Topic: Foundations of Business Analysis

Order Description The Academic Level is Post Grad (not master). Write a data analysis report that provides the results to each of the seven hypothesis tests above and make overall recommendations to Starbucks Coffee that management can use for future business decision making. Based on your analysis relating to these hypotheses, your report should focus on two key questions: - What is (are) the cause(s) of Starbucks Coffee’s failure in Australia? - How could Starbucks Coffee compete with established chains such as McCafe and Gloria Jeans? The main text is Zikmund, W., Babin, B., Carr, J., & Griffin, M. (2013). The Role of Business Research. In Business Research Methods (9th ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western. Page 1 of 6 GSBS6002 Foundations of Business Analysis Assignment 2 Weight: 35% Total Marks: 100 Due time and date: 23.59 AEDST, Sunday 22nd November, 2015 Submission instructions: 1. Maximum word length: 2000 words (excluding references, tables and figures). 2. Submit a soft copy in Word format via Turnitin (with an assignment cover sheet). 3. Assignments submitted by other means (e.g. email) or forms (scanned copy, Excel document) will attract no marks. Case Study – Starbucks Coffee Starbucks Coffee, the international coffee house, is the premier roaster and retailer of specialty coffee in the world, with more than 15,000 stores in 50 countries. In Australia however, Starbucks Coffee failed to compete with established chains such as McCafe and Gloria Jeans and was forced to close, in a matter of eight years (2000-2008), 61 out of its 85 stores. Over the years there have been several reasons posed to explain the failure of Starbucks in Australia, they include: - Failure to cater to the Australian market/taste; - high menu prices; - questionable customer service; - little to no marketing; and - store locations were in areas with little pedestrian traffic. To attain information on the cause(s) of its failure in Australia and more importantly how to rectify this situation, a research proposal was prepared for (Assignment 1) and subsequently approved by the management of Starbucks Coffee. A member of your team has already collected the data that will be used for this analysis. This data consists of a random sample of 100 former/current customers of Starbucks Coffee selected from each of the following store locations: Sydney, Melbourne, Gold Page 2 of 6 Coast, Brisbane and Sunshine Coast. Of the 500 customers that were sent surveys, 473 responded. The survey used to collect this data is provided below and the survey responses have been collated in the StarbucksCoffee.xls Excel file. You are required to write a report after performing analysis on the data collected. A member of your team has suggested that when you perform this analysis, you should undertake a series of hypothesis tests to examine the following: 1. Does the current level of customer satisfaction at Starbucks Coffee differ from management’s goal of 7 out of 10? 2. Is there any difference between the overall satisfaction of male and female customers? 3. Are there any differences in overall customer satisfaction across the five stores locations? 4. Are there any differences in the gender compositions across the five stores locations? 5. Is there any difference in customer satisfaction ratings with regards to ‘menu price’ and ‘customer service’? 6. Is there a relationship between a customer’s years of patronage and their overall satisfaction? 7. Are any of the reasons posed to explain the failure of Starbucks in Australia: - taste; - menu prices; - customer service; - marketing; and - store locations related to the failure of Starbucks in Australia? Required: Write a data analysis report that provides the results to each of the seven hypothesis tests above and make overall recommendations to Starbucks Coffee that management can use for future business decision making. Based on your analysis relating to these hypotheses, your report should focus on two key questions: - What is (are) the cause(s) of Starbucks Coffee’s failure in Australia? - How could Starbucks Coffee compete with established chains such as McCafe and Gloria Jeans? Page 3 of 6 Customer Satisfaction Survey Section 1: Personal information Please complete the following information about yourself. Question 1 – What is your gender? Male Female Question 2 – On what basis are you employed? Casual Part-time Full-time Question 3 – What was your total taxable income for the 2014/2015 financial year? ___________ Section 2: Current Customer Satisfaction Question 4 – Which Starbucks Coffee do (did) you frequent? Sydney Melbourne Gold Coast Brisbane Sunshine Coast Question 5 – How many years have you bought your coffee from Starbucks? ___________________ Please circle the number that corresponds with your level of agreement. Strongly Disagree = 1 Neutral = 5 Strongly Agree = 10 Question 6 – Overall, I am satisfied as a customer of Starbucks Coffee. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Page 4 of 6 Section 3: Determinants of Customer Satisfaction Please circle the number that corresponds with your level of agreement. Strongly Disagree = 1 Neutral = 5 Strongly Agree = 10 Question 7 – I am satisfied with the taste of Starbucks Coffee. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Question 8 – I am satisfied with the menu prices at Starbucks Coffee. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Question 9 – I am satisfied with the customer service at Starbucks Coffee. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Question 10 – I am satisfied with the marketing of Starbucks Coffee. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Question 11 – I am satisfied with the store locations of Starbucks Coffee. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Page 5 of 6 Report Structure Executive Summary This section should provide a brief overview of the data analysis report. You should discuss the subject matter, the method of analysis, the findings and recommendations and any limitations of the report. It is suggested that the Executive Summary is the last section that you write. Introduction Provide a brief background to the case to put your analysis in context. Provide a discussion of the objectives of your analysis. Research Design Discuss the data collection process and the sampling procedures that were applied. In this section you should also outline the ethical considerations that would have been taken into account when collecting data from this survey and reporting your results. This section should include references from at least three credible sources, such as textbooks or journal articles. Analysis Synthesise the hypothesis test results as they relate to the two key research questions. Report the conclusions that can be derived from this analysis. Recommendations Briefly summarise your results and provide recommendations to Starbucks Coffee. Bullet points can be used for the recommendations. Appendix: Hypothesis Testing For each hypothesis you should: a) State the null and alternative hypotheses. b) Select an appropriate statistical test and briefly justify your selection. c) Perform the appropriate test using Microsoft Excel. d) Report the results of your analysis (including test statistic and p-value). e) Provide a brief interpretation (both statistical and non-statistical) of the results. An example is provided below. Page 6 of 6 Hypothesis Testing Example (Based on a previous assignment) Does the current level of customer satisfaction differ from management’s goal of 6 out of 10? Null hypothesis: The current level of customer satisfaction is equal to 6 Alternative hypothesis: The current level of customer satisfaction is not equal to 6 Appropriate statistical test: Univariate t-test - we are testing whether the mean of one variable (customer satisfaction) is different from some value (6). Customer Satisfaction is a continuous variable. Therefore, we use a univariate t-test. Perform test in Excel: t-Test: Paired Two Sample for Means Report results of analysis: Brief interpretation Statistical: The mean level of overall customer satisfaction (variable 1) is 4.49. This is significantly different to management’s goal of 6 as indicated by a t-statistic of -13.205, which is greater than the critical t-statistic of 1.96, and a p-value of 0.00, which is less than 0.05 (the level of significance). As such we can reject the null hypothesis that the current level of satisfaction is equal to 6 and accept the alternative hypothesis that the current level of satisfaction is not equal to 6. Non-statistical: The current level of overall customer satisfaction differs from management’s goal of 6. It is lower, specifically 4.49. t-Test: Paired Two Sample for MeansVariable 1Variable 2Mean4.4880956Variance5.5058250Observations420420Pearson Correlation#DIV/0!Hypothesized Mean Difference0df419t Stat-13.205P(T<=t) one-tail7.85E-34t Critical one-tail1.648498P(T<=t) two-tail1.57E-33t Critical two-tail1.965642