The Gordon Professor in Entrepreneurship and associate professor of management information systems spoke about the book during a virtual event with students, alumni and friends.
Haya Ajjan, Gordon Professor in Entrepreneurship and associate professor of management information systems in the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business, co-authored the textbook, “Essentials of Marketing Analytics,” which was published in February by McGraw Hill.
During a virtual event hosted by Elon’s chapter of the American Marketing Association and the Center for Organizational Analytics on Feb. 23, Ajjan discussed background on the book, her career path, as well as advice for students.
“We felt that there was a gap between the knowledge and skills companies needed and how current textbooks prepared students for their careers in analytics,” Ajjan shared as a reason for developing the textbook. “Our textbook focuses every chapter on why we run a specific analysis, how we apply it using engaging hands-on case studies and what the results mean to improve business outcomes. We also included interviews with practitioners who talk about how they use the analytical approach in their day to day work.”
In “Essentials of Marketing Analytics,” Ajjan and co-authors Joe Hair, University of South Alabama, and Dana E. Harrison, East Tennessee State University, provide insight into some of the most currently used software analytic tools, such as Tableau and Python, as well as a variety of analytical techniques, including but not limited to social network analysis, automated machine learning, neural networking and more.
During the event, which included a question-and-answer session moderated by Business Fellow Alexandra Pirsos ’21, Ajjan emphasized the demand for marketing analysts, across all business sectors, revealing how essential it is for students to be comfortable identifying the right business problems to tackle using the most effective analytical tool.
McGraw Hill is an American learning company and educational publisher that provides customized educational content, software, and services for pre-K through postgraduate education.
Ajjan joined Elon in 2010 and currently serves as the associate dean of the Love School of Business and as a Faculty Administrative Fellow. She earned her doctorate from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte’s Belk College of Business. Her research explores technology’s impact on individuals, groups, and organizations.