Month: October 2022

Entrepreneurship has traditionally been defined as the process of designing, launching and running a new business, which typically begins as a small business, such as a startup company, offering a product, process or service for sale or hire. It has been defined as the “Capacity and willingness to develop, organize, and manage a business venture along with any of its risks in order to make a profit”. While definitions of entrepreneurship typically focus on the launching and running of businesses, due to the high risks involved in launching a start-up, a significant proportion of businesses have to close, due to a lack of funding, bad business decisions, an economic crisis or a combination of all of these” or due to lack of market demand. In the 2000s, the definition of “entrepreneurship” has been expanded to explain how and why individuals (or teams) identify opportunities, evaluate them as viable, and then decide to exploit them.

Evolution of Entrepreneurship

The need and the constant necessity for a good leader is one of the many factors that drive the evolution of entrepreneurship. Besides this, there are a few other factors:

• Trading: With the improvement in communication between the countries and the advancement in transportation, start the process of trading.
• Advent of stable specialization and communities: When more and more individuals start to settle in secure communities, a huge change was noticed in their lifestyles. Each group had a leader who was qualified and specialized in one task and that helped in speeding the development of leadership skills and innovation.
• Need of independent career: More and more people are looking for a career path that is totally independent. The majority started to take risks by developing their own businesses in order to achieve maximum benefits.

In the Earliest period, definition of entrepreneurship began as early as the Marco Polo who comes to the Middle East for trade. Marco Polo has signed an agreement with the capitalists to sell their products. In the contract merchant adventurer took a loan at 22.5% rate including insurance. Capitalist was the passive risk bearer and merchant adventurer took the active role in trading, bearing all physical and emotional risks. When the merchant adventurer successfully sold the goods and completed the trip, the profits were divided with the capitalist taking most of them up to 75%, while the merchant adventurer settled for the remaining 25%.

In middle ages, Entrepreneur is described as someone who is involved in the care and control of a large production projects. It is possible to control the project using the resources provided by the government. In this case, the entrepreneur does not bear any risk. Entrepreneurs in this age, is a have control and authority of construction works such as public buildings and churches. A typical entrepreneur in the middle age was the priest.

In 17th century, the evolution of entrepreneurship can be related with the relationship between risk and entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship is the person who signed the contract agreement with the government to provide a service or supply products that have been determined. The contract price is fixed. Then, the entrepreneurs are fully responsible for the gains and losses of the business.  John law, a Frenchman was one of the entrepreneurs in that period. The founder of the royal bank of France and the Mississippi Company, which had an exclusive franchise to trade between France and the new world. Monopoly on French trade eventually led to collapse of the company.  Richard Cantillion, an economist defines entrepreneurs earlier. In his view, the entrepreneur is risk insurers. Merchants, farmers, craftsmen, and so is an entrepreneurs. They buy things at a certain price and sell it at a price that is uncertain, with the risks.

In the 18th century, the person with capital was differentiated from the one who needed capital. The entrepreneur was distinguished from the capital provider. One reason for this differentiation was the industrialization occurring throughout the world. Eli Whitney was an American inventor best known for inventing the cotton gin. This was one of the key inventions of the industrial Revolution. Thomas Edison, the inventor of many inventions. He was developing new technologies and was unable to finance his inventions himself.  Edison was a capital user or an entrepreneur, not a provider or a venture capitalist.

In 19th and 20th century, Entrepreneurs are not always associated with the management.    According to Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary, an entrepreneur is one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risk of a business or an enterprise. The entrepreneur organizes and manages an enterprise for personal gain. The materials consumed in the business, for the use of the land, for the services he employs, and for the capital he requires. Andrew Carnegie is one of the best examples of this definition.  Carnegie, who descended from a poor Scottish family, made the American Steel Industry one of the wonders of the industrial world.

In the middle of the 20th Century, the function of the entrepreneurs is to recreate or revolutionize the pattern of production by introducing an invention. Innovation, the act of introducing some new ideas, is one of the most difficult tasks for the entrepreneur. For example, Edward Harriman, who reorganized the railroad in the United States and John Morgan, who developed his large banking house by reorganizing and financing the nation’s industries. Besides, the Egyptian who designed and built great pyramids out of stone blocks weighing many tons each, to laser beams, supersonic planes and space stations.

In 21st century, Entrepreneurs are known as a hero for Free Enterprise market. Entrepreneur of the century created many products and services and is willing to face a lot of risks in the business. According to Kuratko & Hodgetts, most people say entrepreneurs are pioneers in creating new businesses. In the year 2005 Hisrich, Peter and Shepherd regarded entrepreneur as an organizer who controls, systematize, purchases raw materials, arranges infrastructure, throw in his own inventiveness, expertise, plans and administers the venture.

The Future of entrepreneurship will be growth with development of technologies. The modern technologies and internet have improved the ways of conduct business. Entrepreneurs now have the luxury of putting their business idea into action through the click of button.

John Kao has developed a conceptual model of entrepreneurship in his article: Entrepreneurship, creativity and organisation in 1989.

This model has four main aspects:

1. Entrepreneurial Personality: The overall success of a new venture largely depends upon the skill, qualities, traits and determination of the entrepreneur.
2. Entrepreneurial Task: It is a role played by entrepreneur in an enterprise. The major task of the entrepreneur is to recognize and exploit opportunities.
3. Entrepreneurial Environment: It involves the availability of resources, infrastructure, competitive pressures, social values, rules and regulations, stage of technology etc.
4. Organisational Context: It is the immediate setting in which creative and entrepreneurial work takes place. It involves the structure, rules, policies, culture, human resource system, communication system.

Cognitive dissonance is the discomfort a person feels when their behavior does not align with their values or beliefs. It can also occur when a person holds two contradictory beliefs at the same time.

In the field of psychology, cognitive dissonance is the perception of contradictory information, and the mental toll of it. Relevant items of information include a person’s actions, feelings, ideas, beliefs, values, and things in the environment. Cognitive dissonance is typically experienced as psychological stress when persons participate in an action that goes against one or more of those things. According to this theory, when two actions or ideas are not psychologically consistent with each other, people do all in their power to change them until they become consistent. The discomfort is triggered by the person’s belief clashing with new information perceived, wherein the individual tries to find a way to resolve the contradiction to reduce their discomfort.

Buyer Decision Process

Post-Purchase Behavior is the stage of the Buyer Decision Process when a consumer will take additional action, based purely on their satisfaction or dissatisfaction. The consumer’s level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction is directly related to the varying relationship between their initial expectations of the product (pre-purchase), and their perception of the actual performance of the product (post-purchase) in their hands.

If after the purchase the consumer perceives the product’s performance as matching their expectations, or even exceeding them, they will be “satisfied“. If their perception of the product’s performance is less than their expectations, then the consumer will feel “dissatisfied“. The larger the gap between their expectations and the product’s performance, the more dissatisfaction. This dissatisfaction leads to Cognitive Dissonance.

Cognitive Dissonance is buyer discomfort caused by post-purchase conflict resulting from dissatisfaction. The reality is that all purchases, big and small, will result in some degree of Cognitive Dissonance. This is always the case, because every purchase a consumer makes involves some sort of compromise, however small or minute. Since consumers form beliefs and attitudes early in the Buyer Decision Process, at some point they will be concerned about having a negative experience with the product they may chose, or potentially missing the perceived benefits of other competing brands.

It all comes back to our basic definition of marketing: Managing profitable customer relationships. The goal is to attract new customers through superior value, and to keep growing customers by delivering customer satisfaction.

If we are doing these things, then we will be able to capture value from customers to create profits and build customer equity. So, if our customers are satisfied they will begin to develop brand loyalty.  This brand loyalty will help us develop profitable relationships. Our satisfied customers will buy from us again. They will become influencers in their cultural and social groups. They will pay less attention to competitors, and buy more of our products.

Dissatisfaction breeds the opposite. Consumers that perceive poor product performance will not create profits and will erode customer equity. They will not be loyal, and they will become negative influencers in their cultural and social groups, leading others away from our brands. What should we do with dissatisfied customers? We should pursue them. Even if they do not want to buy our products, we can still target them with dedicated messaging.  We can directly reach out to them, and we can figure out ways to repair the relationship.  These consumers can provide us with a wealth of primary data that can be used to improve our offerings and create focused marketing campaigns. Dissatisfied consumers are just as valuable as satisfied ones.

The conclusion is clear: Job is not done once the consumer buys our product. Once a consumer buys a product they will enter some degree of post-purchase behavior. These behaviors, based on their satisfaction or dissatisfaction, will either build customer equity and brand loyalty, or lead to eroding sales and brand image issues. This all is related to their relationship between their expectations and the perceived performance of the products in their hands. As marketers, we must have messaging ready for this specific part of the Buyer Decision Process. It is our job to encourage happy consumers to share their experiences and dive deeper into brand offerings. It is also our job to be brand advocates by reaching out to dissatisfied consumers and transforming their experience into one that leads to a profitable relationship.

All the activities and experiences that follow purchase are included in the post purchase behavior. Usually, after making a purchase, consumers experience post-purchase dissonance. Post-purchase behavior is a customer’s reaction or feeling after the sale. It boils down to one of two sentiments: satisfaction vs. dissatisfaction. They sometimes regret their decisions made. It mainly occurs due to a large number of alternatives available, good performance of alternatives or attractiveness of alternatives, etc.

The marketers sometimes need to assure the consumer that the choice made by them is the right one. The seller can mention or even highlight the important features or attributes and benefits of the product to address and solve their concerns if any.

A high level of post-purchase dissonance is negatively related to the level of satisfaction which the consumer draws out of product usage. To reduce post-purchase dissonance, consumers may sometimes even return or exchange the product.

It’s vital to understand your customers’ post-purchase behavior because it gives your insight into how you can create a positive customer experience. With this insight, you can influence them to make the decisions you want them to make:

• Repeat purchases
• Positive reviews
• Brand evangelism

It also gives you a chance to position your brand as a trusted guide and friend. Investing in your customers after you’ve collected their money demonstrates to them you’re committing to their satisfaction.

This level of engagement influences their post-purchase behavior, but it also positively affects your bottom line.

Steps to Improve:

Refund policy

Send an email to remind customers they can get a full refund if they aren’t happy with their purchase. And let them know the time limit on refunds.

This helps to reduce post-purchase anxiety. Knowing that the option for a refund is there helps the customer relax and enjoy the product.

Returns process

Another key message to include in your post-purchase emails is your returns process.

Sometimes the idea of returning a product can seem stressful. This adds to a customer’s anxiety and dissatisfaction, if they have decided not to keep an item.

By sending an email that clearly explains your returns policy, you remove this anxiety. This helps your customer to see your brand in a positive light.

Complementary product recommendations

Now your customer has bought from you, you’re in a position to curate personalised product recommendations for them.

Send an email with recommendations for complementary products so your customer can make the most out of their purchase.

Product satisfaction feedback

Post-purchase is the perfect time to get feedback on your products and customer service. This helps you get to know your customer to improve your customer experience.

Loyalty programme

Show your customers you value their custom by inviting them to become part of your loyalty programme.

Email them with an invitation to join that lays out how it will benefit them. Tempt them with exclusive offers, bonus points on purchases, and first looks at new lines.

Involvement too is an internal state of mind which a consumer experiences. It makes one analyze and rationalize his/her choice. Involvement of consumers can be induced by external sources and agencies. Involvement is the embodiment of time, effort, consideration given and the enjoyment that is derived by consumer while choosing a product or service.

The involvement theory holds that there are low and high involvement purchases. Consumers’ involvement depends on the degree of involvement of purchase to a consumer. For example, while buying a loaf of bread, the consumer does not feel very much involved. It is because the life of the product is very short. Once it is consumed, it gets exhausted. If the consumer is not satisfied with the particular bread brand, he will purchase some other brand next time.

It is an inner urge that creates within an individual an interest/desire to hold certain product/service offerings in greater relevance/importance.

Involvement possesses certain properties:

a) It has a level of strength and intensity that determines the degree of involvement that a consumer possesses. This could be high or low. A highly involved consumer would actively search for information and collect facts, compare the various brands against each other on the basis of the information, assess differences and similarities between the various alternatives and finally make a choice. In other words, they collect process and integrate information very intensely, and finally arrive at a decision regarding the brand choice. On the other hand, a consumer low on involvement would not make so much of effort in collecting and processing information about varying alternative brands and taking a decision.

b) The length of time that the consumer remains in this heightened state determines the level of persistence. It could be short term and situational interest in the product/service category; or it could be long term and enduring.

c) It is directed towards any or all of the elements of the marketing mix. A person may show involvement towards the product (its features/attributes and benefits), the price, the store or the dealer or even the promotional effort (advertisement/sales promotion etc).

A mechanism underlies the very process of involvement. As a process, involvement is impacted by certain “antecedents” that get restrained by “moderating factors,” and finally affect its degree of intensity and level of persistence.

Depending on whether the involvement is short term or long term, consumer involvement could be of two types, viz., situational and enduring.

Situational involvement: This is a state of arousal directed towards attaching relevance to a person/object/situation for a short term. As an affective state, it creates a level of involvement when a person thinks about a particular person/object/situation. It is specific to a situation and is thus temporary in nature. It could vary from low to high, depending upon the situational factors.

For example, a middle aged lady suddenly decides to gift a laptop to her son on his birthday. She is not techno savvy and has little interest with the product category. She goes to the electronics mall and visits the various stores that sell computers and laptops. She collects information on the product features, prices, etc and finally takes the help of her middle aged neighbor to reach a final decision. Her involvement with the purchase activity would be regarded as a situational involvement.

Enduring involvement: When the level of involvement towards the product/service category extends over a period of time across situations, it is referred to as enduring involvement. The person shows a high-level of interest in the product category and spends time collecting and processing information and integrating it within his memory.

For example, a person desires to buy a laptop for his son to be gifted to him when he goes to college, which would be three years later. The father plans well in advance, tries to collect information through advertisements, brochures, trade journals, visits to dealers, and word of mouth from peers and colleagues. Within this period he gets involved with the product category and after three years is in a position to take a decision based on the facts that he has collected. This is referred to as enduring involvement.

Enduring involvement with a product category often gives birth to an opinion leader. An opinion leader is a person who holds interest in a particular product/service category, and becomes a specialist; he makes efforts to gather all information about the category, the brand offering etc.; he talks about and spreads the information and the knowledge that he possesses. When a person wants to make a purchase, he seeks the advice and guidance of such an opinion leader who helps him make a decision. Opinion leaders are product specific. In the example above, if the lady approaches her neighbour and takes his advice/guidance because the neighbour is young, techno savvy and knows a lot about electronics and in particular laptops, she would actually be taking help of what is known as an “opinion leader”.

Types of consumer involvement in buying

Certain factors affect the degree of involvement of buyers in making purchase decisions. These include their level of knowledge, information, psychology, culture, lifestyle, social system, etc. Even for the same product or service the degree of involvement of an individual may vary depending upon the circumstances. There are five types of involvement.

Commitment: Commitment is another important form of involvement. When a member of the family falls sick, the other family members are committed to arrange medical treatment for the suffering members. Similarly, functions like marriages entail the commitment of the entire family.

Ego involvement: Ego involvement is intended to satisfy one’s ego. For example, all the members of the family involve themselves in purchasing a product for a single member belonging to that family. Wife involves herself in the purchase of garments for her husband and husband involves himself in the purchase of cosmetics for his wife. Sons and daughters of the family significantly influence the purchase of laptop, TV, car, household furniture, etc. The ego of each family member is satisfied by consulting him/her before the purchase.

Communication in involvement: Communication involvement signifies sharing the available information with others in the family or organization. If one member has some information on the subject matter of decision, he should communicate it with the other members before arriving at a decision.

Purchase importance: Involvement of individuals depends upon the degree of importance of purchase. Suppose e flat costing lakhs of rupees is purchased, then the purchase decision assumes a great deal of importance in respect of location and area of the flat. The title deeds should be free from encumbrance.

Extent of information: Once the consumer recognizes the need, he then engages in a search process. Search means acquisition of information from the environment. The extent of information search is part of purchase importance. When the purchase is important, information is sought from all possible sources. But in the case of routine purchase of products and services, information search will be rather minimum.

Situational influences are temporary conditions that affect how buyers behave whether they actually buy your product, buy additional products, or buy nothing at all from you. They include things like physical factors, social factors, time factors, the reason for the buyer’s purchase, and the buyer’s mood. You have undoubtedly been affected by all these factors at one time or another. Because businesses very much want to try to control these factors, let’s now look at them in more detail.

The Consumer’s Physical Situation

Have you ever been in a department story and couldn’t find your way out? No, you aren’t necessarily directionally challenged. Marketing professionals take physical factors such as a store’s design and layout into account when they are designing their facilities. Presumably, the longer you wander around a facility, the more you will spend. Grocery stores frequently place bread and milk products on the opposite ends of the stores because people often need both types of products. To buy both, they have to walk around an entire store, which of course, is loaded with other items they might see and purchase.

Environmental Implications of Products

Environmental factors such as lighting, music, noise and aroma can either encourage or discourage the purchase of a product. A study by North, Hargreaves and McKendrick is a perfect example of how the choice of music affects purchase behavior. When French music was played in a store, the retailer saw a spike in the sale of French wine. Switching to German music saw sales increase for German wine. But atmospheric elements in the retail environment aren’t the only environmental influencers. Spatial factors also play a role. For example, the way in which a product is displayed can make it more desirable, while a crowded store or a long line at checkout can suddenly make that same product less compelling.

Purpose for Shopping Trip

The goal of a shopping trip is yet another theory involving situational influencers. A consumer searching for a birthday present, for instance, is in a store for a different purpose than someone casually shopping for a new outfit. The reason for shopping dictates the types of products customers are willing to interact with at that time and may cause them to bypass certain products they would normally interact with on another shopping trip. The same can be said for a trip to the grocery store. A customer out of milk will interact with different products than someone on her weekly shopping trip.

Social Aspects of Shopping

The social aspect of a purchase also involves situational influencers. Consumers unconsciously adjust their behavior to conform to the behavior of those in their company, and marketers have no way of changing this situation. A consumer is more apt stop to look at certain products when in the company of a friend as opposed to a parent, thereby influencing the potential of a purchase. Social aspects also can alter price point. A consumer may be persuaded to purchase a more expensive product when in the company of a colleague or potential partner than he would when with a friend or spouse.

Timing of Purchases

Much like the purpose of a purchase, timing also can influence consumer behavior. Someone in a rush will inevitably interact with fewer products than a consumer with hours to shop. Even if the two people are looking for the same type of product, the one in a hurry may end up with the most accessible product, while the leisurely shopper has time to interact with more products, giving her time to weigh the price and quality of the offerings.

State of Mind at Time of Interaction

Another situational factor known to influence behavior is state of mind. Someone feeling sad interacts differently with products than a shopper feeling happy. The interaction inevitably affects the opinion on a product and, in turn, the purchase behavior. But state of mind goes beyond mood or emotion and can entail personal conditions. Someone who’s sick interacts with different products than someone who’s healthy. The same can be said for someone who’s fatigued versus someone’s who’s full of energy.

There are two main correlations to remember here:

• Situations can influence an individual’s personality.
• An individual’s personality paired with the situation can help to predict behavior.

Companies can use these correlations to create stronger and more efficient teams. While unique circumstances may arise, understanding personality traits is the first step in developing a strong organization.

Compensatory decision rule

A compensatory decision-making strategy weighs the positive and negative attributes of the considered alternatives and allows for positive attributes to compensate for the negative ones.

The number of options is the primary factor that determines what strategy people will use. That’s because this number determines the amount of effort necessary to sift through them.

When we evaluate just a handful of alternatives (around 5–7), comparing the attributes of each is a feasible task. By thoroughly reviewing these attributes, we can determine whether certain aspects are more important to us than others, and then allow the positive values to outweigh negative ones when assessing each alternative this is the compensatory strategy.

However, when there are many options, it would be daunting if not completely unreasonable to comprehensively compare the pros and cons of each alternative. In these situations, we turn to the non-compensatory strategy of eliminating any alternative that does not meet some key criterion. This approach allows us to narrow down the set of options quickly and easily, at the expense of not fully considering each.

Conjunctive rule:

A minimally acceptable cut off point is established for each attribute. The brands are evaluated, and, the brand that falls below the minimally acceptable limit on any of the attributes is eliminated/ rejected.

The conjunctive decision rule establishes minimum required performance standards for each evaluative criterion and selects the first or all brands that surpass these minimum stan¬dards. In essence, you would say: “I’ll consider all (or I’ll buy the first) brands that are all right on the attributes I think are important.”

Because individuals have limited ability to process information, the conjunctive rule is frequently used to reduce the size of the information processing task to some manageable level. It first eliminates those alternatives that do not meet minimum standards. This is often done in the purchase of such products as homes, computers, and bicycles; in the rental of apartments; or the selection of vacation options. A conjunctive rule is used to eliminate alternatives that are out of a consumer’s price range, outside the location pre¬ferred, or that do not offer other desired features. Once alternatives not providing these features are eliminated, another decision rule may be used to make a brand choice among those alternatives that satisfy these minimum standards.

The conjunctive decision rule is commonly used in many low-involvement purchases as well. In such a purchase, the consumer evaluates a set of brands one at a time and selects the first brand that meets all the minimum requirements.

If the conjunctive decision rule is used by a target market, it is critical to surpass the consumers’ minimum requirement on each criteria. Since the first brand the consumer evaluates that does so is often purchased, extensive distribution and dominant shelf space are important. It is also necessary to understand how consumers “break ties” if the first satisfactory option is not chosen.

Lexicographic rule:

The various attributes are ranked in terms of perceived importance. First, the brands are evaluated on the attribute that is considered the most important. If a brand ranks considerably high than the others on this attribute, it is selected. In case the scores are competitive, the process may be repeated with the attribute considered next in importance.

Sometimes the application of one rule may not be enough; and another may also be applied to reach a final decision.

The lexicographic decision rule requires the consumer to rank the criteria in order of importance. The consumer then selects the brand that performs best on the most important attribute. If two or more brands tie on this attribute, they are evaluated on the second most important attribute. This continues through the attributes until one brand outperforms the others. The consumer’s thinking is something like this: “I want to get the brand that does best on the attribute of most importance to me. If there is a tie, I’ll break it by choosing the one that does best on my second most important criterion.”

The lexicographic decision rule is very similar to the elimination-by-aspects rule. The difference is that the lexicographic rule seeks maximum performance at each stage while the elimination-by-aspects seeks satisfactory performance at each stage. Thus, using the lexicographic rule and the data from the elimination-by-aspects example above would result in the selection of Gateway, because it has the best performance on the most important attribute. Had Gateway been rated a 4 on price, it would be tied with Dell. Then, Dell would be chosen based on its superior weight rating.

When this rule is being used by a target market, the firm should try to be superior to the competition on the key attribute. This competitive superiority should be emphasized in advertising. It is essential that the product at least equal the performance of all other competitors on the most important criteria. Outstanding performance on lesser criteria will not matter if a competitor is superior on the most important attribute. If a competitive advantage is not possible on the most important feature, attention should be shifted to the second most important (assuming equal performance on the most important one). If it is not possible to meet or beat the competition on the key attribute, the firm must attempt to make another attribute more important.

The ad shown in Illustration 16-6 emphasizes the ability of this Columbia parka to protect the wearer from bad weather. No other attributes are mentioned. This ad is appropriate for those consumers whose decision rules place primary importance on this attribute.

Affects referral

A type of decision rule where selections are made on the basis of overall impressions or affective summary evaluation of the various alternatives under consideration.

Disjunctive rule:

A minimally acceptable cut off point is established for each attribute. The brands are evaluated, and, the brand that falls above the cut-off point on any of the attributes is selected.

The disjunctive decision rule establishes a minimum level of performance for each important attribute (often a fairly high level). All brands that surpass the performance level for any key attribute are considered acceptable. Using this rule, you would say: “I’ll consider all (or buy the first) brands that perform really well on any attribute I consider to be important.”.

When the disjunctive decision rule is used by a target market, it is critical to surpass the consumers’ requirements on at least one of the key criteria. This should be stressed in advertising messages and on the product package. Since the first brand the consumer evaluates that exceeds one of the requirements is often purchased, again extensive distribution and dominant shelf space are important, as is understanding how consumers “break ties” if the first satisfactory option is not chosen.

A business intelligence dashboard is a data visualization technique that displays the current status and/or historical trends of metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) for an enterprise. Dashboards consolidate and arrange numbers, metricsand sometimes performance scorecards on a single screen. They may be tailored for a specific role and display metrics targeted for a single point of view or department. The essential features of a BI dashboard product include a customizable interface and the ability to pull real-time data from multiple sources. The latter is important since lots of people think dashboards are only on summarized data which is absolutely not the case.

A Dashboard

A business intelligence dashboard is a data visualization technique that displays the current status and/or historical trends of metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) for an enterprise. Dashboards consolidate and arrange numbers, metrics and sometimes performance scorecards on a single screen. They may be tailored for a specific role and display metrics targeted for a single point of view or department. The essential features of a BI dashboard product include a customizable interface and the ability to pull real-time data from multiple sources. The latter is important since lots of people think dashboards are only on summarized data which is absolutely not the case; dashboards consolidate data which may be of the lowest grain available! Key properties of a dashboard are:

• Simple and communicates easily and straight
• Minimum distractions, since these could cause confusion
• Supports organized business with meaning, insights and useful data or information
• Applies human visual perception to visual presentation of information: colors play a significant role here
• Limited interactivity: filtering, sorting, what-if scenarios, drill down capabilities and sometimes some self-service features
• They are often “managed” in a sense that the dashboards are centrally developed by ICT, key users or a competence center, and they are consumed by the end-users
• Offer connectivity capabilities to other BI components for providing more detail. Often these are reports with are connected via query-parsing to the dashboards

A Storyboard

Is there a big difference between a storyboard and a dashboard? Mwah, not too much: they both focus on communicating key – consolidated – information in a highly visualized and way which ultimately leaves little room for misinterpretation. For both the same key words apply: simple, visual, minimum distraction.

The main difference between a dashboard and a storyboard is that the latter is fully interactive for the end user. The interactivity of the storyboard is reflected through capabilities for the end user to:

• Sort
• Filter data: include and exclude data
• Change chart or graph types on the fly
• Add new visualizations on the fly; store and share them
• Drill down
• Add or adjust calculated measures and dimensions
• Add new data via wrangling, blending or joining
• Adjust the full layout of the board
• Create custom hierarchies or custom groupings
• Allow for basic data quality improvements (rename, concatenate, upper and lower case etc)

Another big difference between dashboards and storyboards is that storyboards are self-service enabled boards meaning the end user creates them him/herself. Opposite to dashboards that are typically “managed” and as such are created centrally by ICT, key users or a BICC, and are consumed by the end user.

Aggregate functions are functions that define an operation which consumes values from multiple records to a produce a single output. Aggregate functions in SQL are typically used in GROUP BY functions. Aggregate functions are similar to scalar functions and function signatures with a small set of different properties.

Aggregate function signatures contain all the properties defined for scalar functions. Additionally, they contain the properties below:

In database management an aggregate function is a function where the values of multiple rows are grouped together as input on certain criteria to form a single value of more significant meaning.

Various Aggregate Functions

1) Count()

2) Sum()

3) Avg()

4) Min()

5) Max()

Id     Name     Salary

———————–

1       A        80

2       B        40

3       C        60

4       D        70

5       E        60

6       F        Null

Count():

Count(*): Returns total number of records .i.e 6.

Count(salary): Return number of Non Null values over the column salary. i.e 5.

Count(Distinct Salary):  Return number of distinct Non Null values over the column salary .i.e 4

Sum():

sum(salary):  Sum all Non Null values of Column salary i.e., 310

sum(Distinct salary): Sum of all distinct Non-Null values i.e., 250.

Avg():

Avg(salary) = Sum(salary) / count(salary) = 310/5

Avg(Distinct salary) = sum(Distinct salary) / Count(Distinct Salary) = 250/4

Min():

Min(salary): Minimum value in the salary column except NULL i.e., 40.

Max(salary): Maximum value in the salary i.e., 80.

Relational Algebra

Relational algebra is a procedural query language, which takes instances of relations as input and yields instances of relations as output. It uses operators to perform queries. An operator can be either unary or binary. They accept relations as their input and yield relations as their output. Relational algebra is performed recursively on a relation and intermediate results are also considered relations.

The fundamental operations of relational algebra are as follows:

• Select
• Project
• Union
• Set different
• Cartesian product
• Rename