Assignment: Analysing Data and Reporting Findings This assignment requires students to identify and apply appropriate analytical strategies to test a set of hypotheses a senior manager of firm has...

Assignment: Analysing Data and Reporting Findings


This assignment requires students to identify and apply appropriate analytical strategies to test a set of hypotheses a senior manager of firm has developed. This is to be done with the data supplied and a report on the findings is to be sent to him. Students will be required to present a brief report on their findings in a manner suitable to those who do not have a background in statistics. Students will also be required to succinctly report on the meaning of such results.
The focus of the assignment revolves around a specific study. The following identifies the rationale for the study, the variables and objectives of the study. Using the data supplied students should undertake the following:

1. Briefly discuss and explain your strategy (techniques/rationale) for data analysis.



2.

Perform and report appropriate preliminary analysis to test the psychometric properties of the variables and constructs (e.g.,

data checking and preparation, measure of central tendency and dispersion,

EFA,

reliability, VIF, discriminant validity and convergent validity etc).



3. Test the hypotheses as set out below in relation to the constructs and explain the appropriateness of your data analysis techniques (one might consider analysis that focus on effects).



4. Provide a brief discussion of your findings including the presentation of results (from SPSS output, but do not copy the tables directly from the SPSS output; they are to be included in the appendix) and your brief interpretation of them.



Maximum word count: 3000

Marking Criteria for Assignment 2	Marks
Explanation & appropriateness of data analysis strategy adopted	30
Application & completeness of data analyses	40
Interpretation of results	20
Presentation and structure of report of findings	10
Total out of	/100
FINAL TOTAL out of	/50

Scenario and important information





Your task is to act like a research consultant for me. I am a senior manager who has commissioned a study and now you have been given the data to undertake specific analysis premised on my hypotheses and report on the findings. I wish to as part of the report be provided with a brief outline of what was done with the data and why and to have the results presented in a format I can understand. Please take careful note of the 4 key points above in the instructions given previously.





1. You should study the example items below, these appear in the data as the numbered items (i.e., v49, v50 etc). You are to think about how to label the variable with appropriate labels, values for variables and value labels, missing data imputation and the like. These are tasks a researcher completes before contemplating analysis etc.





2. Once you have completed the data preparation stages, consideration should be given to preliminary analysis and how the data should be treated, i.e for the main analysis should individual variable within the constructs be used of composites etc. You will identify constructs within the example items below as marketing capabilities, learning from markets, learning internal, innovations (overall and types), firm profile (i.e firm demographics), performance of brand/product and objective achieved for brand/product.





3. One might assume that these are in effect dependent and independent variables/constructs. For example performance may be dependent on marketing capabilities, learning and innovation. Further innovation may be dependent on aspects of learning. Also that firm demographics, such as firm size (number of employees may be important in some way, such as moderate the relationships or the relationships may be different between say small firms (< 20="" employee,="" medium="" 20="" to="" 200="" and="" large=""> 200).




*** The above information is a guideline and provided to provide a starting point. The report structure is your choice, but you should consider 2 key parts to the report, 1) preliminary analysis , 2) testing and reporting of main study findings (hypotheses I have developed as the manager).




Use this information provided to prepare the data, do the preliminary analysis, main study analysis, and provide the report.



Hypotheses


H1a. There is a positive relationship between firm marketing capabilities and firm performance.
H1b. There is a positive relationship between firm product innovation and firm performance.
H1c. There is an interaction between firms marketing capabilities and product innovation and firm performance.
H1d: The interaction of firm marketing capability and product innovation has a stronger relationship with firm performance than their individual effects.
H2. The positive relationship between marketing capability and firm performance is moderated by learning from markets.
H3. The positive relationship between product innovation and firm performance is moderated by learning from markets.
H4. The positive relationship between product innovation and firm performance is moderated by managerial innovation.
H5. The positive relationship between marketing capabilities and firm performance is moderated by managerial innovation.
H6. There are significant difference between firms marketing capabilities, innovation and learning based on firm size.
(note a good researcher also considers the issue of control variables, many journal articles show the use of control variables such as firm size, industry and the like when studying the influence of specific DVs on IVs).
(note you may wish to think about how you deal with the 3 performance items)


Example survey items for data




OUR FIRM’S MARKETING CAPABILITIES



49. The quality of our customer service is:

low

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

high

50. Our promotional activities (e.g. advertising) in gaining market share/sales growth are:

not effective	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	very effective

51. The quality of our sales people are:

Low	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	High

52. Our distribution networks are:

not effective

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

very effective

53. Our advertising and promotional campaigns are:

not effective

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

very effective

54. Our market research efforts are:

Low

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

High

55. Our ability to differentiate products (to boost the image of products by attributes other than price such as superior quality, image or service) marketed by the firm are:

Low

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

High

LEARNING FROM MARKETS


58. Our firm collects information about changes in our market.

Never

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Extensively

59. Our firm searches for innovative ideas through market information.

Never

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Extensively

60. Our firm’s knowledge about the market segments in our industry is.

Limited	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Extensive

61. Our firm’s knowledge of competitors is.

Limited

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Extensive

62. Our firm shares information about market changes and customer needs among employees.

Never

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Extensively

63. Our firm uses customer and competitor information in innovations.

Never

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Extensively

64. Our firm reviews past unsuccessful market research programs and communicates the



lessons for improvement widely within the firm.

Never

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Regularly

INNOVATIONS


Production innovation


82. Product innovations introduced by our firm during the last five years have been...

Limited

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Extensive

83. Product improvements have been mainly...

Incremental

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Radical

Managerial Innovation


86. Managerial innovations introduced by our firm during the last five years have been...

Very limited

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Extensive

87. Managerial innovations have been mainly...

Incremental

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Radical

PERFORMANCE


For the following questions circle the number that indicates how you would rate the performance of your brand/product on each measure.


90. Total sales growth.

Very poor	Quite poor	Poor	Average	Good	Quite good	Very good
1	2	3	4	5	6	7

91. Relative to major competitors in our primary market our brands market share growth last year was.

Far below	Below	Moderately below	About equal	Moderately above	Above	Far above
1	2	3	4	5	6	7

92. Overall brand performance.

Very poor	Quite poor	Poor	Average	Good	Quite good	Very good
1	2	3	4	5	6	7

Our Firm Profile


93. How many full time employees are there in your firm?


1. 1 – 19 4. 51 – 100 7. 501 - 700
2. 20 – 30 5. 101 – 200 8. 701 - 900
3. 31 – 50 6. 201 – 500 9. Over 900

94. What is your firm’s total sales volume?


1. UNDER $250,0000
2. $250,000 - $500,000
3. $500,001 - $999,000
4. $1 MILLION BUT LESS THAN $2 MILLION
5. $2 MILLION BUT LESS THAN $3 MILLION
6. $3 MILLION - $4.9 MILLION
7. $5 MILLION TO $9.9 MILLION
8. OVER $9.9 MILLION

95. What is the principal industry of your business?____________________


97. To what extent has the firm achieved the objectives set for the BRAND/PRODUCT?


A Small Extent A Great Extent
1 2 3 4 5