Business Statistics

1 Business Statistics Coursework 2 Question A Service bundling is the practice of marketing two or more services in a single package. For example, Virgin Media’s bundle package includes Broadband, Digital TV, Calls package and Line  rental.  Marketers  spend billions  of  dollars  each  year  to  promote  service  bundles  by emphasizing incentives such as savings discounts, convenient billing options, and free gifts. A  group  of  researchers  from  the  US 1 studied  the  effects  of  bundle  incentives  on  300 consumers’ percei ved value, search intentions for alternative service providers, and switching intentions to a competitor. Perceived Value, Switching Intentions and Search intentions were measured on a continuous scale. Service Bundles was a categorical variable with thre e categories: ? Unbundled ? Bundled - convenience only ? Bundled - 10% Savings discount The authors used one - way ANOVAs to examine the effect of bundles types on Perceived Value, Switching Intentions and Search Intentions. 1. What is ANOVA? How many types do y ou know? Please, specify your answer. (5 marks) The ANOVA table for the results was: 2 . Did bundle type affect significantly any of the continuous variables? Comment on the p - value. (4 marks) 3 . Which continuous variable do you thi nk bundle type affects more? Comment on the F value. (4 marks) 4 . The post - hoc mean differences for perceived value between bundle types are shown in the below table: 1 Main results are adapted from Andrews, M.L., Benedicktus, R.L., Brady, M.K. (2010). The effect of incentives on customer evaluations of service bundles. Journal of Business Research , 63 (1), pp. 71 - 76. 2 Differences (I - J) between bundle types * p<0.05 Please comment on the significance and the signs of each paired differences. (8 marks) 5 . In your opinion, do bundled services increase customer’s perceived value for the product? (4 marks) 1 Business Statistics Coursework 3 : Question A A researcher is testing the null hypothesis that there is no relationship between two continuous  variables  (customers’  satisfaction:  continuous  dependent  variable  and service  quality :  continuous  independent variable).  From  a  sample  of  n  =  16,  she determines that b 1 = +4.8 and S b1 = 1.6. a) What is the value of t STAT ? (4 marks) b) What  statistical  decision  should  the  researcher  make?  (for  95%  confidence intervals, the t value is - 2.145 and +2.145). (4 marks) c) Construct a 95% confidence interval estimate of the population slope, ß 1 (for 95% confidence intervals, the t value is - 2.145 and +2.145). (4 marks) Question B The marketing manager of a large supermarket chain has the business objective of using shelf space more efficiently. Toward that goal, he would like to use shelf space to predict the sales of pet food. Data is collected from a random sample of 12 equal - sized stores. For those data, SSR = 20535 and SST = 30025. a ) Determine the coefficient of determination, r 2 , and interpret its meaning. (4 marks) b) Determine the standard error of the estimate. (4 marks) Question C What  is  Simple  Linear  Regression?  What  are  the  assumptions  of  Simple  Linear Regression? (5 marks) 2 Question D A  group  of  researchers  from  the  UK 1 has  attempted  to  address  the  relationship between  business  strategy  and  firm  performance,  by present ing an  empirical investigation of medium and large, high technology, indus trial manufacturing firms. Business performance was measured on a continuous scale. Business strategy consisted of five dimensions, each also measured on a continuous scale: ? Aggressiveness ? Analysis ? Defensiveness ? Futurity ? Riskiness After  collecting a  satisfactory  sample,  the  researchers  examined  the  correlation between the dependent variable (business performance) and the independent variables (Aggressiveness, Analysis, Defensiveness, Futurity and Riskines s). Their results are shown in Table 1, prod uced in SPSS. Table 1. Correlation coefficients among the dependent & independent variables Business performance p - value Aggressiveness - 0.04 0.75 Analysis 0.34 0.04 Defensiveness 0.29 0.03 Futurity 0.21 0.03 Riskiness 0.01 0.89 a) Give the defini tion of correlation. What are the general assumptions of correlation? (6 marks) b) Discuss the results of Table 1 in terms of their statistical significance, mag nitude and direction. (8 marks) c) Can  you  conclude  that  an  increase  in  agg ressiveness  leads  to  business performance’s decrease? Please, specify your answer. (2 marks) d) What would be your advice to managers who want to improve the performance of their businesses? (4 marks) Question E What are the two type s of Chi - square test? Please, discuss each type. (5 marks) 1 Morgan, R.E. and Strong, C.A. (2003). Business performance and dimensions of strategic orientation. Journal of Business Research , 56 ( 3 ), pp. 163 - 176 .