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GROUP PROJECT BRIEF

QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS FOR BUSINESS 2014-15 (N11117)

Objective

The purpose of this project is to help you develop skills in relation to the analysis and interpretation of data using basic statistical techniques. The project will also help you to develop skills in relation to team work, time management and report presentation.

Marking Criteria

In marking the project, attention will be paid to the accuracy of the statistical analysis, the presentation of the findings and the interpretation that is placed on those findings. The ability to draw sensible conclusions using appropriate methods of analysis is as important as getting the 'right' numerical answers.

Administration

The group project counts for 30% of the total module mark. It will be organised as follows:

(i) All students are asked to sign up for a group using the Group project lists available on Moodle by 13th of February 2015. Groups should be a minimum of 4 people and a maximum of 8.

If you do not sign up for a group by February 13th, you risk being awarded a mark of zero for the project.

Here are some suggested ways of forming and signing up a group:

· Form a group of at least 4 individuals and no more than 8, find a free group slot on Moodle and sign up to it. If you have been unable to gather the minimum number of people, you can use the module Forum on Moodle to invite people to join your group.

· If you have not been able to form a group, you can approach a group that has spare spaces. Please ensure you get their agreement before signing up, as existing group members have the right to complain about unknown sign-ups. The module convenor will follow up these complaints and take appropriate actions.

· Distribute the responsibility for each question amongst yourselves. It helps to elect a leader who will oversee the practical aspects of co-ordinating and putting together various bits of the assignment. Note that the lack of co-ordination of work efforts was a problem in last year's coursework.

(ii) Make a note of the names of other members in your group. You are responsible for making contact with each other and you should ensure that your group meets as soon as possible to start work on the project.

(iii) If group membership details change after February 13th, please inform the module convenor by email immediately.

(iv) If you are experiencing problems in relation to the organisation of your group, please inform the module convenor (by email) as soon as possible and no later than 13th February.

(v) In the event of (iv) arising, the convenor will in the first instance attempt to put you and any other individual (s) in a similar situation in a group of appropriate size. In the unlikely case of the convenor failing to gather a group of the minimum stated size, then individuals in the latter group will have to complete a different group project.

(vi) If, through no fault of your own and subsequent to signing up, a given group breaks up after the signing-up deadline, and you are unable to form a new group, please inform the module convenor immediately. In this case, alternative arrangements as per (v) will apply, but these will only cover problems which were outside the individual's control.

(vii) Note that students are not allowed to substitute and submit an individual piece of work for the group project unless decided and agreed to by the module convenor.

(viii) All members of a group will be awarded the same mark unless your project is accompanied by a signed statement from the whole group requesting a different mark distribution. This might be the case, for instance if all other members of the group feel one/some member(s) have not contributed enough or at all to the work. If you are failing to get a response after several attempts to contact a group member to contribute to the project, subsequent to which there are disagreements about the equal distribution of marks, ensure you keep a copy of all email correspondence sent to that member. Prior to making a request for a different mark distribution, students must report any problems with their group to the convenor so that she can reasonably try to deal with the problem. Please note that no case for an unequal allocation of marks from any group member can be considered once a project has been marked. Note that group project marks are final once they have been signed off by the external examiner

(ix) Notwithstanding the above, unforeseen situations may arise with the group project that the module convenor will deal with as circumstances dictate and in a manner deemed most appropriate.

(x) The project (no more than 2500 words) is to be word processed and is due for submission no later than 14:00 on 27.04.2015. It must be handed in at the Undergraduate Office of the Business School. Late submissions will be subject to normal penalties.

Project Questions

You have been engaged by the UK Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), formerly known as the Department for Trade and Industry (DTI), to prepare an analysis of the various aspects of firms in the manufacturing sector operating in England, Scotland and Wales. BERR is particularly interested in issues related to ownership and exporting. You have been provided with data on a sample of 500 firms. These firms have been classified into three types: foreign-owned firms, domestic owned exporting firms and domestic-owned non-exporting firms. The data set also provides information on such characteristics as the number of employees, firm size, hourly wage rates, sales turnover, profits, profit margins, sector of activity and labour productivity. Labour productivity is measured as the value of output per employee.

You are asked to address the following issues:

1) Analyse the key features of the sample in terms of age, profitability, industry, location, size and type of firm. (Use summary statistics, graphs and/or frequency distributions as appropriate and comment on the shape of the distributions where relevant).

[25 marks]

2) Using cross tabulation, compare the size distributions of domestic-owned exporting and domestic owned non-exporting firms. Test whether there is a relationship between firm size and whether domestic-owned firms export or not. Perform the same test to verify whether a relationship exists between location and whether domestic-owned firms export or not.

[25 marks]

3) Calculate the 95% confidence intervals for profit margin for each type of firm. Test the hypothesis that there is a difference in the profit margins between foreign-owned and domestic-owned firms.

[25 marks]

4) BERR is interested in knowing the extent to which the number of employees, profit, labour productivity and ownership affect the hourly wage rate. You are asked to run a regression of WAGE on EMPLOYEE, PROFIT, LABPROD and FIRMTYPE. Carefully note that since FIRMTYPE is a categorical variable representing three categories, you need to create a suitable dummy variable to capture ownership and include it in the regression.

Comment on the findings from your regressions results. What conclusions can you draw about the factors which affect wage rates?

(Note: When commenting on the results obtained, you need to explain how each of these variables can affect the wage rate, clearly stating the hypotheses being tested. You also need to assess the quality of the model from a statistical perspective)

[25 marks]

List of Variables in Excel File

The data were collected from a random sample of firms across England, Scotland and Wales. A self completion questionnaire was mailed to the sample of firms and the data you are provided with are the responses that were received by the survey deadline. There are different types of variables – some variables are categorical or ordinal in which case, value labels are provided. Otherwise, variables are ratio. For ratio variables the numbers are exactly as presented in the data file. The sample contains data on 500 firms but you should note that for some firms, variables will be missing (usually indicated by a blank cell in the Excel Spreadsheet). Most forms of analysis that you undertake will accommodate missing values, but when you come to undertake regression analysis, Excel can only process observations where all the data is present – you will, therefore, need to exclude those cases which have missing values from your regression analysis. You should download a copy of the spreadsheet onto disk – you will need to right-click on the link and select ‘Save Target As…’ option as the file is read only. Remember to keep back-ups of the analysis that you do in Excel.

FIRMID: Identifier for the firm

LOCATION: Location of the firm

1 England

2 Scotland

3 Wales

INDUSTRY: Main business activity within manufacturing

1 Food products, beverages and tobacco

2 Textile and textile products

3 Leather and leather products

4 Wood and wood products

5 Pulp, paper and paper products, publishing and printing

6 Coke, refined petroleum products and nuclear fuel

7 Chemicals, chemical products and man-made fibres

8 Rubber and plastic products

9 Other non-metallic mineral products

10 Basic metal and fabricated metal products

11 Machinery and equipment not elsewhere classified

12 Electrical and optical equipment

13 Transport Equipment

14 Other

AGE: Age of the firm (years)

EMPLOYEE: Number of employees

WAGE: Hourly wage rate (£)

TURNOVER: Sales turnover (£)

PROFIT: Net profits (£)

PROFITMARG: Net profit as a percentage of sales turnover (%)

LABPROD Labour Productivity (£)

FIRMTYPE: Type of firm

1 Foreign-owned

2 Domestic-owned exporters

3 Domestic-owned non-exporters

SIZE: Size classification of the firm, based on number of employees

1 Between 1 and up to 100 employees

2 Between 100 and up to 200 employees

3 Between 200 and up to 300 employees

4 Between 300 and up to 400 employees

5 Between 400 and up to 500 employees

6 Greater than 500 employees

1