Learning Team A

Week 6 Assignments

Final Project

For Workshop Six, each Learning Team (or directed study student) will prepare a 2,100-2,800-word final paper and Microsoftâ PowerPointâ Presentation that demonstrates understanding of the use of statistical methods in the business decision-making process.

The topic of the paper should be representative of the business-related problems that typically require the use of sampled data and appropriate test statistics to aid in the decision making process. The problem may be related to any business area of interest to the team; however, the team should not choose a topic, which cannot be completed within the six-week time span of this course. The topic does not have to be complex, but it must be quantitative, original and include:

1. Title Page.
2. Statement of the Problem. Identify, define, and describe an organizational or business-related problem that can be analyzed using statistical methods. The problem statement must express a loss of profit, market share, customers, quality or increased costs.
3. The Research Question. One sentence question addressing the issues, variables and the problem.
4. Purpose of the Study. Why is this study being conducted? Who is requesting it?
5. Background. Review of related literature. Provide background information and prior research on the nature of the problem.
6. Variable Definitions. Define the variables quantitative or qualitative (dependent and independent), which are of interest in the situation chosen for the paper.
7. Level of Measurement. Define the level of measurement applied to the variables (quantitative/qualitative, discrete/continuous nominal, ordinal, interval, or ratio).
8. Hypothesis. Define the null and alternative hypotheses.
9. Alpha Level of Significance. Determine the alpha level and explain why.

10.  Research Design. Describe the plan of the research.  This can be individual respondents to a questionnaire, quasi-experimental, or recorded observations.  In addition, describe the sampling method chosen to collect the data for analysis.

11. Data Collection. Describe the procedures used to collect data.  For example, if the number of patient days is the dependent variable, explain how patient days are calculated. The data must be primary data, in other words the data must be observed and recorded by the researcher. Secondary, pre-existing data gathered and recorded by sources other than the researcher is unacceptable for this research project.

12. Limitations. State the limitations of the study. (Sample size, location, time, weather, number of observers, etc.)

13. Statistical Methods. Descriptive Statistics. Discuss the methods (tests) used to analyze the variables and test the null hypothesis.  Include a brief discussion of why the specific methods were chosen, and define any assumptions.

14. Results and Recommendations. Summarize the results of testing the null hypothesis, and clearly state whether or not the null hypothesis was rejected or why you failed to reject it (retain) and the p-value. Determine the conclusions that were derived from this study. Make any recommendations or observations you feel are appropriate based on the results obtained. One possible outcome may be that it is inconclusive. This is an acceptable outcome for this project. However, should that be the case, the team should suggest potential future research efforts that might provide more definitive results.

15.  References. List all references for the study.

Presentation:

Create a 10-15 slide Microsoft PowerPoint presentation that gives an overview of the team project to include all of the fifteen items above. Dress for success.