferences (pink lines) are akin to attributes (i.e., are lines). Thus, when evaluating brands (dots) against preferences (arrows), drop perpendiculars as usual.

Four, the angle between two arrows (attributes) reveals how correlated they are.

Four, its tricky to try comparing individual preferences (pink lines) against attributes (blue arrows). If one really had to, taking the angle between them is the way forward.

Consider the Qs below from your practice exam. (click for larger image)

For Q 7.1., I'd look at Table 7.1's "Palm V" column. Highest value there, 8.5, corresponds to Light_weight attribute.

For Q 7.2., I'd look at Table 7.1.'s last row, "Preference". Highest value there, 6.6, corresponds to Compaq_IPac.

For Q 7.3., I'd look at Figure 7.1. The highest brand shown there on both attributes, is Sony_CLIE.

For Q 7.4., I'd look at the correlation table given in Table 7.2. In the row "memory", highest value, 0.93, corresponds to "software". In the figure, the same is shown as ThirdPartySW.

For Q 7.5., I'd look at Figure 7.1. The preference attribute has the smallest angle (hence, concordance) with R50's preference vector. Note: Such inferences are dicey, but we're doing it here anyway.

For Q 7.6., I'd look at Figure 7.1. for the smallest angle between preference vectors and the attributes mentioned. Again, note: Such inferences are dicey, but we're doing it here anyway.

I'd say R22 and R30 respectively. However, in the exam you can expect no Qs linking the pink lines and the blue arrows.

Hope that helps.

Good luck for the exam. And beyond.

Sudhir