A2 - Designing & Conducting A Study, due Thurs Mar. 7

in BUS 110

Assigned Thurs, Feb 14, 2019; Final Due Date: Thurs, Mar. 7 @ 23:59 PM via submission portal; Handout: PDF

See assignment handout (link) for complete instructions and examples.

Objective: plan and conduct a well-designed and well-conducted survey related to your own business venture to gather data and make meaningful conclusions which will lead to business knowledge.

  1. Literature Review
  2. Plan Your Study
  3. Design Your Survey
  4. Sunday, Feb. 24th - Check-In #1 due
  5. Results & Analysis
  6. Conclusions
  7. Thursday, Feb 28th - Check-In #2 due
  8. Thursday, Mar 7th - Final Draft Submission

Literature Review

  1. Now that you have chosen a business venture, research the available statistics and data using reliable resources. Summarize (at least 1 page) this research and explain how you can apply this information to your business venture.
  2. In addition, include at least one relevant graphical display. Describe its distribution (i.e., shape, center, and spread). Consider the clusters, gaps, modes, and outliers, looking for reasons behind any unusual features.
  3. In at least 1 paragraph, what is one area of research that would essential to your business decisions but for which data is not so easily and abundantly available? Can you think of reasons why this data may be so scarce?

Plan Your Study

  1. If you were to conduct a survey (which you will), what data would you be looking to gather? Form your answer as your research question.
  2. Justify your answer by describing how this data will apply to your business decisions and ultimately the success of your business venture.
  3. Describe the population.
  4. Describe your ideal sample size and sampling method in detail. How would you ensure the necessary random factor in selecting your sample?
  5. Highlight your current constraints and whether these limitations make getting useful data difficult or impossible (at least 1 paragraph).

Design Your Survey

Create a draft questionnaire of at least 10 questions relating to the information you want to gather. Then, describe how you vetted your questions for any bias.

Check-In #1 – due before Feb. 24th

Before moving further with this assignment, you must complete and submit the previous sections no later than February 24th to your instructor by email for feedback.

Results & Analysis

  1. Conduct your survey and gather your data as an Excel workbook.
  2. Thinking as a statistician, what is your procedure for analyzing the dataset?
  3. What conclusions can you make about this data? Include any tables or graphical displays.
  4. Lastly, are your findings consistent with the research you performed in your literature review?

In total, at least 1 page, excluding tables, images, and displays

Conclusions

Address the big picture. How does this new information influence your business decisions? Reflect on how you transformed data into business knowledge.

Check-In #2 – due before Feb. 28th

Complete and submit the previous sections no later than February 28th to your instructor by email for the final round of feedback on your assignment submission.

Final Draft – due March 7th

Upload your final assignment submissions here: https://goo.gl/forms/opkg2tc65K1oOjmR2

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