Forecasting and Business Analysis

Forecasting and Business Analysis Study Period 5, 2013 Assignment 1 - Report

Due Date: 13

th September, 5pm

Background The data contained in the spreadsheet “Corner Store.xls” (located in the same folder as this document) provide information relating to the gross monthly sales of a hypothetical corner store chain. Each observation in the data represents a corner store at a different location. The data incorporate observations from different cities and states (but all in Australia). For each corner store, (i=1,2,….,50) , the variables you have been given are: 1. Gross monthly sales ($) 2. The number of competitors within 10km 3. The population (in 1000’s) within 10km 4. The average income of the population within 10km ($) 5. The average number of cars owned by households within 10km 6. The median age of dwellings within 10km You have been approached by the owners of this corner store chain to conduct a statistical analysis. They are looking to open new corner stores in several areas where they are currently not operating. Hence, they are interested in the determinants of gross sales, and in predicting the characteristics of the areas they should be considering for the establishment of new corner stores. Task Write a report for the corner store chain owners. The report should provide a brief summary of the data, justification of the variable(s) that you consider to be relevant, and analysis of your results (including your interpretation of the results and any diagnostic tests you have conducted). You should also highlight any limitations in your analysis and suggestions for improving this research that you feel to be appropriate.

WORD LIMIT FOR REPORT: 1000 words including a 100 word executive

summary, but excluding references and appendix.

- An electronic copy of your assignment is to be submitted online using

Learnonline, while a hard copy of the identical version of your assignment is to

be dropped into the pigeon hole marked as “Assignment Box” located outside

the office of the School of Commerce (WL 2-57). For external students, the hard

copy is not required.

- There is a penalty of 10% of the total mark for late submission of each day. The

only exception to this is if your tutor approves an extension prior to the due date,

for legitimate reasons based on documented evidence. So you should collect your

documented evidence before you contact your tutor for an extension.

- Plagiarism is a specific form of academic misconduct. If found, both parties will be penalised regardless of who copies from whom. The electronic version of your

submitted assignment will be used for a plagiarism check.

- For guideline on report writing for an empirical project, see Appendix A of Koop.

The following are some guidelines that we will use to mark your assignments. This may help you in preparing your assignment. Main article

Superb: include all main results; accompanying well-presented and meaningful graphs and tables; accurate, consistent and logical arguments; well-written. Good, solid report: it is not superb in all aspects above, but an overall impression of the report suggests that it is a very good and solid report. Acceptable, but with several weaknesses: it clearly contains some mistakes, but overall it covers most important findings. Quite inadequate: the report contains many mistakes. An overall impression suggests that assignments were done with little effort and students do not understand most of the concepts introduced in the course. Appendix

Include all necessary Excel outputs. Your appendix may include some technical materials. The appendix should be well sorted out and with brief descriptions, so that they are easy to follow. Please note: marks are deducted for excessive or irrelevant output, in particular, printouts of the worksheet.