For this assignment, you will practice applying statistical inference to business decision scenarios.

• For PC users, you will want to use the Analysis ToolPak add-on that you installed in Unit 1.
• For Mac users, you will need to download the free StatPlus: mac LE from AnalystSoft. After you have downloaded and installed StatPlus:mac LE, open the workbook that contains the data that you want to analyze (The Golf Ball Distance Test Excel file). Open StatPlus:mac LE. From the StatPlus:mac LE menu, select the function that you want. In StatPlus:mac LE, select the workbook data you want to work with, set your parameters and any options that you want, and then click OK. Note that Excel 2008 does not include Help for StatPlus:mac LE. Help for StatPlus:mac LE is provided by AnalystSoft.

Complete the following three scenarios:

Practical Application Scenario 1

You are the manager of the Gander Mountain store in Frogtown, Illinois. Recently, a customer mentioned that they believed your prices for ammunition were lower than the prices of Gander’s primary competitor in the hunting equipment market, Cabela’s. You would like to be able to include that statement in a forthcoming print advertisement, so you need statistical evidence to support this assertion.

• Identify the null and alternative hypotheses needed to test the contention.
• Identify the most appropriate sample selection technique to gather data for testing the hypotheses.
• What statistical test should you use to test this hypothesis using the data you will collect?

Practical Application Scenario 2

Your love of golf has brought you back to the range as the new product manager for UniDun’s “Straight Flight” (SF) line of golf balls. The company’s research and development group has been experimenting with dimple patterns that promote straight flight and have achieved some degree of success. You, however, are worried about the effect that the new pattern might have on driving distance.

The Golf Ball Distance Test document in the Resources contains test results that compare the driving distances for the two different kinds of balls: 40 balls of the new SF type, and 40 of the old UniDun type. Your job is to determine if the old UniDun balls can be driven further than the new SF balls. To resolve this question, you need appropriate answers to the following four questions. Remember to use your MBA6018 – Data Analysis for Business Decisions textbook and any additional resources you may have located to help you answer each question:

• Identify the null and alternative hypotheses you should form for this test. State each as an explanation and as a math equation.
• Identify the appropriate statistical test to accept or reject the null hypothesis.
• Calculate the p-value.
• What should you tell the vice president of marketing about the golf balls product?

Hint: You will need to use Excel to calculate the statistical parameters, the Mean, Variance, and Standard Deviation and the Analysis Toolpak or StatPlus: mac LE to calculate the statistical test that you have chosen and the p-value.

Practical Application Scenario 3

As the food court manager at the Mall of Elbonia, you want to determine how much time customers spend at the mall related to different times of the week (for example: midweek, day; midweek evening; weekend, day; weekend, evening) . Last week the mall survey staff administered a random survey to mall visitors by selecting customers as they were leaving the mall. One of the questions asked was how much time the customer had spent in the mall on that day.

The findings from this study are provided in the Mall Time Interview Results document provided in the Resources. Columns A through D show the time spent by the customers interviewed, according to the weekday and time of day when the interviews occurred. Is there any statistically significant difference (at alpha = .05) in the average amount of time people spend in the mall based on the weekday and time? To determine the answer to that question, you need appropriate answers to the following four questions. Remember to use your MBA6018 – Data Analysis for Business Decisionstextbook and any additional resources you have used in this course to help you answer each question:

• Identify the null and alternative hypotheses you should form for this test. State each as an explanation and as a math equation.
• Identify the appropriate statistical test to accept or reject the null hypothesis.
• Calculate the appropriate ANOVA values to accept or reject your null and alternative hypotheses.
• What should you tell the Mall of Elbonia’s food court stores managers (in terms of the mall’s high traffic times and customer tendencies)?

Assignment Submission

Complete all of your practical application scenario answers in one Word file (please submit a .doc rather than a .docx file) and copy the Excel output, including graphics, tables, and so on, into that document. Highlight your findings for these practical applications scenarios in yellow.