QUANTITATIVE ASSIGNMENT -
ASSIGNMENT OVERVIEW - This is an individual assignment. So, make sure you conduct data analysis and prepare a summary report individually. The written report represents a summary of key insight from your data analysis, demonstrating an ability to choose an appropriate statistical technique to provide answers to specific business research objectives, as well as an ability to correctly interpret results and develop preliminary conclusions and recommendations.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES - This assignment focuses on student's ability to:
- Develop skills in statistical analysis Understand the need to relate research and management objectives to analysis and findings.
- Demonstrate an understanding of quantitative research and required analytical skills.
- Develop knowledge in the choice and application of inferential and descriptive statistical tests.
- Understand how quantitative research fits into the broader management and business planning process.
- Apply an advanced understanding of quantitative analysis methods to a specific research problem.
In addition, the aim of this assignment is to develop advanced knowledge in relation to the fundamental quantitative business and marketing research processes, such as: Data preparation and re-coding Descriptive data analysis and charting in SPSS and Excel, use of filters Significant difference testing using ANOVA or an Independent-samples T-test Factor analysis Correlations and regressions Provision of a short summary of key findings and recommendations.
ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS THE BACK YARD BBQ STORY - THE JOURNEY BEGINS Back Yard BBQ (BYBBQ), a fast-food restaurant chain, prides itself in serving quality food to its customers. To move away from typical fast-food stereotypes and maintain a local theme to its offering, it specialises in selling Aussie-style burgers, fish and barbecue chicken meals with typical salad and chips on the side. Their supplies are sources only from reputable local suppliers e.g. Steggles and Ingham for their chicken, to ensure food quality is always maintained and served. Since establishment in Sydney, its management is looking for opportunities to expand its business. After conducting some preliminary secondary research internally, the few concerns that gained the attention of management include the trend towards healthy food consumption and the saturated nature of the fast-food market in Australia. Despite these concerns, BYBBQ management thinks that convenience still holds an edge in consumer lifestyles.
Furthermore, a recent report by the Australian Bureau of Statistics indicated that the average household expenditure on fast foods and meals out is quite high compared to other food consumption categories (Exhibit 14.2), and that the Australian fast-food market has a potential worth of A&8.8 billion (Euromonitor International). The management reckons that they have competitive advantage over their competitors in terms of their quality offerings. Before they can proceed further with their business expansion plan, they decided to engage a research firm to help them better ascertain the attitudes and opinions of consumers towards fast-food restaurants. Your research agency, Endmark Pty Ltd, has been approached by the BYBBQ management to gather data about consumers' fast-food consumption attitudes. The management hope that the information gathered will assist them in their future strategic directions. A questionnaire was developed by a group of casual researchers hired by your agency.
The survey was conducted in the Sydney CBD area. Respondents were randomly selected over a 7-day period by intercepting them at shopping malls and outside fast-food restaurants. The data gathered from consumers consist of 30 observations on 40 separate variables. The survey and data are available on LEARN and need to be uploaded to your Qualtrics account. Variables q1 to q10 relate to respondents' fast food selection and consumption patterns. Variables q11 to q19 indicate their attitudes towards and preferences for fast-food restaurants. Variables q20 to q33 record their general opinions on lifestyle issues. Finally, respondents' demographic data are collected and indicated in variables q34 to q40.
Source: Hair, J.F., Lukas, B.A., Miller, K.D., Bush, R.P., and Ortinau, D.J. (2012). Marketing Research. Sydney, McGraw-Hill 4th edition, pp. 418-419.
SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS - Management requires you to address the following as you analyse the dataset:
1. Consumer Behaviour - Which fast food restaurants are generally visited by the respondents and whether there are any gender differences in the type of the fast food restaurant visited (Q3)? How much money patrons generally spend when going to fast food restaurants (Q2) and whether there any differences in spending depending on the type of the restaurant visited. Perform descriptive statistics and create corresponding charts for Q1A and Q1b, describe key insights. Use Excel for at least one chart.
2. Consumer Profiling - The management of Back Yard BBQ also wants to understand the profile of their patrons better and want to find out whether families or single people mostly visit their outlet compared to other FF restaurants. They want to you perform analysis and compare results for individuals with no children, individuals who have 1 to 2 children and those who have 3 or more children. What can you infer from the results?
3. Attitudes and Preferences - Describe general trends in consumer attitudes and preferences - which aspects are more important to them and which are least important (Q11-Q19)? Also management wants to find out whether there are any gender differences in attitudes towards and, preferences for, fast food restaurants (Q11-Q19).
4. Data Reduction in Attitude Items - Perform exploratory factor analysis on the preference and attitudes items to identify whether items can be reduced to specific and meaningful factors (Q11-Q19). Name extracted factors and save them as factor scores.
5. Associations between variables - Please test first whether there are any statistically significant associations between Q4-Q9 (fast food selection and consumption patterns) and likelihood of future visitation (Q32). Please comment on the result of the correlation analysis and whether it gives you any preliminary insights about the regression analysis. Then, perform a regression analysis using the extracted four factors (Q11-Q19) and Q4-Q9 (fast food selection and consumption patterns) using those as independent variables the and likelihood of future visitation (dependent variable Q32).
Comment on the results of the regression analysis. For questions 1-4, please briefly explain which statistical test you used and why. For question 4 and 5, your understanding of statistical inference and analytical skills will be tested.
SUGGESTED STRUCTURE OF THE REPORT -
Title page: Provide a short title for this report Prepared for ..... Prepared by ...Student Name (ID) Date
Body of the report: Background Use relevant information provided in the case study Objectives Please summarise key points from the five questions as your research objectives
Results -
3.1. Fast food restaurant visitation and spending Your answers to the questions 1 and 2
3.2. Attitudes and preferences for fast food restaurants Your answers to the questions 3, 4 and 5
Conclusions and recommendations - Your key conclusions and recommendations from the data analysis
Appendix: Detailed SPSS data analysis output (formatted, that is no double space in tables).