“Big data” is a big deal. Companies with access to it can use it to inform their business decisions; for example, hospitals can use it to ensure medical providers across the globe have the right patient information when they need it. In this video, Professor Robert Carraway breaks down what big data is and explains how its four components can work together to avoid life-changing errors and missed opportunities.

The BizBasics video series, created by the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, is designed to explain basic business concepts and common business buzz words.

About the Expert

Robert L. Carraway

Yiorgos Allayannis Distinguished Associate Professor of Business Administration

Carraway, professor and former senior associate dean of the MBA program, is an authority on the appropriate and constructive use of quantitative analysis in making important decisions. He focuses on the relationship between intuition and rational analysis and how the two can complement one another, as well as on the role analysis can play in innovating more effectively and efficiently.

He co-authored the book Quantitative Analysis Casebook with Professors Sam Bodily and Phillip Pfeifer and Professor Emeritus Sherwood Frey, as well as authored the articles “Big Data, Small Bets” and “Meeting the Big Data Challenge: DON’T Be Objective” for the Forbes/Batten Institute series.

B.S., MBA, East Carolina University; Ph.D., Purdue University

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