A Survey of 50 Companies

 

 

 

In January ‘08, fifty customers of a lumber manufacturer were surveyed regarding their satisfaction with products and service. These customers buy from the supplier and sell to retail chains like Home Depot and Lowes. Shortly after, the manufacturing company was sold.  In June ‘08, the customers were telephoned and interviewed and were asked to rate overall satisfaction again.

 

 

 

Variable	Position	Label	Measurement Level
id	1	ID	Scale	Participant ID number
delivery	2	Delivery Reliability	Scale	On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate the reliability of delivery of your orders?
Prodsat	3	Product Satisfaction	Scale	On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your satisfaction with the quality of your most recently purchased products?
Techsat	4	Technical Support	Scale	On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your satisfaction with the technical support?
Salesat	5	Salesforce	Scale	On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your satisfaction with the sales support?
Size	6	Firm Size	Ordinal	0 = small (less than 100 emp.) 1 = large (100 or more)
Usage	7	Usage Level	Scale	What percent of your purchases are from our company?
Satjan	8	Overall Satisfaction in January	Scale	On a scale of 1 to 7, rate your overall satisfaction with your most recent purchasing experience.
Satjun	8	Overall Satisfaction in June	Scale	On a scale of 1 to 7, rate your overall satisfaction with your most recent purchasing experience.
Structure	10	Structure of Procurement	Nominal	How your purchasing is structured? 0 = Decentralized; 1 = Centralized
OwnType	11	Type of Ownership	Nominal	0 = Publicly Traded; 1 Privately owned
PurType	12	Type of Purchasing	Nominal	1 = Private Label; 2 = Company Brand; 3 = Both

 

Variables in the working file

 

 

 

 

 

For each research question, describe in your Microsoft Word document the application of the seven steps of the hypothesis testing model.

 

 

 

Step 1: State the hypothesis (null and alternate).

 

Step 2: State your alpha (unless requested otherwise, this is always set to alpha = .05).

 

Step 3: Collect the data (use one of the data sets).

 

Step 4: Calculate your statistic and p-value. (This is where you run spss and examine your output files.)

 

Step 5: Accept or reject the null hypothesis. (This is where you report the results of your analyses t (df) = t-value, p = sig. level.)

 

Step 6: Assess the Risk of Type I and Type II Error. (Did the data meet the assumptions of the statistic, effect size, and sample size?)

 

Step 7: State your results in APA style and format.

 

 

 

MODULE 4 Application Assignments

 

 

 

Question 1: How do small companies compare to the major competitor?

 

The trade association magazine published a report that this company’s major competitor accounts for about 60% (60.0) of their small customers purchases. Is this company’s Usage different than their competitors?

 

1. Use Select Cases to choose companies with less than 100 employees (Firm Size=0).

 

2. Run a single sample t-test using usage as the dependent variable, and 60.0 as the test value.

 

3. Report the descriptive statistics, assumptions tests, as well as tests of statistical significance.

 

 

 

Question 2: Is there a difference between small and large companies in their overall satisfaction with the company as rated in January?

 

1. Run an independent samples t-test.

 

2. Use size as the independent variable.

 

3. Use overall satisfaction in January as the dependent variable.

 

4. Report the descriptive statistics, assumptions tests, as well as tests of statistical significance.

 

 

 

 

 

Question 3: Has satisfaction with the manufacturer changed since the change in company ownership?

 

1. Run the paired samples t-test

 

2. Use satisfaction in January and satisfaction in June as the variable pair.

 

3. Report the descriptive statistics, assumptions tests, as well as tests of statistical significance.

 

 

 

 

 

Write a brief conclusion statement summarizing your results. What can you tell this manufacturing company about their customers? What could you suggest they do to improve?

 

 

NOTE:

1. In the latest SPSS version, set your tables to APA Style.
   1. From the data window (spreadsheet), select Edit and then Options from the menu.
   2. In the options Menu, click on the Pivot Tables folder.
   3. Select the academic style and then click OK. All tables will now be produced using the selected format.
2. Bring your tables into Microsoft Word by:
   1. Copying and pasting the table from the output file. Click on the table (a box appears around the table), then press COPY (CTRL C); open an Microsoft Word DOC and press PASTE (CTRL V) and the table will appear in the WORD document.
   2. Or, using Export to create an entire Microsoft Word document. Go File >> Export. Then, select Word/RTF file (*.doc)_ as the file type; select “All Objects,” and then click Browse to place the file on your hard drive. Then click OK.

All written assignments and responses should follow APA rules for attributing sources.