REVIEW FOR FIRST TEST
Intro to GIS and spatial data
Be able to define geographic information. What are some economic uses of geographic information?
Be able to define and illustrate the ecological fallacy; the modifiable areal unit problem; topology.
What are two fundamental reasons why geographic attributes matter in economic and social planning?
What are the five economic applications of GIS, as presented by Mennecke (see on-line notes, presented in class)?
How does Sherwood (Longley & Clarke, Chapter 11) define business
geographics? On page 255, Sherwood summarizes her conclusions
(as of 1993) regarding relationships between university geography and potential
business applications of GIS. Think about these, and be ready to
give your reaction in terms of:
your personal experiences,
your likely responses (how will you try to
bridge the gap?), and
your suggestions of institutional responses
(what organizations might do, what policies might change) — what relationship
do you think there should be?
Transportation
What are the four steps in urban transportation modeling?
If you are given a basic gravity model formula, Iij
= k OiDj dij-a
, you should be able to explain what each letter means, what the overall
relationship is, why the formula needs k and a, what it means to
raise d to the negative a power, why it makes sense to multiply Oi
and
Dj (rather than dividing, adding, or finding the difference
between them).
Network Analysis
Understand the idea of summarizing a network as a graph or as a matrix. There's no need to memorize definitions of an A matrix from a C or L or T matrix, but if I tell you that a specific table is a specific type of matrix, you should be able to give a description of what the cells of each given matrix portray, and understand what you can do with that matrix: What do cell entries mean in terms of the network? What happens if you power the matrix?
You should know how to multiply two matrices.
What's the diameter of a network? Why is the diameter important when trying to determine the total accessibility of each node in the network?
Be able to explain conceptually how a computer can find the shortest route between two points on a defined network: what information is required, in what format? What logical sequence must be pursued? (This was presented in class, online, in the Chou reading, and online in the Rodrigue material linked here ).
Note that in class we did not cover the material on pages 218-221 and pages 236-261 of the Chou reading. Please DO become familiar with the gamma and alpha indices (pp. 218-221). The traveling salesman and shipment problems (pp. 236-261) are covered in Geography 471.
Intro to Marketing
What is "strategy"? Be able to distinguish what I've called "corporate," "business," and "functional" strategic decisions, and to give examples of each.
Be able to present and discuss the five components of a marketing strategy. How does geographic information assist with each?
Distinguish direct, mass, targeted, and database marketing. Under what sorts of circumstances is which appropriate? What is a potential utility of GIS in each?
Describe at least three approaches to identifying the individuals or areas for a targeted campaign.
What are some of the reasons to pursue targeted marketing? Database marketing?
Understand the basic scenario of the lab Case One ("Background,"
on page 1 of the case) -- who's trying to do what, using GIS? Understand
how each of the major GIS steps (geocoding, routing, analyzing frequency
of SIC codes in the database, buffering, and querying addresses within
the buffer) relates to a step in logistics or marketing.
Geographic Marketing
What's the analog method, as applied to retail market area analysis?
If you are provided with a formula expressing Reilly's law of retail gravitation, or the estimation of the "break point" between competitors' primary market areas that is based on this "law," you should be able to explain what each letter means.
How would trade areas defined using Reilly's law differ from trade areas defined using Thiessen polygons? From trade areas defined using customer spotting? (See Jones & Simmons.)
If you are provided with a formula expressing (a simple version of) the Huff model, you should be able to identify
How might you approach selecting a retail or service-activity location, based on proximity to key markets, if you assumed that outlets' market areas are penetrable?
How might you approach selecting a retail or service-activity location within a metropolitan area if you assumed that some clients will come from almost anywhere in the metro area -- so that there are no clearly defined market areas (what Jones & Simmons call "dispersed markets)?
Make use of my questions
on geographic marketing.