Business Decision Making Essays

Business Decision Making Essays Business Decision Making Essay Business Decision Making Essay The business research process provides a roadmap with directions for conducting a business research project. There are three steps in the research process. They are the formulation, execution and analytical phases. Step 1: Formulation stage involves defining the substance and process of the research. To Develop: Theory, Research Questions, Hypotheses, and Study Design/Method. Example: Assume a luxury producer came and sought help from my company which provides business consultation services. He was worried about how to segment the current market.I would design the research objectives according to the Maslows hierarchy of needs theory, eg. How many people are there living this area? their income level. their occupation and so on. I would assume that people of certain income level would be interest in luxury goods to show his or her status. The research will be designed especially made for this luxury company. Step 2: Execution phase researcher is actively gat hering information from the appropriate sources. This information is then checked for errors, coded, and stored in a way that allows it to be analysed quickly and conveniently.Example: After the design of research is completed, I would send it to the marketing staff to implement the research, check the errors. Then I would transform the research questions into questionnaires, post them online or distribute them to certain areas. After people finished the questionnaires, I would gather all the information, check for errors, coded them into SPSS, and analysed right on the SPSS programme. Step 3: Analytical phase data are analysed. Hypotheses are tested and either (a) supported, or (b) not supported, based upon comparing the actual study outcome with the outcome predicted in the formulation stage.Results are examined to provide answers to the key research questions. The decision maker then take actions based upon better knowledge of the situation. Example: when the data have been anal ysed, I would test if the hypotheses are supported or not supported. Then make the conclusion. (b) Recent business trends have affected business research in many ways. They have helped shape the types of research performed, the way research is conducted and the phenomena that are studied, as well as the importance of research in business decision-making.Among the more important trends impacting business research are international research, relationship marketing and information revolution. International research. Firms around the world now perform business research to improve their decision making. This research influences decisions often involving unfamiliar cultures. Internationalization means business research also must take an international focus. Difficult managerial decisions involving consumers and employees in a foreign culture are made even more difficult by an array of communication barriers, both verbal and nonverbal.These decisions require research regarding cultural dif ferences including the ability to translate meaning from one language into the same meaning in another language. The internet means many businesses now consider the world their market. In addition, translational equivalence which means that text can be translated from one language to another and then back to the original language with no distortion in meaning, becomes essential. Relationship marketing Relationship marketing emphasizes long-term interactions between a business and its stakeholders.The emergence of relationship marketing is changing research in terms of who and what is studied. A principal component of relationship marketing is the realization a firm cannot be everything to everybody. Otherwise, limited resources will be spent on unprofitable customers. Successful companies have loyal customers, loyal employees and loyal stakeholders. Relationship marketing has placed an increased emphasis on the study of loyalty-related factors. Employee loyalty issues such as turnov er and organizational commitment have been studied often because of their relationship to firm performance.Turnover represents the average tenure of an employee and suggests a replacement rate needed to maintain production. Organizational commitment is the degree to which an employee identifies with the goals and values of a firm. Information revolution The information age has facilitated many research processes. Technological advances in computing and electronic storage have dramatically increased research efficiency. Electronic communications, such as emails, has replaced the telephone and traditional ‘snail-mail’ for many types of business communications, including many matters directly related to research.Networking allows greater communication and data transfer between interested parties. Company information is now stored and catalogued in an electronic format, these electronic data warehouses replace other more costly approaches to storing data. Electronic data wa rehousing clearly has changed the way analysts and decision makers do their jobs. Further, numerous industry statistics are now available electronically. Motivated by the low cost of electronically storing information and a desire to better understand multiple relationships, many organizations have developed formal systems aimed at recording all important events in a database.The resulting database is an electronic representation of organizational memory. Organizational learning can be defined as the internalization of both external and internal information to be used as an input to decision making. One relatively new organization learning tool is data mining. Data mining electronically mines data ware houses for information that identifies ways to improve organizational performance. Business research even extends beyond the earth. Many companies are gathering and analysing information obtained from Global Positioning Satellite devices.GPS allows real-time tracking of movement. Rese archers can expected and able to be more productive than they were a generation ago. Question 2 (a) The graphical technique of multiple-line is adopted to illustrate the number of job vacancies reported in NSW, Victoria and Australia from 1998/99 to 2009/10. It is clear and easy to identify the trends among three places and make comparisons by using the line chart. We can see from the line chart that the number of job vacancies is greater than the number of Victoria through all the periods.We can see an upward trend in all three places. From 1998/99 to 1999/00, the job vacancies drop slightly in Victoria while the number of NSW went down dramatically from 20,000 to approximately 10,000. Job vacancies in Victoria were on the rise from 1999/00 to 2008/09. However, at the same time, the number of NSW fluctuated within the range of 20,000 to 40,000. In 2007/08, the job vacancies peaked at 40,000, followed by a dramatic fall. The overall trend of job vacancies reported in Australia was s imilar to NSW. It bottomed at 37,000 in 1999/00 and peaked at 116,000 in 2007/08. (b)The graphical techniques of clustered bar chart is adopted to show the percentage of earnings by three business segments, international airline operations, domestic airline operations and subsidiary operations, from 2004 to 2010. By using clustered bar chart, the percentage in each segment become evident, moreover, it is easy to make comparisons. The earnings by international airline operations accounted for the largest proportion in all the years except 2010. The figure peaked in 2009 with more than 60%. In 2010, the earnings made by domestic airline operations exceeded the earnings of international airline operations.The earnings made by subsidiary operations fluctuated in this period from 2004 to 2010. The graphical techniques of stacked bar chart is adopted to show the figures of earnings according to geographic area, Australia, UK and Europe, Japan, Southeast and Northeast, Asia, America and th e pacific and other countries, from 2004 to 2010. By using stacked bar chart, the amount of earnings in each segment become clear, moreover, it is easy to make comparisons among seven years. We can witness a upward trend for the total earnings in seven areas. The earnings made by Australia accounted for the largest proportion through all the years.Australia’s earnings figure peaked in 2010 with more 10000. It is clear that the earnings made by Australia were on the rise from 2004 to 2010, while at the same time, all the other geographic areas remained constant. Question 3 Brief report for the Frank City Council Respondents gender FrequencyPercentValid PercentCumulative Percent Validmale2141. 242. 042. 0 female2956. 958. 0100. 0 Total5098. 0100. 0 MissingSystem12. 0 Total51100. 0 Of the sample, a large proportion of the sample is female (58%), while 42% of the sample is male. Statistics Age of respondent NValid50 Missing1Mean46. 78 Median45. 50 Mode35a Std. Deviation18. 074 Va riance326. 665 Range78 Minimum21 Maximum99 Percentiles2531. 75 5045. 50 7560. 00 a. Multiple modes exist. The smallest value is shown In Frank City, there are three main age groups in the sample with 23-25 years old, 33-44 years old and 57-65 years old. People of other ages are pretty even within the range from 21 to 99 years old. The minimum age is 21 years old and the maximum age is 99 years old. The Average age is 46 years old. Ethnicity of respondent FrequencyPercentValid PercentCumulative Percent Validwhite2549. 050. 050. 0 lack1733. 334. 084. 0 other815. 716. 0100. 0 Total5098. 0100. 0 MissingSystem12. 0 Total51100. 0 In the sample, most of the people are white (50%), 34% are black, 16% are other ethnicities. White people accounted for the largest part in the sample, followed by black thnicity. Region in the Council FrequencyPercentValid PercentCumulative Percent Validnorth1427. 528. 028. 0 south1631. 432. 060. 0 west2039. 240. 0100. 0 Total5098. 0100. 0 MissingSystem12. 0 Tot al51100. 0 In this sample, most of the people live in the west region (40%), there are 32% live in the south, 28% live in the north.Number of brothers and sisters FrequencyPercentValid PercentCumulative Percent Valid035. 96. 06. 0 11121. 622. 028. 0 21121. 622. 050. 0 312. 02. 052. 0 459. 810. 062. 0 535. 96. 068. 0 659. 810. 078. 0 7917. 618. 096. 0 1012. 02. 098. 0 1212. 02. 0100. 0 Total5098. 0100. 0 MissingSystem12. 0 Total51100. 0 Of the sample, most of the people have 1-2 brothers and sisters 21. 6%. There are 18% of people who have 7 siblings. 10% of the people have 4-5 siblings. Number of children FrequencyPercentValid PercentCumulative Percent Valid01631. 432. 032. 0 11019. 620. 052. 0 21019. 20. 072. 0 3917. 618. 090. 0 423. 94. 094. 0 523. 94. 098. 0 812. 02. 0100. 0 Total5098. 0100. 0 MissingSystem12. 0 Total51100. 0 Of the sample, 32% of the people do not have a child. However, 68% of the people have 1-3 kids. Those who have 1-3 children accounted for the largest propor tion in this sample. Respondent’s occupation category * Respondents gender Crosstabulation Count Respondents genderTotal malefemale Respondent’s occupation categorymanagerial Professional Speciality9615 technical, Sales Administrative Support4913 Service189 Farming, Forest Fishing213Precision Production, Craft Repairs336 Operation, Fabrication General Labour224 Total212950 Of the sample, more male were occupied with managerial Professional jobs than female. On the contrary, far more female engaged in technical, Sales Administrative Support and Service jobs To obey * Respondents gender Crosstabulation Count Respondents genderTotal malefemale To obeyMost important3710 Important134 3rd important336 4th important31114 Least important11516 Total212950 Of the sample, female tend to be more aware of obedience than male. While more male thought obedience is least important.To be well liked or popular * Respondents gender Crosstabulation Count Respondents genderTotal mal efemale To be well liked or popular0011 Most important314 Important459 3rd important325 4th important5611 Least important61420 Total212950 Of the sample, most of the female thought to be popular is least important than male. Both genders think it is of importance to become popular. More male than female thought it is most important to be liked. To work hard * Respondents gender Crosstabulation Count Respondents genderTotal malefemale To work hard0011 Most important729 Important51015 3rd important41115 th important426 Least important134 Total212950 Of the sample, 33% of male think to work is most important, by comparison, only 7% of female thought so. Those female who thought to work hard is important and 3rd important are almost twice as much as male. But those female who thought to work hard it least important are about 3 times than male. It is evident that those who completed 16 to 20 years at school engaged in managerial % professional speciality jobs and most of the people who f inished 12 to 14 years at school were occupied with technical, sales Administrative Support jobs and Service jobs.Recommendations for Frank City Council According to the data analysis given above, I would suggest the council to be aware of the following factors. Of the sample, we can assume that in Frank City, there more females than males. The council should take special actions for caring the females, for instance, allocate special bus or trains just for females in order to avoid crimes speculation against females. The aging problem is becoming more and more serious due to the fact that people of 57 to 64 years old accounted for a largest proportion.Actions should be made to improve the medical services and more medical facilities are needed. More people live in the West region, so the council should build more public transportation services and facilities in the West region. It is of great importance to allocate appropriate funds to the West in order to keep the capital construc tion. It is beneficial to the society to provide better education opportunities to both genders in order to keep the balance of each types of job.People are better motivated when same amount of genders engage in work.