BA168IU VNU-International University

Quantitative Methods for Business School of Business

THE INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

VNU-HCM

SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

COURSE SYLLABUS
BA168IU
Quantitative Methods for Business

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BA168IU VNU-International University
Quantitative Methods for Business School of Business

1. COURSE STAFF
Lecturer: Huynh Thi Ngoc Hien, PhD

Room: A1.304

Email: [email protected]

2. INFORMATION ABOUT THE COURSE

2.1. Course title: Quantitative Methods for Business

2.2. Units of Credit: 3

2.3.
Prerequisite and Parallel courses: The course presumes a basic understanding of calculus, probability and statistics.

2.4. Relationship of this course to other course offerings

BA168IU– Quantitative Methods for Business focuses on theory and applications of quantitative
analysis techniques to managerial decision making. It is useful for all BA students. Students need
to study statistics & probability before study this course.

2.5. Learning and Teaching Approach

Active teaching approach is applied in this course. In addition to traditional lectures, highly interactive activities such as class discussion, active learning activities that
help involves actively engaging students with the course material through discussions, problem solving, and in-class assignments. Active learning activities may range
in length from a couple of minutes to whole class sessions or may take place over multiple class sessions.
The learning materials are uploaded in Blackboard so that students may log in to download them. Besides, a study forum may be formed using Blackboard, Ms Team,
or other online platforms to help students ask questions or discuss the class topics with lecturer, TA, and other students.

3. COURSE OBJECTIVES AND OUTCOMES

3.1. Course objectives

This course aims to help students to

 Provide students with the methodological understanding of quantitative analysis used in
business management.
 Engage students in critically selecting and practicing the methods of quantitative analysis
to support the business decisions.
 Create an awareness of quantitative analytical tools used in business management and
show how to use these tools in business management.

3.2. Student learning and outcomes

After completing the course, students should be able to:

Quantitative Methods provides students with many quantitative techniques needed to analyse business situations and make decisions. The course covers game theory,
decision analysis, forecasting, linear programming, project management, regression, and queuing theory.

After completing the course, students should have developed skills in

 Understand and use techniques introduced in the course to support decision making.

 Think critically about the uses and limitations of quantitative methods in management.

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BA168IU VNU-International University
Quantitative Methods for Business School of Business

 Use computer software for quantitative analysis.

 To plan and achieve goals and meet challenges and deadlines.

 To learn to work as a collaborative team member.

4. STUDENT RESPONSIBILITIES AND CONDUCT

4.1. Workload

It is expected that you will spend at least 6 hours per week studying this course. This time should be made up of reading, working on exercises and problem, group
assignment and attending class lectures and tutorials. In periods where you need to complete assignment or prepare for examinations, the workload may be greater.

4.2. Attendance

Your regular and punctual attendance at lectures and related seminar (if any) is expected in this course. University regulations indicate that if students attend less than
80% of scheduled classes, they may be refused final assessment. Exemptions may only be made on medical grounds.
Regular attendance is essential for successful performance and learning in this course, particular in view of the interactive teaching and learning approach adopted.
Please inform your lecture if you are unable to attend the class, and arrange for a classmate to collect any handouts.

4.3. General Conduct and Behavior

You are expected to conduct yourself with considerable and respect for the needs of your fellow students and teaching staff. Conduct that unduly disrupts or interferes
with a class, such as ringing, or talking on mobile phones, or chatting on internet, is not acceptable and students may be asked to leave the class.

4.4. Keeping informed

You should take note of all announcements made in lectures, tutorials or on the course website. From time to time, the University will send important announcements
to your through website, course website and/ or Announcement Board (of School of Business and/ or Academic Affair) without providing you with a paper copy. You
will be deemed to have received this information.
4.5 Special Consideration
Request for special consideration (for final examination only) must be made to the Office of Academic Affairs within one week after the examination. General policy
and information on special consideration can be found at the Office of Academic Affairs.

5. LEARNING ASSESSMENT
5.1 Formal Requirements

In order to pass this course, the students must:

● achieve a composite mark of at least 50; and
● make a satisfactory attempt at all assessment tasks (see below).

5.2 Assessment Details

Tasks Mark

1. Group project/assignments 15%

3. Homework/Quiz/Participation 15%

4. Mid-term Exam 30%

5. Final Exam 40%

TOTAL 100%

Quizzes/ Assignments. The course calendar indicates some quizzes or exercises to do in class. They are not announced in advanced.

Group project marking criteria:

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BA168IU VNU-International University
Quantitative Methods for Business School of Business

Marking Criteria Marks Learning outcomes/attributes

Defining problem 20 Clear, concise statement of the
problem.
Ability to structure problems in
accordance with theoretical frameworks
to solve them.
Applying model 10 Ability to select or develop a suitable
model. Ability to give compelling
arguments and reasoning to support
analysis.
Input data 10 Ability to conduct applied research to
gather data/information.
Ability to analyze the data
Developing a solution 20 Ability to get solution by using the
computer and test the solution.
Analyzing the results, 10 Ability to analyze the results; to get the
sensitivity analysis solutions with small change in model or
input data.
Presentation of the result 30 Ability to present and give some
explanation of the result and withdraw
a lesson about the problem approach.

Mid-term Exam (30%): closed book, only one A4 note is allowed.

Final Exam (40%): closed book, only one A4 note is allowed.
Grading
The letter grade will be followed by the University suggested rule: 90-100: A+, 80-90: A, 70 – 80: B+, 65 – 70: B, 55 – 65: C+, 50 – 55: C, 30 - <50: D+, 10 - <30: D

5.1. Assignment Submission Procedure

It is essential that you submit all your assignment tasks on time via the appropriate procedures. Make sure that you:
▪ For hard copy submissions: A4 paper size, handwritten, submitted by the group leader.
▪ For soft copy submissions: a single file (.doc or .pdf) via Blackboard, submitted by the group leader.

5.2. Late submission

Request for late submission of assignments or absent in your group discussion or in-class assignments must be made in writing to the course lecturer. Extensions will
be granted on medical grounds only, or on compassionate grounds under special circumstances. Medical certificates or other supporting documents may be required.
Late submissions may incur a penalty of 5% of the assignment mark per day.

6. ACADEMIC HONESTY AND PLAGIARISM *

The University regards plagiarism as a form of academic misconduct, and has very strict rules regarding plagiarism.
Plagiarism is the presentation of the thoughts or work of another as one’s own. Examples include:
-
direct duplication of the thoughts or work of another, including by copying work, or knowingly permitting it to be copied. This includes copying material.
Ideas or concepts from a book, article, report or other written document (whether published or unpublished), composition, artwork, design, drawing, circuitry, computer
program or software, web site, Internet, other electronic resource, or another person’s assignment without appropriate acknowledgement;
-
paraphrasing another person’s work with very minor changes keeping the meaning, form and/ or progression of ideas of the original;
-
piecing together sections of the work of others into a new whole;

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BA168IU VNU-International University
Quantitative Methods for Business School of Business

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presenting an assessment item as independent work when it has been produced in whole or part in collusion with other people, for example, another
student or a tutor;
The inclusion of the thoughts or work of another with attribution appropriate to the academic discipline does not amount to plagiarism.
Students are also reminded that careful time management is an important part of study and one of the identified causes of plagiarism is poor time management. Students
should allow sufficient time for research, drafting and the proper referencing of sources in preparing all assessment items.

7. STUDENT RESOURCES
The following textbook and references are essential for the course.
Textbook:
Render, B., Ralph, M.S.Jr., Hanna, M.E, Quantitative analysis for management, 11th edition,
Prentice Hall, 2012
References:
Hamdy A.Taha, Operations Research: An Introduction -7th edition, Prentice Hall, 2003.
Barry Render, Quantitative analysis for management - 9th edition, Prentice Hall, 2006.
Frank Dewhurst, Quantitative Methods for Business and Management, Mc Graw Hill, 2002.
Other Resources, Support and Information
Other learning material is lecturer’s notes, supplemental materials, and relevant software
packages will be made available in Blackboard.

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BA1641IU VNU – International University
Production and Operations Management School of Business

8. COURSE SCHEDULE
Sectio Topic Teaching and Learning Specific learning outcomes
n activities
1 Introduce the course, syllabus, policies, and  Describe the quantitative analysis approach.
learning strategies  Understand the application of quantitative
Introduction to Quantitative Analysis?
Forming groups of 4-6 analysis in a real situation.
 What is Quantitative analysis? Text book: Chapter 1  Describe the use of modeling in quantitative
 The Quantitative analysis approaches analysis.
-Group activity
 How to develop a quantitative analysis model  Use computers and spreadsheet models to
-In-class practices and assignments.
 The Role of Computers in QA approach?
perform quantitative analysis.
-Introduction to QA practice using Computer
 Possible problems in QA
 Discuss possible problems in using
software (Excel QM & QM for Windows)
quantitative
analysis.
 Perform a break-even analysis.
2 Introduction to Game theory Students self-review probability concepts and For Game theory:
 Understand the principles of zero-sum, two-player game applications.  Understand the principles of zero-sum, two-person games.
 Analyzing pure strategy game, dominance principle.  Understand the basic foundations of probability  Analyze pure strategy games and use dominance to reduce the size of a game.
 Solve mixed strategy games. analysis.  Solve mixed strategy games when there is no saddle point.
Self-Review Probability concepts and applications
 Describe statistically dependent and independent
 Fundamental concepts events.

 Random variable
 Use Bayes’ theorem to establish posterior
 Probability distributions
probabilities.
 Describe and provide examples of both discrete
 The Binomial distribution
and continuous random variables.
 The Normal distribution
 Calculate expected values and variances and use
 The exponential distribution
the normal table.
 The Poison distribution
Text book: Chapter 2

-Group activity
-In-class practices and assignments.
-Computer Practice (Excel QM & QM for Windows)

3 Decision analysis Text book: Chapter 3  List the steps of the decision-making process.
 Describe the types of decision-making environments.
The six steps in decision making -Group activity
 Make decisions under uncertainty.

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BA1641IU VNU – International University
Production and Operations Management School of Business

Types of decision-making environment -In-class practices and assignments.  Use probability values to make decisions under risk.
-Computer Practice (Excel QM & QM for Windows)
Decision making under uncertainty

 Maximax

 Maximin

 Criterion of Realism

 Equally likely

 Minimax Regret

Decision making under risk

 Expected Monetary Value

 Expected value of perfect information

 Expected opportunity loss

 Sensitivity analysis

4 Decision analysis (cont.) Text book: Chapter 3  Develop accurate and useful decision trees.
 Revise probability estimates using Bayesian analysis.
 Decision tree Group activity
 Use computers to solve basic decision-making problems.
 How probability values are estimated by Bayesian analysis -In-class practices and assignments.

 Utility theory -Computer Practice (Excel QM & QM for Windows)

 Using Excel, QM for Window to solve decision theory

problem

5 Self-Review: Regression models Students self-review Regression models REGRESSION

Forecasting:  Identify variables and use them in a regression
Text book: Chapter 5
 Type of forecast model.

 Time series forecast models Group activity  Develop simple linear regression equations from

 Monitoring and Controlling forecasts -In-class practices and assignments. sample data and interpret the slope and intercept.

 Using the computer to forecast -Computer Practice (Excel QM & QM for Windows)  Develop a multiple regression model and use it for prediction purposes.
FORECASTING
 Understand and know when to use various families of forecasting models.
 Compare moving averages, exponential smoothing, and other time-series
models.
 Seasonally adjust data.
 Understand Delphi and other qualitative decision-making approaches.
 Compute a variety of error measures.

6 Linear Programming Models: Graphical and Computer methods Text book: Chapter 7  Understand the basic assumptions and properties of linear programming (LP).

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BA1641IU VNU – International University
Production and Operations Management School of Business

 Requirements of a linear programming problem  Graphically solve any LP problem that has only two variables by both the
Group activity
 Formulating LP problems corner point and iso profit line methods.
-In-class practices and assignments.
 Graphical solution to a LP problem  Understand special issues in LP such as infeasibility, unboundedness,
-Computer Practice (Excel QM & QM for Windows)
 Four special cases in LP redundancy, and alternative optimal solutions.

 No feasible solution
 Understand the role of sensitivity analysis.

  Use Excel spreadsheets to solve LP problems.

Unboundedness

 Redundancy

 Alternative Optimal solutions

 Sensitivity analysis

7 TUTORIAL SECTIONS: REVIEW FOR MIDTERM EXAM

MIDTERM

8 Project Management Text book: Chapter 13  Understand how to plan, monitor, and control
projects with the use of PERT and CPM.
 PERT Group activity
 Determine earliest start, earliest finish, latest start,
 PERT/cost -In-class practices and assignments.
latest finish, and slack times for each activity, along with the total project
 Critical path method -Computer Practice (Excel QM & QM for Windows)
completion time.
 Project crashing with CPM  Reduce total project time at the least total cost by
 Project crashing with linear programming crashing the network using manual or linear
 Project management with QM for windows programming techniques.
 Understand the important role of software in project management.

9 Waiting lines and Queuing theory Models (Optional) Text book: Chapter 14  Describe the trade-off curves for cost-of-waiting time and cost of service.
 Understand the three parts of a queuing system: the calling population, the
 Waiting line cost
Group activity queue itself, and the service facility
 Characteristics of a queuing system

-In-class practices and assignments. Describe the basic queuing system configurations.
 Single channel queuing model
-Computer Practice (Excel QM & QM for Windows)  Understand the assumptions of the common models dealt with in this chapter.
 Multiple –channel queuing model  Analyze a variety of operating characteristics of waiting lines.
 Constant service time model

 Finite population model

10 Introduction to Exploratory factor analysis Supplemental Material and data  Identify the number of latent constructs and the underlying factor structure of
In-class Group practice and submission a set of variables
Tools: SPSS

11 Introduction to Confirmatory Factor analysis and Structural Equation Supplemental Material and data  Test whether a relationship between the observed variables and their
Modeling In-class Group practice and submission underlying latent constructs exists.
Tools: Amos or SmartPLS  Know how to run the multi-faceted multiple regression analysis to analyze the
structural relationship between latent constructs.

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BA1641IU VNU – International University
Production and Operations Management School of Business

12 TUTORIAL SECTION: REVIEW FOR FINAL EXAM

The syllabus is prepared following the format provided by the School of Business, International University - VNU, with kind permission.