GDPR ́s Impact on Sales at Flygresor.se: A Regression Analysis

Abstract: The possible effects of the General Data Protections Regulations (GDPR) have been widely discussed among policymakers, stakeholders and ordinary people who are the objective for data collection. The purpose of GDPR is to protect people’s integrity and increase transparency for how personal data is used. Up until May 25th, 2018 personal data could be sampled and used without consent from users. Many argue that the introduction of GDPR is good, others are reluctant and argue that GDPR may harm data-driven companies. The report aims to answer how GDPR affects sales at the flight search engine Flygresor.se. By examining how and to what extent these regulations impact revenue, it is hoped for that these findings will lead to a deeper understanding of how these regulations affect businesses. Multiple linear regression analysis was used as the framework to answer the research question. Numerous models were constructed based on data provided by Flygresor.se. The models mostly included categorical variables representing time indicators such as month, weekday, etc. After carefully performing data modifications, variable selections and model evaluation tests three final models were obtained. After performing statistical inference tests and multicollinearity diagnostics on the models it could be concluded that an effect from GDPR could not be statistically proven. However, this does not mean that an actual effect of GDPR did not occur, only that it could not be isolated and proven. Thus, the extent of the effect of GDPR is statistically inconclusive.