EFIM10014: Quantitative Analysis in Management
University of Bristol Business School
COURSEWORK 2023
This assessment is assessing the following unit learning outcomes:
1. Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the role of quantitative analysis in generating value from data.
2. Apply basic statistical techniques to business and management problems.
3. Communicate quantitative ideas effectively in written form.
4. Use a variety of visual models to represent statistical results.
5. Use Excel for data analysis and presentation.
Assignment:
Kheirat is a company that sells skincare products all over Asia. The company has designated geographic sales territories, each
the responsibility of a single sales representative who services a number of retail outlets within their territory. The company
wants to find out which factors influence the quantity of sold units and the impact each factor has on sales. For this, a random
sample of 110 sales territories of the firm’s sales organisation was drawn. Information was collected on the number of units
of the product sold, along with values for seven possible predictor variables, in each territory.
Sales of the skincare products (in units sold) were hypothesised to be a function of the following variables:
1. The advertising budget in that territory during the past year (Advertising; in $);
2. How long the territory sales representative had been employed by the company (Time with Company; in months);
3. What percentage of the market potential the company actually had in this territory (Market Share; in %);
4. The market size in the territory, measured as total sales of products within the same product category (Market Potential);
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5. The number of retail outlets the sales representative was responsible for in this territory (Outlets);
6. The average rating of the company in each territory (Rating; in points);
7. The number of meetings between the sales representative and someone from top management (Nb of meetings; semi_x005f annually).
The Excel spreadsheet “QAM CW DATASET 2023.xlsx” contains data for the 110 sample sales territories.
You are tasked to conduct the data analysis to provide the CEO with insights about what drives or predicts sales. For this, you
should write a summary of your findings and make recommendations for the company, in management/nontechnical terms,
so the CEO knows what to focus the company’s attention on. Bear in mind that the CEO is busy, not a fan of statistics jargon
and thus wants easily accessible information.
The CFO has also announced their interest in your findings because they are hoping for a mathematical model to predict
future sales. Unlike the CEO, the CFO is a bit of a statistics whizz and will critically examine your analysis and assumptions.
To please both, you should write a report of maximum 2500 words (this is excluding tables and graphs) with the following
structure:
Start with the summary of the findings and recommendations arising from your analysis. This is aimed at the CEO so it has
to go first, as they won’t read the rest of the report. The summary and recommendations to the CEO should constitute the
main part of the report, and thus will include most of the writing.
The second part of the report, which could be the technical appendix, should demonstrate and explain all the steps you have
taken in your analysis, the obtained model of what drives sales, and which assumptions you have made and tested. Remember
this needs to be statistically accurate, as the CFO will examine it critically and might recommend scrapping your results to
the CEO if they do not trust your procedure. This part does not need to include a lot of writing/text but must include tables
and graphs with some relevant explanation.
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Your work should be presented in a word document, not in an Excel file (this means that tables and graphs need to be copied
from Excel into the document; Font: Times New Roman 12).
You will be assessed on:
The correctness of your models and statistical analysis
The correctness and details in your interpretations of ALL the output
The clarity of the interpretation of your analysis for management’s (CEO)
understanding
The structure and presentation style of the report
Recommendations arising from the analysis and suggestions for future work
Conducting any relevant extended analysis beyond the basic brief (especially
if based on your own independent reading with relevant sources)
Please also see the marking criteria at the end of this document.
The coursework accounts for 60% of the unit’s grade.
Submit your work via the Blackboard link by (8
th Jan 2024) at 1 pm.
Please note that this is your individual work. Using someone else’s work is plagiarism which is a serious offence and comes
with penalties.
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EFIM10014 Marking Criteria
Coursework
Clas
s Distinction Merit Pass Fail
0-100 scale 100-70 69-60 59-50 49-40 39-0
The student shows excellent
understanding of the
requirements of the assignment.
There is a clear division between
the section for the CEO and that
for the CFO.
The obtained/chosen model is
statistically correct.
Student has shown and explained
all steps involved in the analysis
correctly.
Model validity is demonstrated
fully and correctly.
All output is correctly interpreted.
Recommendations made to the
CEO are relevant and useful.
Recommendations for future
research are also made.
The student differentiates
between what explanation (and
The student shows very good
understanding of the
requirements of the assignment.
There is a clear division between
the section for the CEO and that
for the CFO.
The obtained/chosen model is
statistically correct.
The student has shown and
explained the steps involved in
the analysis correctly but might
have missed a minor explanation
of one of the steps in the analysis.
Model validity is demonstrated
fully and correctly.
The report might include some
minor incomplete output
interpretations.
The student shows good
understanding of the
requirements of the assignment.
There is a clear division between
the section for the CEO and that
for the CFO.
The student might have missed
an important step that affects the
final model built, but a
reasonable statistical analysis is
demonstrated.
The final model has been
validated but one of the
assumptions might not be correct.
The output has been interpreted
but there might be some other
relevant interpretations missing.
Some recommendations are
made to the CEO, but the student
have made some confusing or
irrelevant statements, or
The student shows a
satisfactory understanding of
the requirements of the
assignment.
They have run some analysis
to find out what impacts
sales, but they might not
have conducted all relevant
steps.
The student might not have
conducted all the proper
assumption testing.
Some output has been
interpreted but other
relevant interpretations and
output are missing.
The recommendations made
to the CEO are too brief or
confusing.
The report might not follow
the recommended structure:
The student shows poor
understanding of the
requirements of the assignment.
They fail to demonstrate
awareness of the proper analysis
to predict what impacts sales.
There is overall very
little/inadequate statistical
analysis and what is present is
either incorrect or very
confusing.
No interpretation or incorrect
interpretation of output exists.
Because the analysis is incorrect,
the student fails to make proper
recommendations to the CEO, or
there is no attempt to make
recommendations.
The report does not follow the
recommended structure and has
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Class Distinction Merit Pass Fail
0-100 scale 100-70 69-60 59-50 49-40 39-0
output interpretation) goes into
the CEO report and what goes
into the technical appendix for
the CFO.
Good/correct writing style of
management and technical report
with due regard to target
audience for each part.
The essay is well-structured and
includes appropriate sub headings.
Writing is presented to a high
standard and presentation of
tables/graphs is neat and correct.
Student has shown extended
analysis based on their own
independent reading or has
included information beyond the
basic analysis (maybe even
included relevant info from other
weeks of QAM).
References are included IF the
student presents information
outside the lecture material on
Blackboard.
The text is within word count.
Relevant recommendations based
on the findings are made to the
CEO but might be rather basic.
The student attempts to
differentiate between what
explanation (and output
interpretation) goes into the CEO
report and what goes into the
technical appendix for the CFO,
but the writing style/language
used for the CEO might include a
few technical terms.
The essay is well-structured and
includes appropriate sub headings.
Writing is presented to a high
standard and presentation of
tables/graphs is neat and correct.
The text is within word count.
recommendations made are too
basic.
The language used for the CEO
and CFO is almost the same
(student has barely distinguished
between the two audiences).
The essay might not be very well structured. However, there is
clear presentation of tables and
figures.
Writing is presented to a good
standard.
The text is within word count.
CEO report followed by a
technical appendix/section
for the CFO and thus student
has not distinguished
between the two audiences.
The writing may lack fluency
and contain errors in
understanding and
misinterpretation of
concepts.
There is not a neat and clear
presentation of tables and
figures.
a weak or no discernible
structure.
The writing style is poor which
disrupts the understanding of
the assignment.
Presentation of any
graphs/tables is poor.
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