QUESTION: Use Data Mining methodologies to understand what you learned by analyzing the data concerning delivery speed, price flexibility, and so on.

= The worksheet Purchasing Survey in the Performance Lawn Care Database provides data related to predicting the level of business (Usage Level) obtained from a third- party survey of purchasing managers of firms that are cus- tomers of Performance Lawn Equipment. The seven PLE attributes rated by each respondent are the following: Delivery speedthe amount of time it takes to deliver the product once an order is confirmed Price levelthe perceived level of price charged by PLE Price flexibilitythe perceived willingness of PLE representatives to negotiate price on all types of purchases Manufacturing imagethe overall image of the manufacturer Overall servicethe overall level of service neces- sary for maintaining a satisfactory relationship between PLE and the purchaser Sales force imagethe overall image of PLE's sales force Product qualityperceived level of quality Responses to these seven variables were obtained using a graphic rating scale, where a 10-centimeter line was drawn between endpoints labeled poor and excel- lent. Respondents indicated their perceptions using a mark on the line, which was measured from the left end- point. The result was a scale from 0 to 10, rounded to one decimal place. Two measures were obtained that reflected the out- comes of the respondent's purchase relationships with PLE: Usage levelhow much of the firm's total product is purchased from PLE, measured on a 100-point scale, ranging from 0% to 100% Satisfaction levelhow satisfied the purchaser is with past purchases from PLE, measured on the same graphic rating scale as perceptions 1 through 7 The data also include four characteristics of the responding firms: Size of firmsize relative to others in this market (O small; 1 large) Purchasing structurethe purchasing method used in a particular company (1 centralized procurement, 0 = decentralized procurement) Industrythe industry classification of the purchaser [1 = retail (resale such as Home Depot), 0) = private (nonresale, such as a landscaper)] Buying typea variable that has three categories (1 = new purchase, 2 = modified rebuy, 3 straight rebuy) Elizabeth Burke would like to understand what she learned from these data. = a. What types of data-mining techniques might provide useful information? Explain. b. Develop a cause-and-effect model that can provide insights about the drivers of satisfaction and usage level. Summarize your results in a report to Ms. Burke