Reference no: EM132176325
Aims:
Demonstrate understanding of the nature of statistics and basic skills in using statistical techniques relating to relevant data management methods and quantitative research methodology to business applications.
Overview: This assessment focuses on business research studyfor a selected business or industry focusing on method selection and methodological defense for quantitative research. The students should be able to select an appropriate methodology for the research in question (2,000 words)
Referencing
- You must correctly reference all submitted assessments according to APA 6th ed. conventions for both in-text citations and in your reference list.
- You are required to reference because it is important to acknowledge the original source of other people's ideas, research and opinions, as well as providing evidence of having undertaken independent research to support your own opinion/point of view/hypothesis/argument.
- Your tutor can provide further information and guidance on referencing and also direct you to referencing guides and resources.
Learning Outcomes:
The learning outcomes associated with this assessment are:
LO1. Explore data analysis and handle dirty data with an understanding of how appropriate data management and analysis can be of value to existing and new companies.
LO2. Use concepts of probability and statistical modelling
LO3. Use concepts of populations and samples
Assignment 1
Statistical analyses of data are used by businesses and industries for analyzing and presenting available data in a useful format. For managers and members of the C-suite, such statistical analyses provide insight into how business units are performing relative to an organisations goals and objectives.
This assignment requires you to prepare a quantitative research plan(research proposal) for investigating a business related problem involving aquantitativedata set.
Select abusiness organisation or business domain (real or hypothetical business, ideally a business or industry in which you are trying to seek employment in the future) for your investigative study and use it as the basis for your discussion on the assignment tasks listed below.
Task 1 - Plan to investigate a business issue or problem (LO1)
Problem definitionand planning the research investigation
Identify the business problem to be solved or business process to be improved and write a paragraph explaining clearly what you have decided to investigate. Your discussion here should focus on the research projectoutcomeswhich should be defined clearly in the form of hypothesis statement for quantitative research.
Your research should make use of secondary data collected from data sources readily available from your reference sources.Please discuss your business problem/business process improvement with the tutor and obtain approvalbefore proceeding to your data collection/preparation stage.
The following statistics schematic helps you to visualize the research process that you are planning to undertake on your selected topic:
Task 2 - Checking on the suitability of the available data
Data preparation
NOTE: You are NOT required to provide inferences/solutions from the data set in this Assignment 1. Marks will not be awarded for inferences/solutions at this stage (Inferences/solutions are requiredonly in Assignment 2 which will be a continuation of Assignment 1 that has a data set appropriate for proposed research and data analysis).
- Your data should contain at least one independent variable and one dependent variable connected with the research question you wish to solve through data analysis.Compile sample dataon minimum of two variables or more around the business problem or business opportunity discussed above and prepare sample datasets required for statistical analyses (to be carried out in Assignment 2).
- Conduct a search looking for secondary data related to the research and select relevant datasets you propose to use for solving your defined problem. Focus your search of secondary data on real or hypothetical case studies where the business issue you have identified have been researched. You may find such data in websites on statistical analysis, software vendor website case studies onoperational databases containing ongoing transactions e.g. CRM (Customer Relationship Management), ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning)& SCM (Supply Chain Management) databases.
- You must ensure that the sample data are obtained from a representative sample of the population of variables under investigation. Please select the sample wisely and avoid using bulky data sets for the analyses. Determine the suitable sample size using the relevant formula. Please ensure that your sample datasets are suitable for descriptive statistics (quantitative summaries of datasets), statistical modelling purposes such as correlation/regression models including probability concepts and other inferential statistical analyses.
- Prior to starting your data analysis (which needs to be done only in Assignment 2), the data should be compiled, characterized, cleaned, and may be transformedinto an appropriate form for further processing.
Task 3
Method selection and methodological defense -
For this task, you are required to explain:
- why you selected a particular quantitative research methodology (e.g. Deductive and/or positivist or post-positivist approach) and methods (Statistical techniques and methods learnt in class up to week 8) used in your research;
- why you did not make any other choices of methodologies (Qualitative research methodologies such as Action research, Case study, Grounded theory, Narrative research, Phenomenology, etc.) and methods (Coding, Triangulation etc.); and
- how effective the choices you made in enabling you to acquire useful data/information and draw factual and conceptual conclusions (i.e. how statistical analyses would be used in the selected business and how they will contribute to organisational decision-makingwiththe case study example).