| Spring 2008 UMASS
Amherst Operations Research / Management Science Seminar Series |
Date: Friday, March 7, 2008 Time: 11:00 AM Location: Isenberg School of Management, Room 112 |
| Speaker: Professor Jenna
Marquard Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering University of Massachusetts at Amherst |
| Biography: Jenna Marquard joined the
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University
of Massachusetts at Amherst in January 2008 as an Assistant Professor.
She received a BS in Industrial Engineering in May 2003 from the
University of Iowa with a focus on information systems design and her
Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin - Madison in 2007. During her
studies at Wisconsin, she broadly focused on how information technology
can be meaningfully applied to health care problems, specifically on
the creation of sustainable health information exchange
networks. Realizing the potential usefulness of analytic models
to aid decision-makers facing complex problems in
health care and elsewhere, her interest has turned towards how
technical models can be conveyed in understandable ways to
non-technical decision-makers. |
| TITLE: The Decision to Use an
Analysis is a Decision Process in Itself: How a Business Framework Can
Help Us Rigorously Study this Process |
| Abstract: Decision-makers are challenged by
complex decisions that their wisdom or mental models may not be able to
cope with. While analytical tools hold promise in aiding
decision-makers by more comprehensively structuring and organizing
information for the decision-maker, there is often a gap between the
outputs of these analyses and what decision-makers find useful. The
continued presence of the judgmental gap suggests that the scientific
rigor used by researchers to refine their analytic tools could be used
to systematically evaluate and improve how analytic tools are received
and used, thereby aiding the work of analytical practitioners. A systematic study of how analytic tools are received or used must not focus solely on the presentation of analyses to decision-makers as presentation is only important if the decision-maker decides to use the analysis in their decision-making. The decision to use an analysis is a decision process in itself. This talk outlines the importance of understanding the decision-making process surrounding the use of an analysis. The consumer buying-decision process may be a useful way to understand this decision process, with analysts as suppliers of analytic tools and decision-makers as potential consumers of those tools. This talk also describes the importance of the decision-makers’ post-purchase-behavior, or what occurs after they have decided to use an analytical tool in their decision-making. This post-purchase-behavior stage addresses the need for analysts to engage the decision-maker in the analytical process and convey the analysis in an understandable way. Attending to this decision-making process is valuable for analysts who hope to better understand what factors might impact whether and how a decision-maker decides to use an analysis. |
| This series is organized by the
UMASS Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter. Support for this series is
provided by the Isenberg School of Management, the Department of
Finance and Operations Management, INFORMS, and the John F. Smith
Memorial Fund. For questions, please contact the INFORMS Student Chapter Speaker Series Coordinator, Ms. Trisha Woolley, twoolley@som.umass.edu |