Discuss the Statistics questions below.
Question 1. Very good list of characteristics of good business research. Quite a detailed list for each:
A. Good business research presents opportunities, outweighed by potential risks or costs of conducting the research, that enable the organization to grow and develop new strategies to improve and enhance business practices, processes, and performance.
B. Good business research allows companies to discover information, otherwise unattainable, which is aligned with business goals, plans, and objectives, provides clarity in direction that can be applied logical and realistically implemented with good business decisions
C. Good research meets the following criteria completely, is lucrative and worthwhile, and presents benefits that surpass the costs, efforts, and time necessary to conduct it effectively.
D. Good research uses diversified data collection methods to ensure accuracy and completely depictions of the population are represented through collection methods aligned appropriately with the research model best suited for the project.
E. Good research is cost effective, in terms of the value of the information and the methods for conducting the research.
F. Good research is not influenced by stereotypes, suspicions, skewed researchers, and assumptions.
G. It enables the company to gain more in value than the costs associated with conducting the research, by presenting numerous benefits, opportunities, and supporting organizational health and success.
H. Solid (good) research practices employ observation, hypothesis, prediction, and testing to help organizations innovatively meet demands, solve problems, and remain competitive.
This is quite a detailed list of characteristics of good business research. I will hypothesize that if a research meets all the 8 characteristics, it is probably good research. So let us assume these are sufficient conditions for good business research.
Now which (if any) of the conditions are necessary to have good research? For example is #5, cost effective, necessary for good research? Often the best way to research something is only found after the first research finds a way.
Question 2. A question which has arisen in our discussion and you to think about concerns, can a research be consider good research if the conclusions are correct but:
a) Management takes no action?
b) Management takes the wrong action?
Question 3. Consider, your example, "The weight of the average has to do with overall customer accounts and takes error into consideration. Without confidence intervals, the data may be inconsistent, exaggerated, or inaccurate. " good.
Now why does having a confidence interval, CI, answer " Without confidence intervals, the data may be inconsistent, exaggerated, or inaccurate " ?
Question 4. Consider, "We anticipate a growth rate of about 5-7% per year, and for the past 3 years we nearly doubled our expected forecasts so we are on the right track of success within our business. "
Think about an example, You have hired a consultant.
a) He is consistently forecasting the range of sales growth (confidence interval of 95%) to be 5 to 7%.
b) we are actually seeing sales growth of 10 to 14%.
Care to comment?
Question 5. It. is not easy to assure a random sample or that the sample is from the correct frame. Errors can occur accidentally with the best of intentions. Some classic examples of where the intent is to get random representative samples but the result are not successful. Here are some examples:
- Doing a telephone survey (telephone book or lists) for voter preferences. (this is cited as one reason the polls declared Dewey won when Truman actually one in 1948)
Survey every third customer in the mall in the morning
Internet surveys
Why are these three examples NOT random?