Delivering Business Analytics Competencies and Skills: A Supply Side Assessment

This paper investigates the alignment of the demand side of business analytics (based on advertised job positions) with the supply side (based on the university curricula of U.S. business analytics programs). We text-mined job advertisements and core and elective course descriptions to identify the competencies demanded by business analytics–related jobs and those being taught in graduate analytics programs that include a business component. A comparative analysis of the competencies reveals that, although some of the competencies required by the jobs are taught adequately at the universities, a few key concepts and topics are not covered at sufficient depth as needed by the jobs. The research also shows that many traditional analytics topics are being over-taught at the universities when compared with the demand, whereas some key soft skills are not addressed at a sufficient level in many programs. The study provides a basis for future comparison of data-science positions and programs with the jobs and programs in business analytics.