Using analytics to identify economic patterns: an empirical study on using business analytics to identify and measure economic patterns with small business enterprises

The issues of small business enterprises (SME) are multifaceted. Issues such as competition, market saturation, government regulation, overhead costs and customer turnover have an effect on the profitability of SMEs. This is also the case with minority businesses enterprises (MBE), they have market behavioral characteristics that are unique to them. This paper examines the use of analytics to assess economic patterns with minority business enterprises. The study was conducted on 139 MBEs across 11 industries. The MBEs were categorized into four general industry/market sectors. The MBE owners completed a 32-item questionnaire based on key business analytics and metrics that affect profitability. An exploratory factor analysis was used for the study. In addition, a factorial MANOVA was used to measure the analytics and firm economic behavior patterns. The results of the study indicated there were eight diverse analytic patterns critical to MBE profitability and market behavioral characteristics: (a) Government Regulation/Market; (b) Inflation/Globalization; (c) Business Security; (d) Competition/Market; (e) Capital/Social; (f) Business Intellectual Capital; (g) Profitability/Customer Activity; and (h) Business Climate/Labor Costs.