HOLMES INSTITUTE
FACULTY OF
HIGHER EDUCATION
Assessment Details and Submission Guidelines
Trimester T1 2019
Unit Code HI6007
Unit Title Statistics and Research Methods for Business Decision Making
Assessment Type Assessment 2
Assessment Title Group Assignment
Purpose of the assessment (with ULO Mapping) Students are required to show the understanding of the principles and techniques of business research and statistical analysis taught in the course.
Weight 30 % of the total assessments
Total Marks 30
Word limit N/A
Due Date Lecture 10
Submission Guidelines • All work must be submitted on Blackboard by the due date along with a completed Assignment Cover Page.
• The assignment must be in MS Word format, no spacing, 12-pt Arial font and 2 cm margins on all four sides of your page with appropriate section headings and page numbers.
• Reference sources must be cited in the text of the report, and listed appropriately at the end in a reference list using Harvard referencing style.
HI6007 STATISTICS AND RESEARCH METHODS FOR BUSINESS DECISION MAKING GROUP ASSIGNMENT
Assignment Specifications
Purpose:
This assignment aims at Understand various qualitative and quantitative research methodologies and techniques, and other general purposes are:
1. Explain how statistical techniques can solve business problems
2. Identify and evaluate valid statistical techniques in a given scenario to solve business problems
3. Explain and justify the results of a statistical analysis in the context of critical reasoning for a business problem solving
4. Apply statistical knowledge to summarize data graphically and statistically, either manually or via a computer package
5. Justify and interpret statistical/analytical scenarios that best fits business solution
Assignment Structure should be as the following:
This is an applied assignment. Students have to show that they understand the principles and techniques taught in this course. Therefore students are expected to show all the workings, and all problems must be completed in the format taught in class, the lecture notes or prescribed text book. Any problems not done in the prescribed format will not be marked, regardless of the ultimate correctness of the answer.
(Note: The questions and the necessary data are provided under “Assignment and Due date” in the Blackboard.)
Instructions:
• Your assignment must be submitted in WORD format only!
• When answering questions, wherever required, you should copy/cut and paste the Excel output (e.g., plots, regression output etc.) to show your working/output.
• Submit your assignment through Safe-Assign in the course website, under the Assignments and due dates, Assignment Final Submission before the due date.
• You are required to keep an electronic copy of your submitted assignment to re-submit, in case the original submission is failed and/or you are asked to resubmit.
• Please check your Holmes email prior to reporting your assignment mark regularly for possible communications due to failure in your submission.
Important Notice:
All assignments submitted undergo plagiarism checking; if found to have cheated, all involving submissions would receive a mark of zero for this assessment item.
Please read below information carefully and respond all questions listed.
Question 1
Australian exports (goods and services) along with its top 8 export markets in 2004-05 and 2014-15 are shown in the table stored in file EXPORTS.XLSX (in the course website). Using this data, answer
the questions below. (4 Marks)
(a) Use an appropriate graphical technique to compare the value of Australian exports (in A$ bn) in 2004-05 and 2014-15, broken down by country of export destination.
(1 mark)
(b) Use an appropriate graphical technique to compare the percentage value of Australian exports (in %) in 2004-05 and 2014-15, broken down by country of export destination.
(1 mark)
(c) Comment your observations in parts (a) and (b). (2 marks)
Question 2.
The following data are the 40 days umbrella sales from a store. (8 Marks)
63 74 42 65 51 54 36 56 68 57
62 64 76 67 79 61 81 77 59 38
84 68 71 94 71 86 69 75 91 55
48 82 83 54 79 62 68 58 41 47
a. Construct a frequency distribution and a relative frequency distribution for the data.
(2 marks)
b. Construct a cumulative frequency distribution and a cumulative relative frequency distribution for the data. (2 marks)
c. Plot a relative frequency histogram for the data. (1 mark)
d. Construct an ogive for the data. (1 mark)
e. What proportion of the grades is less than 60? (1 mark)
f. What proportion of the grades is more than 70? (1mark)
Use following class intervals to answer the above questions
Classes Frequency Relative Frequency Cumulative Frequency Cumulative Relative
Frequency
30 - 40
40 - 50
50 - 60
60 - 70
70 - 80
80 - 90
90 - 100
Question 3. (18 Marks)
Assume you are a research analyst in an economic consultancy firm. Your team leader has given you a research task to investigate whether the per capita retail turnover in Australia is a good predictor of the final consumption expenditure of the country.
Relevant Variables:
FINAL CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURE: (Trend) in $ Millions; - quarterly data from September 1983 to March 2016.
RETAIL TURNOVER PER CAPITA - (Trend) Total (State) in $;- quarterly data from September 1983 to March 2016.
[Quarterly time series data (for the period September 1983 to March 2016) are from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)]
The data are stored in the file named “ASSIGNMENTDATA.XLSX” in the course website. Using EXCEL, answer below questions:
a. Using an appropriate graphical descriptive measure (relevant for time series data) describe the two variables. (1 mark)
b. Use an appropriate plot to investigate the relationship between FINAL CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURE and RETAIL TURNOVER PER CAPITA. Briefly explain the selection of each variable on the X and Y axes and why? (2 marks)
c. Prepare a numerical summary report about the data on the two variables by including the summary measures, mean, median, range, variance, standard deviation, coefficient of variation, smallest and largest values, and the three quartiles, for each variable.
(3 marks)
d. Calculate the coefficient of correlation (r) between FINAL
CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURE and RETAIL TURNOVER PER CAPITA. Then, interpret it.
(2 marks)
e. Estimate a simple linear regression model and present the estimated linear equation. Then, interpret the coefficient estimates of the linear model. (4 marks)
f. Determine the coefficient of determination R2 and interpret it. (2 marks)
g. Test whether FINAL CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURE positively and significantly increases with RETAIL TURNOVER PER CAPITA at the 5% significance level.
(3 marks)
h. What is the value of the standard error of the estimate (se). Then, comment on the fitness of the linear regression model? (1 mark) Marking criteria
Marking criteria Weighting
1. Australian Exports Analysis:
a) Appropriate graphical technique for comparing the values
b) Appropriate graphical technique for comparing the percentage values
c) Comparing a and b 4 marks
1 mark
1 mark
2 marks
2. Analysis of sales of a product:
a) Appropriate frequency distribution
b) Appropriate cumulative frequency distribution
c) Histogram
d) Ogive
e) and f) Proportion 8 marks
2 marks
2 marks
1 mark
1 mark
2 marks
3. Estimation and testing significance level:
a) Descriptive measure
b) Scatter plot
c) Numerical summary report
d) Correlation coefficient
e) Estimating regression line
f) Estimating coefficient of determination
g) Testing significance
h) Standard error 18 marks
1 mark
2 marks
3 marks
2 marks
4 marks
2 marks
3 marks
1 mark
TOTAL Weight 30%
Assessment Feedback to the Student:
Marking Rubric
Excellent Very Good Good Satisfactory Unsatisfactory
Australian Export Analysis Demonstration of outstanding knowledge on descriptive
techniques
Demonstration of very good knowledge on descriptive
techniques
Demonstration of good knowledge on descriptive
techniques
Demonstration of basic knowledge on descriptive
techniques
Demonstration of poor knowledge on
descriptive
techniques
Analysis of sales of a product Demonstration of outstanding knowledge on descriptive
measures
Demonstration of very good knowledge on descriptive
measures
Demonstration of good knowledge on descriptive
measures
Demonstration of basic knowledge on descriptive
measures
Demonstration of poor knowledge on
descriptive
measures
Estimation and testing significance
level Demonstration of outstanding knowledge on correlation and
regression analysis
Demonstration of very good knowledge on correlation and regression
analysis
Demonstration of good knowledge on correlation and regression
analysis
Demonstration of basic knowledge on correlation and regression
analysis
Demonstration of poor knowledge on correlation and
regression analysis