Question: Efforts are under way to make the U.S. automobile industry more efficient and competitive so that it will be able to survive intense competition from foreign automakers. An industry analyst is quoted as saying, "GM is sized for 60% of the market, and they only have 43%." General Motors needs to know its actual market share because such knowledge would help the company make better decisions about trimming down or expanding so that it could become more efficient.
A company executive, pushing for expansion rather than for cutting down, is interested in proving that the analyst's claim that GM's share of the market is 43% is false and that, in fact, GM's true market share is higher. The executive hires a market research firm to study the problem and carry out the hypothesis test she proposed. The market research agency looks at a random sample of 5,500 cars throughout the country and finds that 2,521 are GM cars. What should be the executive's conclusion? How should she present her results to GM's vice president for operations?