Quantitative Analysis in ManagementR

Java Python Quantitative Analysis in Management

This assessment is assessing the following unit learning outcomes:

1. Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the role of quantitative analysis in generating value from data.

2. Apply basic statistical techniques to business and management problems.

3. Communicate quantitative ideas effectively in written form.

4. Use a variety of visual models to represent statistical results.

5. Use Excel for data analysis and presentation.

Assignment:

Kheirat is a company that sells skincare products all over Asia. The company has designated geographic sales territories, each the responsibility of a single sales representative who services a number of retail outlets within their territory. The company wants to find out which factors influence the quantity of sold units and the impact each factor has on sales. For this, a random sample of 110 sales territories of the firm’s sales organisation was drawn. Information was collected on the number of units of the product sold, along with values for seven possible predictor variables, in each territory.

Sales of the skincare products (in units sold) were hypothesised to be a function of the following variables:

1. The advertising budget in that territory during the past year (Advertising; in $);

2. How long the territory sales representative had been employed by the company (Time with Company; in months);

3. What percentage of the market potential the company actually had in this territory (Market Share; in %);

4. The market size in the territory, measured as total sales of products within the same product category (Market Potential);

5. The number of retail outlets the sales representative was responsible for in this territory (Outlets);

6. The average rating of the company in each territory (Rating; in points);

7. The number of meetings between the sales representative and someone from top management (Nb of meetings; semiannually).

The Excel spreadsheet “QAM CW DATASET 2023.xlsx” contains data for the 110 sample sales territories.  

You are tasked to conduct the data analysis to provide the CEO with insights about what drives or predicts sales. For this, you should write a summary of your findings and make recommendations for the company, in management/nontechnical terms, so the CEO knows what to focus the company’s attention on. Bear in mind that the CEO is busy, not a fan of statistics jargon and thus wants easily accessible information.

The CFO has also announced their interest in your findings because they are hoping for a mathematical model to predict future sales. Unlike the CEO, the CFO is a bit of a statistics whizz and will critically examine your analysis and assumptions.  

To please both, you should write a report of maximum 2500 words (this is excluding tables and graphs) with the following structure:  

Start with the summary of the findings and recommendations arising from your analysis. This is aimed at the CEO so it has to go first, as they won’t read the rest of the report. The summary and recommendations to the CEO should constitute the main part of the report, and thus will include most of the writing.

The second part of the report, which could be the technical appendix, should demonstrate and explain all the steps you have taken in your analysis, the obtained model of what drives sales, and which assumptions you have made and tested. Remember this needs to be statistically accurate, as the CFO will examine it critically and might recommend scrapping your results to the CEO if they do not trust your procedure. This part does not need to include a lot of writing/text but must include tables and graphs with some relevant explanation.  

Your work should be presented in a word document, not in an Excel file (this means that tables and graphs need to be copied from Excel into the document;  Font: Times New Roman 12).  

You will be assessed on:

• The correctness of your models and statistical analysis

• The correctness and details in your interpretations of ALL the output

• The clarity of the interpretation of your analysis for management’s (CEO) understanding

• The structure and presentation style. of the report  

• Recommendations arising from the analysis and suggestions for future work

• Conducting any relevant extended analysis beyond the basic brief (especially if based on your own independent reading with relevant sources)  

Please also see the marking criteria at the end of this document.

The coursework accounts for 60% of the unit’s grade.

Submit your work via the Blackboard link by (8^th Jan 2024) at 1 pm.

Please note that this is your individual work. Using someone else’s work is plagiarism which is a serious offence and comes with penalties.

Marking Criteria

Coursework   

Class	Distinction	Merit	Pass		Fail
0-100 scale	100-70	69-60	59-50	49-40	39-0
	The student shows excellent understanding of the requirements of the assignment. There is a clear division between the section for the CEO and that for the CFO. The obtained/chosen model is statistically correct. Student has shown and explained all steps involved in the analysis correctly. Model validity is demonstrated fully and correctly. All output is correctly interpreted. Recommendations made to the CEO are relevant and useful. Recommendations for future research are also made.   The student differentiates between what explanation (and	The student shows very good understanding of the requirements of the assignment.   There is a clear division between the section for the CEO and that for the CFO. The obtained/chosen model is statistically correct. The student has shown and explained the steps involved in the analysis correctly but might have missed a minor explanation of one of the steps in the analysis. Model validity is demonstrated   fully and correctly. The report might include some minor incomplete output interpretations.	< Quantitative Analysis in ManagementR span >The student shows good understanding of the requirements of the assignment.   There is a clear division between the section for the CEO and that for the CFO. The student might have missed an important step that affects the final model built, but a   reasonable statistical analysis is   demonstrated.    The final model has been  validated but one of the assumptions might not be correct. The output has been interpreted but there might be some other relevant interpretations missing.   Some recommendations are made to the CEO, but the student have made some confusing or irrelevant statements, or	The student shows a satisfactory understanding of the requirements of the assignment. They have run some analysis to find out what impacts sales, but they might not have conducted all relevant steps.   The student might not have conducted all the proper assumption testing.      Some output has been  interpreted but other relevant interpretations and output are missing.   The recommendations made to the CEO are too brief or  confusing.      The report might not follow  the recommended structure:	The student shows poor understanding of the requirements of the assignment. They fail to demonstrate awareness of the proper analysis to predict what impacts sales.    There is overall very little/inadequate statistical analysis and what is present is either incorrect or very confusing.   No interpretation or incorrect interpretation of output exists. Because the analysis is incorrect, the student fails to make proper recommendations to the CEO, or there is no attempt to make recommendations.   The report does not follow the recommended structure and has

 

Class	Distinction	Merit	Pass		Fail
0-100 scale	100-70	69-60	59-50	49-40	39-0
	output interpretation) goes into the CEO report and what goes into the technical appendix for the CFO. Good/correct writing style. of management and technical report with due regard to target audience for each part. The essay is well-structured and includes appropriate subheadings. Writing is presented to a high standard and presentation of tables/graphs is neat and correct. Student has shown extended analysis based on their own independent reading or has included information beyond the basic analysis (maybe even included relevant info from other weeks of QAM).   References are included IF the student presents information outside the lecture material on Blackboard.   The text is within word count.	Relevant recommendations based on the findings are made to the CEO but might be rather basic. The student attempts to differentiate between what  explanation (and output interpretation) goes into the CEO report and what goes into the technical appendix for the CFO, but the writing style/language used for the CEO might include a few technical terms. The essay is well-structured and includes appropriate subheadings.   Writing is presented to a high standard and presentation of tables/graphs is neat and correct. The text is within word count.	recommendations made are too  basic. The language used for the CEO and CFO is almost the same (student has barely distinguished between the two audiences).   The essay might not be very wellstructured. However, there is clear presentation of tables and figures. Writing is presented to a good standard. The text is within word count.	CEO report followed by a technical appendix/section for the CFO and thus student   has not distinguished  between the two audiences.     The writing may lack fluency and contain errors in understanding and misinterpretation of concepts.   There is not a neat and clear  presentation of tables and figures.	a weak or no discernible structure. The writing style. is poor which disrupts the understanding of the assignment. Presentation of any graphs/tables is poor