TU Wien:IT-based Management VU (Schwaiger)/Questions WS2020

MC-Tuwel Questions

Management Control Systems (MCS) as a Package – Malmi/Brown

16.10.2020

• Malmi/Brown: The term "Management Control System (MCS)" was coined by Robert Anthony. => True
• Malmi/Brown: In cybernetic controls only financial measures are used. => False
• The "MCS as a Package" idea from Malmi/Brown defines Cultural Controls via Organisation Structure. => False
• According to Malmi/Brown the decision support systems are useful for directig the behavior of employees. => False
• Malmi/Brown: Otley introduced the idea of MCS as a package. => True
• Malmi/Brown: According to Chenhall management accounting systems (MAS) are characterized by a “systematic use of Management Accounting to achieve some goal”. => True

Ontological and Linguistic Meta-Modeling – Eriksson/Henderson-Sellers/Agerfalk

23.10.2020

• In strict metamodeling instance-Of relationships are always between adjacent layers and they cannot exist within a single layer. => True
• Strict metamodeling is the basic principle in ontological metamodeling. => False
• Programming languages consist of abstract syntax, concrete syntax (notation) and semiotics. => False
• The creation of domain ontologies is never labeled ontological metamodeling. => False
• A foundational ontology is a higher level ontology which is distinguished from epistemology. => True
• A partition relationship between two classes specifies relationships between objects and things. => False
• A moment class supplies a universal that can be associated with a substantial class so that a moment individual can be associated to many substantial individuals. => True
• The context is important for understanding the pragmatic meaning of an actual speech act. => True
• Conceptual modeling relates to modeling in the software context that depends on the constraints of the programming language. => False
• Power types are defined as power sets. => False
• Substantial Classes have a 1:1 correspondence to substantial things (phisical things) => True

Predictive Analytics: Credit Scoring Models – Eddy/Bakar

30.10.2020

• Logit and probit regression analysis is a mis-normer as actually this it is a classification analysis.
• The technique of linear discriminant analysis discriminates between defaulters and non-defaulters via a threshold value with respect to (w.r.t.) a linear discriminant function?
• Logistic regression is used to forecast numerical dependent variables with respect to (w.r.t.) one or more categorical independent variables. => False
• Artifical neural networks present mathematical models based upon the neural structure of intelligent organisms that were introdued in the nineties of the last century => False
• Giving out loan is a secure business but at the same time, it is one of the major source of income to most banks => False
• The weight-of-evidence (WOE) is one technique to indicate the level of influence a variale has on the final score => True
• The efficiency analysis of credit scoring model constructions considers the selection of relevant factors/variables and thereof assigned weightings => True
• The primary objective in credit scoring is to develop an efficient scoring model which contains only a small number of predictor variables => True
• Among the techniques for the credit risk assessment in the banking industry, the most popular one is the machine learning method => False

Credit Risk Scorecard - Peussa

29.10.2021

• It is irrelevant, whether the validity of a model is assessed against the estimation sample or a non-estimation sample. => False
• In logistic regression models the response variable is a binary stochastic variable that can take on any numeric value. => False
• Categorical variables have measurement scales consisting of sets of categories. => True
• In a logit-regression model a probit link function is used to link a linear score function with the binary response variable. => False
• The diagonal line in the Lorenz curve indicates that the two considered distribution functions are equal. => True
• Credit scorecards are statistically based on the future performance evidence of customers. => False
• Advanced credit assessment relies on “gut feel”, which means that a bank clerk or manager analyses a borrower’s character, collateral and ability to repay. => False
• The likelihood function specifies the probability for the occurrence of a sample configuration y1, ... yn given the Bernoulli probability density for yi. => True
• A perfect model distinguishes goods from bads, allowing to accept only the good ones (creditworthy) and rejecting other applicants. => True
• The higher the Gini coefficient, the better the model explains the defaults. => True

Practice Development in Budgeting – Hansen/Otley/Van der Stede

06.11.2020

• A focus on agility relates to a planning and control techinque that emphasizes the actual realization of unreliable plans. => False
• Hope and Fraser are important proponents of the Beyond Budgeting approach. => True
• The US-based Consortium for Advanced Manufacturing-International (CAM-I) proposes the Beyond Budgeting appraoch for improving traditional budgeting systems. => False
• Rolling budgets are suitbale for updating plans over time but not for evaluation purposes. => True
• The Activity Based Budgeting group created the Open Loop Model => False
• Anthony’s definition distinguishes Management Control from operational and strategic planning and produced an accounting-based view of control => True
• In the classical budgeting approach an operational feasible budget is established before a financial budget is created => False
• Stephen C. Hansen is a proponent of the Activity Based Budgeting approach => True

Enterprise Business Cycles – Hunschofsky/Schwaiger

13.11.2020

• A seasonal random walk in monthly sales is characterized by the fact that the differences of subsequent monthly sales constitute a white noise process with identically and independently distributed innovations. => False
• Turning points in the growth cycle indicate the beginning of an expansion phase if the sign of the ROC turns from negative to positive. => False
• Contraction and expansion phases of enterprise business cycles often correspond to seasonalities within calendar years. => False
• Year-over-year changes are the only possibility for specifying ROC time series. => False
• If a time series has a linear trend, it can be eliminated by taking first differences. => True
• The (regular) random walk property suggests that the most recent realization is the best estimate for the next realization. => True
• A seasonal random walk in monthly sales is characterized by the fact that the differences of subsequent monthly sales constitute a white noise processs with identically and independently distributed informations. => False
• Monthly moving annual sales are calculated by monthly updating the 12 most recent monthly sales. => True
• Friedman and Schwartz introduced the deviation-from-trend approach for modeling business cycles. => False
• If a timeline series has a linear trend, it can be eliminated by taking first differences => True
• The 12 month moving total of e.g. air passengers excludes seasonalities during the year. => True

ROC-based Rolling Forecasting in Continuous Budgeting – Breschan

27.11.2020, updated 03.12.2021

• By empowering lower-level managers, the beyond budgeting concept is deemed to allow companies to adapt their strategies quickly to changing market development. => True
• In continous budgeting expected events are used to trigger revision of plans and reallocation of resources. => False
• The Enterprise Business Cycle is defined by the monthly sales and the Enterprise Growth Cycle is defined by the rolling annual sales. => False
• The usage of the ROC-based rolling forecasting in an US industrial company (VPI) substantially reduced the variance between planned and actual budgets. => True
• Continuous budgeting uses beyond budgeting practices as complement to traditional annual budgets. => True
• The integral use of continuous budgeting offers a way that contributes to both financial discipline in terms of achieving pre-determined set targets and manager's capability for rapid and creative response to unforseen contingencies. => True
• In continuous budgeting a precise specification of the design and the implementation of rolling forecasting activities is given. => False
• In continuous budgeting revisions of the originally set budgets are not allowed during the year. => False
• In continuous budgeting expected events are used to trigger revision of plans and reallocation of resources => False
• In the RoC-based enterprise business cycle modeling framework turning points in the enterprise business cycle are detected by transition points in the enterprise growth cycle => True
• In the frozen forecast method from Henttu-Aho the yearly target-setting process and the rolling forecasting are decoupled => True

Predictive Analytics 2: Time Series Forecasting – Hyndman/Athanasopoulos

04.12.2020, updated 03.12.2021

• A stationary time series is not allowed to have non-predictable cycles. => True
• Using the Box/Cox transformation in the auto.arima() function has the advantage that the forecasts derived from the estimated ARIMA model in the forecast() function have to be re-transformed by hand. => False
• In rolling forecasting the length of the forecast term structure is normally fixed. => True?
• The moving total of e.g. monthly sales volumes is only a smoothing procedure that has no economic interpretation. => False
• The application of the auto.arima() function requires the specification only of the ARIMA model's ordinary order but not of its seasonal order => False
• Taking first differences is an adequate procedure for making time series that follow a regular random walk stationary => True
• A seasonal random walk is modeled by introducing dummy variables for each sub-period => False
• Taking the natural logarithm of a time series is one possibility to eliminate trends in a time series => False
• The moving total of e.g. monthly sales volumes is only a smoothing procedure that has no economic interpretation => False
• The auto.arima() function provides the estimates of the ARIMA-model's parameters and not its forecasts => True
• A stationary time series is not allowed to have a trend => True

Direct Investments in Renew. Energy Portfolios: Capacity Budgeting – Ondra/Schwaiger

11.12.2020

• Direct investments deal with investments in financial instruments. => False
• The portfolio selection theory of Markowitz can be applied directly to capacity budgeting problems. => False
• The probabilistically constrained optimization approach from Charnes and Cooper consists of a linear programming problem with probabilistic constraints. => True
• The sample and discard algorithm from Campi and Garatti does not allow the removal of constraints. => False
• A data-driven optimization approach starts with assuming distribution functions for the stochastic elements in the optimization problem. => False
• In capital budgeting with positive investments the investment level is fixed by the investor's wealth => True
• The unit net present value is used in capacity budgeting for scaling the profitability to different levels of direct investments => True
• The portfolio selection theory of Markowitz can be applied directly to capacity budgeting problems => False
• In capacity budgeting the level of investment is fixed by the investor's wealth => False
• The probabilistically constrained optimization approach from Charnes and Cooper consists of a linear programming problem with probabilistic constraints => True

Rolling Horizon, Multi-Product Production Planning – Ziarnetzky/Mönch/Uzsoy

08.01.2021

• In the rolling horizon framework time is considered in discrete periods where production plans are allowed to be updated but demand forecasts have to be frozen. => False
• Allocated Clearing Function (ACF)-based Production Planning Model: the objective function to be minimized represents the sum of Work in Progress (WIP), Final Good Inventory (FGI) and backlogging costs over all products and periods. In the case of a shortfall-based chance-constraint ACF model an additional term for shortfall costs is included. => True
• In the Multiplicative Martingalse Model of Forecast Evolution (MMFE) the demand forecasts i.e. $D_{st}$for the different forecast periods (t) form martingales and the corresponding "forecast ratios", i.e. $D_{st}/D_{s-1,t}$are assumed to be normally distributed. => True
• Allocated Clearing Function (ACF)-based Production Planning Model: Demand fulfilment constraints ensure that the Final Good Inventory (FGI) material balance in each period. => True
• The amount by which the actual inventory exceeds the desired base stock level is called the shortfall. => False
• In the Multiple Martingale Model of Forecasting Evolution (MMFE) the demand forecasts, i.e. Dst, for the first different forecast periods (t) form martingales and and the corresponding “forecast rations”, i.e. Dst/Ds-1,t are assumed to be normally distributed => True

Conceptual Foundations of the Balanced Scorecard – Kaplan

15.01.2021

• For the formal embedding of enterprise risk management in the strategy map and the Balanced Scorecard it is recommended to add a third pillar for financial performance next the customer and learning perspective. => False
• For having a well-functioning Balanced Scorecard it is important to start with selecting metrics. => False
• The original structure of the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) consists of the five perspectives, i.e. vision and strategy, financial, customer, internal business process and learning and growth. => False
• The Balanced Scorecard was designed from its very beginning not only diagnostic but also as an interactive control system in the sense of Robert Anthony. => False
• Eugene Fama, the founder of the efficient markets theory and Nobel laureate in economics, advocates the recent advances in operations management. => False
• The strategy map links tangible assets and critical processes to the value proposition and customer and financial outcome. => False
• The stakeholder movement contrasts to the narrow shareholder value maximization view articulated by Milton Friedman by not giving a priviliged position to the financial perspective. => True
• Innovations in quality and just-in-time production by Chinese companies challenged the Western leadership in many important industries. => False
• Peter Drucker is well known for two things, i.e., the introduction of the management by objectives concepts and the plan-do-check-act cycle into the quality management => False
• The term “scorecard” was probably introduced by Herbert Simon into the performance management literature => True
• The Closed Loop Management System for Strategy Execution can be expressed in the UML modeling language by considering the plan activity composed of 1) develop the strategy, 2) translate the strategy, 3) align the organization and 4) plan operations, the do activity as execution, the check activity as 5) monitor & learn and the act activity as 6) test & adapt => True

Papageorgiou: Stochastic Control Theory/Predictive Analytics: Stochastic Data Tree Modeling

14.01.2022, updated 02.12.2022

• Papageorgiou: For determining the optimal state-based control policy a backward induction approach is taken where in each node a decision is made that optimizes the node’s expected value => True
• Papageorgiou: For deriving the optimal time-based control policy, the starting point is line B from where the optimal decisions are determined by successive backward induction => False
• The data.tree library from R is explicitly specified for stochastic data tree (SDT)-modeling and delivers consequently all functionalities stochastic data tree investigations => False
• The data.tree library from R includes functions that allow direct accessing parent- as well as child-nodes of the modeled data trees => True
• Papageorgiou: In comparison to the optimal time-based policy the optimal state-based policy has lower flexibility as it takes the actual realized states at each decision node into account => False
• Stochastic data tree (SDT)-modeling constitutes a Bayesian network as it is based upon directed cyclical graphs => False
• Papageorgiou: The weaker performance of the optimal time-based control policy results from the fact that the initially determined driving directions are not strictly executed over time => False
• The nodes of a Bayesian network are random variables within a directed acyclical graph => True
• Papageorgiou: In a stochastic setup an optimal decision policy can be determined by setting the objective of minimizing the policy’s expected costs => True
• For modeling the Papageorgiou example in the data.tree library of R it is important to distinguish between chance nodes and decision nodes as otherwise it would not be defined when decisions have to be made => False
• The traversal through Papageorgiou’s stochastic datatree to determine the minimal expected accumulated costs requires a “pre-order” direction => False
• In the Papageorgiou example the single period probabilities are not specified exogenously but they are determined by the selection decisions => True
• For building a geometric Random Walk model a measurable event tree with single- and multi-period probabilities as well as a function that maps the states into real numbers in all events => False

Which Research Methodology?

21.01.2022

• The P-value is a pre-experiment probability, which is set in order to give the researcher a rule for concluding in inductive research => False
• The deductive approach corresponds to theory testing, whereas the inductive approach relates to the development of theories => True
• Case study research is an analytical inquiry where a contemporary phenomenon is investigated in a real-world context => False
• The hypothetico-deductive reasoning in natural sciences is attributed to Popper and it claims that the considered laws are followed exceptionless => True
• The concept of abduction follows a pragmatist perspective that was initiated by Peirce => True
• In philosophy the term ontology relates to the nature and relations of beings, whereas in the metamodeling literature this term is often taken to mean epistemology, where mainly human conflicts in using IT applications are studied => False
• The Bayes factor measures the relative strength of empirical evidence with respect to the compared hypothesis and it is used to translate the objective prior probabilities into probabilities of truth => False
• In action research studies the researcher is considered as independent observer, who testifies the scientific correctness of the improvement actions taken by an enterprise => False
• The predictive validity framework prescribes the doctrine that before questions and response scales are set up the underlying concepts have to be specified => True
• Positivist studies investigate an a posteriori fixed relationship that is considered objective or factual => False

ESG Accounting For Climate Change

25.11.2022

• The Greenhouse Gas (GHG) protocol identifies 3 types of GHG emissions, i.e. direct emissions from sources that are owned or controlled by a company (scope 1), emissions at facilities that generate electricity bought and consumed by the company (scope 2) and emissions from upstream operations in a company’s supply chain and from downstream activities by the company’s customer and end-use consumers (scope3). => True
• For an activity-based allocation of E-liabilities to products the E-Liabilities from input resources and the E-Liabilities connected to the production process are transferred to the finished goods according the input quantities and the proportion of production times => True
• Among the 3 ESG components, governance is the most amenable to rigorous corporate reporting => False
• The value added concept can be applied for the measurement of the supply chain’s GHG emissions by assigning each enterprise in the chain its emission and accumulating all emissions over the entire chain => True
• The value added from a manufacturing enterprise is the difference between what it receives when it sells products to immediate suppliers and what it pays for goods and services from its immediate customers. => False
• The E-liability accounting system reduces incentives for gaming and manipulation, but it does not eliminate the duplicative counting of emissions => False
• The Greenhouse Gas (GHG) protocol – introduced in 2010 – establishes a common language for measuring GHG emissions => False
• The E-liability accounting system requires 2 steps: 1) Calculate the net E-liabilities the company creates and eliminates each period, adding them to the E-liabilities it acquires and has accumulated, and 2) allocate some or all of the total E-liabilities to the units of output produced by the company during the reporting period => True

Financial Forecasting, Analysis and Modeling

16.01.2023

• The R-library ‘tidyverse’ supports the data science process including e.g. data wrangling, programming, modeling and communication activities => True
• The process of setting up proforma financial statements normally starts with forecasting the income statement until the EBIT performance measure, followed by forecasting the interest bearing liabilities for determining the future interest rates, and in the third step the circular relationship between proforma income statement and proforma balance sheet is addressed => True
• Modeling the cost of goods sold via the percentage of revenue approach is preferable to calculating it via the production cost function, as this explicitly includes the consideration of variable and fixed costs from the production domain as well => False
• In time series models longitudinal forecasts over future time periods are derived by explicitly including a time index, whereas in percentage of revenues models cross-sectional forecasts are derived that are related to longitudinal forecasts for future sales volumes => True
• In Samonas’ corporate finance model long term debt is used for balancing the proforma balance sheet => False
• The leverage ratio is defined as the total liabilities divided by the owners’ assets => False
• The proforma financial statements in Samonas’ corporate finance model cover future balance sheets, income statements and cash flow statements that are built upon forecast models that are mainly calibrated by using historical data => True

"Kotler's Marketing" as MKT-Management System: Modeling in Formal Language

13.01.2023

• The Design Science Research (DSR) methodology requires the establishment of a design that is validated (e.g. by fulfilling required criteria) and demonstrated for how to be applicable => True
• In the conceptual light of ISO’s High-Level Structure for XXX-Management System standards Kotler’s Marketing definition does not explicitly distinguishing the XXX domain discipline from its management system => True
• The “ISO Harmonized Low-Level Structure (LLS)” design methodology serves since 2012 as standard for setting up domain specific management system standards with respect to the underlying “XXX” domain => False
• About 25 years ago Kotler defined marketing as “analyzing, organizing, planning, and controlling of the firm’s customer-impinging resources, policies, and activities with the view of satisfying the need and wants of chosen customer groups at a profit” => False
• Agile methodologies go back to the 1930-ies when Shewhart established the enterprise risk management discipline by applying the Plan/Do/Check/Act (PDCA)-cylces to the improvement of products and processes => False
• The translation of the strategic enterprise plan into an operational marketing via the marketing strategy corresponds to the definition of a management system given by Kaplan/Norton => True
• In a Single Loop Learning Control System the improvement can be a corrective adjustment of the operational actions and/or an adaptive adjustment of the strategy from which the operational actions are derived => False
• The management system of Kotler’s Marketing consists of a planning and control system so that it is in line with the seminal Management Control definition of Robert Anthony => True
• MGT-Activity Diagrams that explicitly contain information objects are used in the PDCA-domain modeling methodology for modeling XXX-management systems => True

3-LoEC-Model Demonstration

15.12.2023

• In the conceptual modeling entities and relationships are used to express the meaning of the domain’s essential concepts, whereas in the operational data modeling these concepts are translated into a programming language with additional specification of all variables needed. => True
• The Time Driven (TD)-ABC-model’s the production coefficient (a) specifies the resource input per unit of finished goods, whereas the Resource Consumption Driven (RCD)-ABC-model’s production coefficient (d) specifies the unit-time, i.e. the time needed to produce one finished good. => False
• The hair drying activity takes 6 minutes at the highest power level (2 kW). The activity’s energy comes from brown coal combustion that has an emission factor of 1,2 kg/kWh. The resulting GHG emission for the hair drying activity amounts to 240 gC02e. => True
• The 3-LoEC-model's activity-based measurement metrics can be used 1) to measure the product's primary and secondary carbon footprint and 2) to allocate the E-liabilities from the activity's input resources according their usage as well as consumption to the product. => True
• The ‘activity-based life-cycle assessment method’ from Emblemsvåg/Bras uses production coefficients in form of unit-times only to assess the environmental impact with respect to energy consumption and waste. => False

Midterm Exam Sample MC Questions

13.01.2023

• The cut off rate specifies the maximum deviation percentage from the expected value, which is exceeded with the loss probability => True
• In rolling forecasts the accumulated actuals decrease and the remaining expectations increase as time goes by => True
• Standard costs are per-unit costs that can be variable or fixed => True
• The target costs in SAP are calculated by evaluating the calibrated plan cost function at the planned production volume => True
• In the naive calibration method the planned unit costs are set equal to the actual unit cost realizations in the last period => True
• Controllable variances are calculated by taking the difference between the actual total costs and the planned costs => True
• The volume variance is positive, if the actual production volume is lower than planned volume => False
• Stochastic control theory deals with finding optimal decisions, which relate to single points of time or single periods of time. => False
• The state-based control strategy takes the actual realized state information into account. => True
• In the double loop management process there are no adaptive adjustments. => False
• In the COSO-enterprise risk management framework the risk responses include avoidance, reduction, sharing and acceptance. => True
• In the case of a positive EBIT the operating leverage cannot be smaller than 2. => False
• In intermediate controls information is used, which reveals over time. => True
• A proactive closed loop MGT is based upon final result controls. => False

19.01.2024

• Anthony's definition distinguished Management Control from operational and strategic planning and produced an accounting-based view of control
• In the classic budgeting approach an operationally feasible budget is established before a financial budget is created
• Rolling budgets are suitable for updating plans over time but not for evaluation purposes