5.1 Assignment: Reading and Remediation

Getting Started

Viewing the videos and practicing using the practice Excel file with its video can prepare you for the work needed on the research report.

In order to successfully complete this exercise, you should be able to:

• Review videos about statistics fundamentals.
• Practice with the Excel file provided.

Resources

• File: WS5Practice
• File: WS5Homework
• Video: Chi-Square
• Video: Chi-Square Testing
• Textbook: OpenIntro Statistics
• File: Chi-Square_10by10.xlsx

Background Information

Providing background and descriptive statistics is like a literature review section of a dissertation. You review and communicate the analysis on the raw data. You present visual representations of the data to give meaning to the raw data.

Instructions

1. Watch the following video on chi-square:
2. Watch the Excel remediation videos on chi-square testing: Chi-Square Testing using the Chi-Square_10by10.xlsx file. 
3. An optional supplementary textbook is OpenIntro Statistics, and you can read the concepts there.
4. Use the lab file WS5Practice to practice the Excel skills (includes an Excel hands-on video inside the spreadsheet as a link).
5. Use the file WS5Homework to demonstrate the Excel skills. Each of the three problems is worth 20 points, for a total of 60 points possible for this assignment.
6. When you have completed your assignment, save a copy for yourself and submit a copy to your instructor by the end of the workshop.

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5.2 Assignment: Summarizing Raw Data

Getting Started

Being able to summarize data using pivot tables is a crucial skill to develop in business and research. Excel provides a powerful pivot table tool that is heavily used in finance, accounting, information technology, and other business areas. In this course, the skill is used to support a chi-square analysis.

In order to successfully complete this assignment, you should be able to:

• Summarize data into a contingency table from raw data using pivot tables.

Resources

• File: WS5-2_PivotTables
• File: WS5-2_PivotAssignment

Instructions

1. Review the rubric to make sure you understand the criteria for earning your grade.
2. Read the file WS5-2_PivotTables.
3. After reading the Word document, open the file WS5-2_PivotAssignment.
4. Create the appropriate summary tables called contingency tables.
5. Turn in an Excel file showing the pivot table you have created.
6. When you have completed your assignment, save a copy for yourself and submit a copy to your instructor by the end of the workshop.

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5.4 Assignment: Create Categorical Hypothesis

Getting Started

After the prior activities, the analysis section can be written for the research report. Since there are three analyses to perform, this is a partial assignment for the analysis section.

In order to successfully complete this assignment, you should be able to:

• Write part of the analysis section for a data set.

Resources

• File: Research Report Patients
• Your most recent research report

Background Information

This is one of the more detailed assignments in this course. You will write your third analysis for the report.

Instructions

1. Study the Research Report Patients file.
2. In your report, fill out the third analysis section, including any statistics and graphs and interpretation on the analysis.
3. When you have completed your assignment, save a copy for yourself and submit a copy of the research report to your instructor by the end of the workshop.

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5.2 Discussion: The Euro

Getting Started

International business, out of necessity, requires international currencies. Even when an imported product is bought and sold in U.S. dollars, workers and vendors must be paid in the local currency. This requires exchanging currencies somewhere in the process. In this assignment you will examine how currency exchange rates are determined and the factors affecting other international financial flows.

Upon successful completion of this discussion, you will be able to:

• Determine what macro policies the countries in the European Union are following regarding their economies.

Resources

• Textbook: Economics for Managers
• Website: American Express
• Website: Lumen: Microeconomics

Background Information

The euro came into existence on January 1, 1999, although it had been a goal of the European Union (EU) and its predecessors since the 1960s. After tough negotiations, particularly due to opposition from the United Kingdom, the Maastricht Treaty entered into force in 1993 with the goal of creating an economic and monetary union by 1999 for all EU states except the United Kingdom and Denmark. The euro has since become a major international currency.

Instructions

1. Review the rubric to make sure you understand the criteria for earning your grade.
2. Utilizing the two sources of information below, explain the factors that can affect the relative value of one currency to another in the global economy.
   1. American Express 
   2. Lumen: Microeconomics 
3. Again, using the same two sources, explain why U.S. presidents often favor a “lower dollar” over the course of their presidency.
   1. Explain the relationship between the relative value of the dollar and its relationship to U.S. exports and imports.
   2. Posit the effect of the relative value of the US dollar and the impact on US GDP. Using the equation for GDP, GDP = C + I +G + (X-M), which of the various components of GDP would be most affected by changing currency levels? Explain.
4. Your initial response should be 400 to 600 words in length and include two academic sources that are properly cited. It is due by the end of the fourth day of the workshop.
5. Now conduct a critical analysis of a posting by two of your classmates by the end of the workshop.
   1. The topic of your discussion response should be your classmate’s posting and should be written as if you were reviewing his/her posting in an academic journal. Your discussion response should, therefore, answer the following questions as applicable:
      1. Were your classmate’s arguments articulate and logical? Were the facts correct?
      2. Was the interpretation your classmate provided reasonable and consistent with experts in the field? Was your classmate consistent with both the substance and intent of his/her references?
   2. The focus for your critical analysis is not whether or not you agree with your classmate, but how well his/her position was presented. Each response should be at least 200 words in length and cite two academic sources. Please strive to make your discussion responses ones that cause iron to sharpen iron.

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5.3 Assignment: Currency Exchange Response

Getting Started

What happens to the exports of products produced in the U.S. when the U.S. dollar is strong compared to some foreign currency? When it is weak? Since individual business managers have no ability to affect exchange rates, managers must at least thoroughly understand the impact of exchange rates on imports and exports in order to adjust plans for exchange rate fluctuations. This assignment will help you better understand these issues and how exchange rate fluctuations may affect your organization.

Upon successful completion of this assignment, you will be able to:

• Analyze how several firms, including your own, are adapting to the changing international environment.

Resources

• Textbook: Economics for Managers

Background Information

Managers are affected by currency exchange rates because these exchange rates influence the prices of both the firm’s inputs and its outputs if the firm sells its products or purchases its raw materials abroad. An increase in a nation’s exchange rate hurts domestic firms that export to other countries but helps firms that import their raw materials from out of the country.

Instructions

1. Review the rubric to make sure you understand the criteria for earning your grade.
   1. In current news publications, find three examples similar to those in Chapter 15, of the strategic responses of individual businesses to globalization and changes in the currency exchange rates. One of these examples may be your own organization.
   2. Create a table as shown below that compares and contrasts how each firm (including your employer) is reacting to the changing business environment.
      1. Defend your answers with clear, insightful thinking.
      2. The table should fit on one page with a reference list on the second page.
   3. Submit your table and reference list by the end of the workshop.
   4. CompanyQuestion 1: What internal actions is the firm taking in response to changing currency rates?Question 2: What external actions is the firm taking in 
      response to changing currency rates?Company 1Company 2Company 3

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5.4 Discussion: Other Influences

Getting Started

In addition to exchange rates, there are many other international influences on the domestic economy. Astute managers must understand these issues in order to make better decisions and plans about the future and craft better organization strategies.

Upon successful completion of this discussion, you will be able to:

• Evaluate international influences on the domestic economy.

Background Information

Managers need to understand the impact of international economic events on the level of economic activity in the domestic economy and in those countries where they have substantial markets.  Managers must also be able to analyze the implications of these changes for the competitive strategies of their own firms and those of their major competitors.

Instructions

1. Review the rubric to make sure you understand the criteria for earning your grade.
2. Choose one of the following five global companies and investigate the company’s earnings in its latest quarter. Explain how currency fluctuations across the globe have affected earnings. Search each of the latest financial reports to find such information. Make sure you research the information from the perspective of currency fluctuations on revenue, earnings, and global market share. This will require 400-600 words of APA style narrative with at least three sources of information from credible sources. 
   1. Caterpillar
   2. Procter and Gamble
   3. John Deere
   4. YUM! Brands (KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut)
   5. Coca Cola
3. Your initial response should be 400 to 600 words in length and include three academic sources that are properly cited.  It is due by the end of the fourth day of the workshop.
4. Now conduct a critical analysis of a posting by two of your classmates’ by the end of the workshop.
   1. The topic of your discussion response should be your classmates posting and should be written as if you were reviewing his/her posting in an academic journal. Your discussion response should, therefore, answer the following questions as applicable:
      1. Were your classmates arguments articulate and logical? Were the facts correct?
      2. Was the interpretation your classmate provided reasonable and consistent with experts in the field? Was your classmate consistent with both the substance and intent of his/her references?
   2. The focus for your critical analysis is not whether or not you agree with your classmate, but how well his/her position was presented. Each response should be at least 200 words in length and cite two academic sources.  Please strive to make your discussion responses ones that cause iron to sharpen iron.
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