Developing Hypothesis and Data Analysis
Overview
Write a 1–2 page analysis of an approach to gather data and statistically test a hypothetical assertion.
Note: The assessments in this course build upon each other, so you are strongly encouraged to complete them in sequence.
This assessment provides you with the steps required to confirm that your product has the best price in the marketplace compared to your competition.
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:
- Competency 1: Evaluate the quality and fit of data for use in business analysis.
- Determine the null hypothesis and alternative hypothesis for making decisions regarding pricing comparison.
- Identify a sample selection technique to gather data for testing a price comparison hypothesis.
- Competency 3: Analyze business decision opportunities using basic inferential statistics.
- Analyze statistical tests for a price comparison hypothesis.
- Competency 6: Communicate in a manner that is professional and consistent with expectations for members of the business professions.
- Communicate in a manner that is professional and consistent with expectations for members of the business professions.
Competency Map
Context
After developing a hypothesis, you need to determine what data to collect and how to collect the data to be used in your analysis. Consider the type of analysis you will be performing on the data, the difficulty in obtaining the data, and the degree of confidence required in the data analysis and your conclusions. For example, will you be performing a random probability sampling for making statistical inferences about the sampled population or a non-probability sampling based on convenience, voluntary, or judgment sampling?
Questions to Consider
To deepen your understanding, you are encouraged to consider the questions below and discuss them with a fellow learner, a work associate, an interested friend, or a member of the business community.
- What is a dependent sample and when will you use it? What are the advantages of dependent sample design compared with independent sample design?
Resources
Additional Resources for Further Exploration
The following resource is a tutorial that walks through statistical scenarios.
Statistics Tutorials
Capella University partners with Sophia Learning to provide tutorials and other learning resources online. For this assessment, you are encouraged to study the following Sophia tutorials:
This tutorial explains how to select the best team consisting of ten players (from a randomly generated list of 25) and be able to calculate specific statistical values according to the following criteria:
- Barsness, B. (n.d.). Creating the best fantasy baseball team | Retrieved from http://www.sophia.org/creating-the-best-fantasy-baseball-team-tutorial
This tutorial explains the usefulness of the different sampling methods.
- Varela, A. (Producer). (n.d.). Contrasting sampling methods [Video] | Transcript. Retrieved from https://www.sophia.org/tutorials/contrasting-sampling-methods–5
Additional Statistics Tutorials
This website offers resources that cover many topics in statistics, including presentations that illustrate how to use software to implement statistical methods.
- com (Producer). (n.d.). Independent and dependent samples [Video] | Transcript. Retrieved from http://www.statisticslectures.com/topics/independentdependentsamples/
- com (Producer). (n.d.). Null and alternative hypotheses [Video] | Transcript. Retrieved from http://www.statisticslectures.com/topics/hypotheses/
- com (Producer). (n.d.). Independent samples t-test [Video] | Transcript. Retrieved from http://www.statisticslectures.com/topics/independentsamplest/
- com (Producer). (n.d.). Independent and dependent samples [Video] | Transcript. Retrieved from http://www.statisticslectures.com/topics/independentdependentsamples/
- Assessment Instructions
You are the manager of the Blander Mountain store in Frogtown, Illinois. Recently, a customer mentioned that he believed your prices for ammunition were lower than the prices of Blander’s primary competitor in the hunting equipment market. 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.
- Analyze the most appropriate sample selection technique to gather data for testing the hypothesis.
- Identify what statistical test you should use to test this hypothesis with the data you will collect.
Compile your work in a 1–2 page Microsoft Word file, pasting in any graphics or tables you used in your analysis.