Assignment Details

This assignment builds upon your work in Units 1, 2, and 3.

Chapter 12 shows an overview of how data can be described using statistics. Descriptive statistics enables you to describe and compare the data values associated with the variables involved in answering a business question or resolving a business problem.

After analyzing the qualitative data using thematic analysis (see Unit 3), the Marketing Vice President (VP) discovered that the most recurring theme in participant responses was the length of time that the smartphone battery holds its charge. The Marketing VP knows that her company’s current battery supplier (Supplier A) has a battery that lasts approximately 10 hours. The marketing team conducted some exploratory online research and discovered that the average smartphone with continuous use results in a battery charge lasting 9 hours. The company’s Supply Chain Manager is recommending that the company switch to another supplier (Supplier B) that claims that their battery lasts 11 hours on a charge when the smartphone is in continuous use. It is important that the Marketing VP confirm whether Supplier B’s claim is true because Supplier B’s battery is more expensive than Supplier A’s battery. The team ran tests on 10 Supplier A batteries and 10 Supplier B batteries to see how long each phone’s charge lasted when the phone is in continuous use. The team then analyzed the collected data using descriptive statistical analysis. See the Descriptive Statistics results below.

Objective

Confirm whether either Supplier A’s or Supplier B’s batteries last 11 hours between charges.

Descriptive Statistics

The following are important terms in descriptive statistics:

• Mean: Average in a collection of numbers
• Standard error: Standard accuracy of an estimate
• Median: Middle number in a sorted, ascending or descending, list of numbers
• Mode: The most frequently occurring number in a set of numbers
• Standard deviation: Measure of the amount of deviation in a set of values
• Sample variation: Measure of the degree in which numbers in a list are spread out
• Range: Difference between the lowest and highest values in a list of values
• Minimum: The smallest value in the data
• Maximum: The largest value in the data
• Sum: Total of the observations (in this case, the number of tests ran on each battery type)
• Count: Number of items in the test (in this case, the number of batteries of each type)

Review the Descriptive Statistics Analysis Results.

Complete a quantitative data analysis of the given quantitative descriptive statistics types.

Your 5-page analysis should include the following:

• Evaluate the value of descriptive statistics in answering the given research question to achieve the research objective.
• The introduction should introduce the reader to the use of descriptive statistics in business research.
• Assess descriptive statistics options, the business research question, and the research objective to create a 1-page infographic slide showing how each descriptive statistics option either supports or does not support answering the given research question or objective.
• Evaluate the given results of 2 descriptive statistics types to determine whether or not the results answer the business research question or achieve the research objective.
• Argue a persuasive rationale for the value of using 1 of the given descriptive statistics types instead of the other for the business research question or the business research objective.

Watch this video on how to create an infographic.

Deliverable Requirements

The infographic showing how each descriptive statistics option supports or does not answer the business research question should comprise 1 graphic. The analysis of the 2 descriptive statistics results and the rationale for using 1 type versus the other to answer the business research question and objective should be 4 pages in length. Be sure to cite sources using APA properly; include references and in-text citations.

Submitting your assignment in APA format means, at a minimum, that you will need the following:

• Title page: Remember the running head. The title should be in all capitals.
• Length: 5 pages minimum
• Body: This begins on the page following the title page and must be double-spaced (be careful not to triple- or quadruple-space between paragraphs). The typeface should be 12-pt. Times Roman or 12-pt. Courier in regular black type. Do not use color, bold type, or italics, except as required for APA-level headings and references. The deliverable length of the body of your paper for this assignment is 5 pages. In-body academic citations to support your decisions and analysis are required. A variety of academic sources is encouraged.
• Reference page: References that align with your in-body academic sources are listed on the final page of your paper. The references must be in APA format using appropriate spacing, hanging indent, italics, and uppercase and lowercase usage as appropriate for the type of resource used. Remember, the Reference page is not a bibliography but a further listing of the abbreviated in-body citations used in the paper. Every referenced item must have a corresponding in-body citation.