Using the time series of returns for the company you have chosen, estimate a univariate time series model that you think best describes the time series you have chosen and interpret your results.

/in /by

Assignment Question 1

Download 20 years’ worth of monthly data for the period January 2002 to December 2021 on a company of your choice from the CRSP database via WRDS, and download the Fama-French 3 Factors from the Kenneth French Data Library or from WRDS. You can access the Kenneth

French Data Library directly here:

https://mba.tuck.dartmouth.edu/pages/faculty/ken.french/data_library.html

You will find the Fama-French 3 Factors in the “U.S. Research Returns” section of the website.

Note that the returns data from the Kenneth French Data Library is in percentage form.

Returns data downloaded from the CRSP database is in decimal form. You should therefore either divide the data from the Kenneth French data library by 100 or multiply the returns on your company that you download from CRSP by 100.

Using multiple regression analysis, estimate the Fama-French 3 Factor model for your company and interpret your results. In interpreting and discussing your results and the fit of your model, you should conduct any hypothesis tests you feel are relevant, as well as undertaking and interpreting diagnostic tests (for example, testing for heteroscedasticity and serial correlation) on the residuals.

In addition to the textbook and the notes, you should find the following papers useful in motivating the analysis and interpreting your results (you do not need to provide a detailed review of the papers in your answer):

French, K.R. and E.F. Fama, 1993, Common risk factors in the returns on stocks and bonds.

Journal of Financial Economics 33, 3-56. For the purposes of the assignment, you do not need to worry about the bond factors (sections 2.1.1, 4.1 and 4.3), the discussion of the findings for bond returns, nor the material in sections 5 and 6 (what Fama and French refer to as diagnostic testing in section 6 can be thought of more as robustness checks.)

French, K.R. and E.F. Fama, 2004, The Capital Asset Pricing Model: Theory and Evidence.

Journal of Economic Perspectives 18, 25-46. The sections on “Early Empirical Tests”, “Recent Tests” and “Explanations: Irrational Pricing or Risk” should prove useful.

Assignment Question 2

Download four years’ worth of daily stock return data covering the period January 2018 to December 2021 on a company of your choice.

Using the time series of returns for the company you have chosen, estimate a univariate time series model (white noise, autoregressive (AR), moving average (MA) or ARMA) that you think best describes the time series you have chosen and interpret your results. Your analysis should include a discussion of why, based on the autocorrelation and partial autocorrelation functions and any additional suitable statistical tests you choose to run, you have identified the model you have and why this might be the most appropriate among the contender models you considered. Are your results consistent with the weak form of market efficiency? Briefly explain why or why not.

Assignment Question 3

From the Kenneth French Data Library, which you can access directly here:

https://mba.tuck.dartmouth.edu/pages/faculty/ken.french/data_library.html

download four years’ worth of daily return data covering the period January 2018 to December 2021 on the market return and two industry portfolios of your choice from the “30

Industry Portfolios” section of the website. If you wish, you can download daily returns on the market from the CRSP database via WRDS. Describe the purpose of a Vector Autoregression (VAR), and estimate and interpret a VAR model describing the dynamic relationship between returns on the market and returns on the industry portfolios. You should include a discussion of why you have identified the model you have and perform any additional analysis you think may be useful in interpreting the results from your VAR model.

In addition to the textbook and the notes, you should find the following paper useful in motivating the analysis and interpreting your results (you do not need to provide a detailed review of the paper in your answer):

Hong, H., W. Torous and R. Valkanov, 2007, Do industries lead stock markets? Journal of Financial Economics 83, 367-396.

 

Discuss how the two business fun. Discuss the selected process innovation. Which problem did it solve?

/in /by

Process innovation

Use one reference from Google Scholar for both questions. The total of two paragraphs should be between 350 – 450 words

Paragraph 1: Discuss how the two business fun(marketing and/or operations). Would identify and address this organization’s innovation needs.

Paragraph 2: Discuss the selected process innovation (marketing and/or operations) Which problem did it solve?

 

Calculate the upper and lower limits of the box-plot to 4 decimal places – show your calculations Give an explanation as to what this means in relation to this problem.

/in /by

Professional Report

The APA 7 professional report should be at least 3 pages (not including title page).

Watch the video on writing reports. The video includes information on more than just the APA7 professional report. The question is as follows:

AAA reported that the average price of regular gasoline is Pennsylvania during Memorial Day weekend in 2010 was $2.65 per gallon. The following data show the price per gallon of regular gasoline for 15 randomly selected stations in the state.

$2.73 $2.59 $2.74 $2.65 $2.71

$2.73 $2.51 $2.71 $2.61 $2.64

$2.58 $2.46 $2.64 $2.74 $2.58

Your report should include the following sections:

  • Title page
  • Introduction and problem background
  • Data description

Calculate the mean – show your calculations. Give an explanation as to what this means in relation to this problem.
Calculate the upper and lower limits of the box-plot to 4 decimal places – show your calculations Give an explanation as to what this means in relation to this problem.
Construct the 95% confidence interval to 4 decimal places (make sure to include whether you used z or t) – show your calculations. Give an explanation as to what this means in relation to this problem.

Analyses
Describe the similarities and differences between the box plot and confidence interval calculated.
Interpretation of results and conclusion
Do the results from the sample validate AAA ‘s findings that the average price of gasoline was $ 2.65 per gallon? Explain.

What are the steps to conduct a hypothesis test? How does a researcher determine which statistical test to conduct? How does a researcher determine which level of significance to use?

/in /by

Week 3 discussion

Hypothesis testing is a well-structured process that consists of several logical steps, and it aims at refining a business decision. Hypothesis testing is a quite common technique used by researchers. With regard to hypothesis testing, answer the following questions.

What are the steps to conduct a hypothesis test? How does a researcher determine which statistical test to conduct?
How does a researcher determine which level of significance to use?
What software programs can be used to compute these tests? Where is the critical test value found?
How can one determine if the null hypothesis should be rejected?
Give a business example on each of the three possible cases of hypothesis testing. Do you think the rejection region will be different in each one of the three cases? Why? Why not?
Justify your answers using examples and reasoning. Comment on the postings of at least two peers and state whether you agree or disagree with their views.

Discuss, briefly, the aspects of the proposed new business, such as the competitive priorities that Roberts asked about. Create a table containing the project activities used in the letter assigned to each activity, the time estimates, and the precedence relationships from which you will assemble the network diagram.

/in /by

Operations Management/ content/week 4/Learning activities

Write a 1,050- to 1,400-word paper in which you address the following points:

Prepare the report that Vicky Roberts requested, assuming the project will begin immediately. Assume 45 working days are available to complete the project, including transporting the car to Detroit before the auto show begins.
Discuss, briefly, the aspects of the proposed new business, such as the competitive priorities that Roberts asked about.
Create a table containing the project activities used in the letter assigned to each activity, the time estimates, and the precedence relationships from which you will assemble the network diagram. You do not have to go into details of the steps after including them in the table.
Draw a network diagram of the project similar to Figure 7.3. You can use the Word shapes feature, or insert an Excel section to represent the diagram. Please do not paste an image from the text.
Determine the activities on the critical path and the estimated slack for each activity. Show the specific task letters in the path, and how the slack times are determined. Summarize the critical path, the steps and the days required along with whether or not the project would be completed in time.
Be sure to use APA format and include sources to include the course text at a minimum.

Given all the information you’ve compiled on the company you chose and its ability or inability to satisfy its responsibilities, is your company a good corporate citizen? Why or why not?

/in /by

 Pyramid of Corporate Responsibility

Read Archie Carroll’s seminal paper on the Pyramid of Corporate Responsibility. After reading and pondering Carroll’s work, you will select one company and research it in light of the CSR Pyramid. You will need to engage in some robust academic research in order to appropriately address this term paper. No assertions should be made without scholarly/credible sources to bolster those assertions. Your paper will consist of the following sections:

A brief introduction to your company (1 page or less)

Provide the basic information regarding your company’s history/founding, organization, mission, values, goals, its core business model, and core product(s)/service(s)

The CSR Pyramid (1-2 pages)

Citing Carroll and other scholarly sources, discuss what the CSR Pyramid is, why/how it is useful, criticisms of the pyramid, and how we can examine companies in the context of the CSR pyramid

Your Company and its Economic Responsibilities (1 page or less)

Provide evidence and discussion that your company is or isn’t living up to its economic responsibilities in the context of the CSR pyramid

Your Company and its Legal Responsibilities (~2 pages)

Provide evidence and discussion that your company is or isn’t living up to its legal responsibilities in the context of the CSR pyramid

Your Company and its Ethical Responsibilities (~3 pages)

Provide evidence and discussion that your company is or isn’t living up to its ethical responsibilities in the context of the CSR pyramid

Your Company and its Philanthropic Responsibilities (~3 pages)

Provide evidence and discussion that your company is or isn’t living up to its philanthropic responsibilities in the context of the CSR pyramid

Verdict (~1 page)

Given all the information you’ve compiled on the company you chose and its ability or inability to satisfy its responsibilities, is your company a good corporate citizen? Why or why not? (this should be an objective assessment based on the information you’ve collected)

Author’s Perspective (~1 page)

Given all the information you’ve compiled on the company you chose and its ability or inability to satisfy its responsibilities, do you personally consider your company to be “good”? Why or why not? (this should be a subjective assessment and can include anecdotal information/personal experience and feelings)

How do I find out what a company/workplace considers “formal” attire? What is a good strategy for working as an equal (peer) with those who have more industry experience than I do?

/in /by

Chapter 4 writing + questions – Example writing

Team context:

After reading Chapter Four Global Communication’s and Diversity in our Business Communication textbook by Peter Cardon, the section “Working Across Generations” (p127-130) was particularly interesting and relevant to me. I have experiences working with people of many different ages sometimes the groups are blend of ages, and sometimes the team is one age group only. Recently I was the team leader and working with two others who were older than me by many years, in fact they both decided to retire last summer. They likely would be considered part of the Baby Boomer generation, and I am considered to be of Generation X.

Script:

“Pam and Darlene, I recently read about changes happening in the workplace where five generations of people are now working together in the workplace. We do not have all five represented on our team but we do have two, Baby Boomer (the two of you) and Generation X (me). In addition, our work is on behalf of two other generations, Gen Z (our undergraduate students) and Millennials (our alumni group). There were a few tips from the reading that I thought could be helpful to our work together. First, the labels for generations could have us believe that we are very different from each other, however if we focus on our similarities, I think we can be innovative in finding ways to work together. For example, each class all of us are eager to be together and learn from each other and reminding everyone about our mutual goals and the legacy of the program is a great way to focus attention on our shared purpose. We do extensive communication to prepare our speakers and students to be together in class. We often default to the communication strategy that we each are comfortable using. However, we may not be as effective as we could be if we are trying to connect to others who prefer a different method of communication. This idea was the second tip I thought was helpful and I have a practical suggestion to make. I would like for us to adopt the strategy of finding out how our speakers and students would like to receive messages for class. Our speakers may prefer a phone call rather than an email, and students may prefer announcements in Canvas over receiving emails from us. I suggest that we use a poll in class this Friday to learn from students what their preference are, and as part of our first contact with speakers, ask about communication preferences. Adopting a practice of asking about preferred communication can help us adjust our approach for communicating effectively with both students and speakers. I was inspired to find a way to use the information learned right away, and I thought the idea of focusing on similarities and paying attend to communication preferences are good ways to start. What do you think about these ideas?”

Question 1: How do I find out what a company/workplace considers “formal” attire?

Question 2: What is a good strategy for working as an equal (peer) with those who have more industry experience than I do?

 

Use the GDP equation and data on GDP components to evaluate the equation. Create different visualizations using each of the variables over the last decade (1999-2022) to show the relationship between GDP and each of its components. Which components seems to determine the behavior of the GDP? How can you identify unemployment or inflation from the GDP graph?

/in /by

Gross Domestic Product

  • Describe the GDP and its components;
  • Collect data on the GDP components and use them as well as the GDP equation to measure GDP;
  • Graph GDP;
  • Describe the relationship between the GDP and each of its components.
  • Identifying business cycle and its primary phases.

Components of the project

This project includes three components:

  • Completion of a three-hour IBM Cognitive Class course on Big Data;
  • Creation/construction of a graph on the key macroeconomic indicators using FRED data; and
  • Drafting of a two-page analysis of the evaluation of components of the Gross Domestic Product.
  1. Completion and certification of the cognitive class on Big Data 101

Your assignment here is to complete successfully the three-hour cognitive course Big Data 101. To complete the course, open the link below and follow the instructions https://cognitiveclass.ai/courses/what-is-big-data

  • At the top right-hand corner of the screen click Sign-Up and create an account.  Be sure to use your First and Last name.
  • After signing up, log in to the Cognitive Class System.
  • After logging in, at the top right side of the screen, search the term “Big Data 101.”
  • Click the course labeled “Big Data 101.” (Red Image not the archived class)
  • Next click the blue button labeled “Enroll” to enroll in the course.

The completion of this course must be proved by the Certificate of Completion. Upon completing the course, download or screen shot your certificate and submit it through the assignment drop box on blackboard separately than your project write-up.

  1. Fred Graph

With the attached excel file, use the data components of GDP to evaluate the equation of GDP, that is:

Next, show a graphical representation of these variables and check that

Finally, identify and describe business cycle phases from GDP graph obtained previously.

  1. Written Report on the GDP

Draft a two-page report on the GDP behavior over the period 1999-01 to 2022 and describe business cycle over the same period. First, you should describe the steps taken to construct the  graphs. In your analysis, describe the business cycle present in the GDP data, that is, describe recession period (decrease in GDP of more than 6 month), expansion (increase in GDP), peak (the highest GDP during the expansion), and trough (lowest GDP during the recession).

Use the GDP equation and data on GDP components to evaluate the equation. Create different visualizations using each of the variables over the last decade (1999-2022) to show the relationship between GDP and each of its components. Which components seems to determine the behavior of the GDP? How can you identify unemployment or inflation from the GDP graph?

Next, determine the GDP share of consumption, GDP share of investment, GDP share of government spending, and GDP share of net exports. What GDP component has the largest share? What have you learned about measuring GDP from this assignment? Be sure to cite, using APA, any findings to back your argument and provide a bibliography.

Conduct a comprehensive review of a brand’s advertising campaign and develop a report using the concepts and theories discussed in class.

/in /by

Consumer Behavior: Major Project Blueprint

You are required to conduct a comprehensive review of a brand’s advertising campaign (choose a company/ country of your choice) and develop a report using the concepts and theories discussed in class. Considering the changing marketing environment, you are supposed to provide recommendations on how the brand has, and further can adapt its advertising strategy during the post COVID-19 pandemic era. The report must include secondary research, integrating academic sources.

So this is a group project and we chose Apple +1 for our topic. Here is the link for Apple Watch Ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOHj5kGU4fY

My part is COVID-19 Recommendations:
How can the brand adapt its advertising strategy to succeed in the changing environment post-COVID-19 era?

The three strategies we chose is:
– Emotion (What emotions is Apple trying to target with this ad?)
– Classical Conditioning (Person in danger is stimulus, Apple Watch saved their life is response)
– Fishbein Model (Apple is trying to increase the importance that a consumer puts on trustworthiness in regards to its products)

Include in-text citation if you use any.

Below is some other parts my friends have done. I don’t know if these could help you but I hope these can give you a better understanding on this project.

” Advertising Campaign

The specific advertising campaign under review is an Apple Watch ad named “Dear Apple.” This ad was released on September 7, 2022, the same day of the live Apple Event which announced a new Apple Watch Series 8, the Apple Watch Ultra, along with the new lineup of iPhone 14 smartphones. Apple has 16.7 million YouTube subscribers on its main account, which is mainly targeted to its United States audience. The ad has accumulated 807,872 views as of November 13th, 2022.

The advertising campaign “Dear Apple” does not include an Apple Watch as the main focus. There is not even a mention of the term “Apple Watch” until 1 minute into the video. Instead, the ad features real people reading letters of thanks to Apple’s CEO Tim Cook. They describe a situation in which the Apple Watch saved their life or the life of a loved one. In each situation, a unique Apple Watch feature was used. These features include an emergency 911 call without the use of a smartphone, heart rate sensors that can detect atrial fibrillation and irregularly high heart rates.

Apple is trying to display several different emotions exhibited through a variety of affects the watcher can visualize. Apple is trying to express happiness, fear, and anxiousness in one advertisement by triggering certain feelings in the viewer. The video highlights true stories when the Apple Watch product saved a certain person or peers life. The video starts by using emotions of fear and negativity which can be called “negative state relief” (Solomon, 2017). The negative state relief can be described as, “helping others as a means of resolving one’s own negative moods” (Solomon, 2017). It can be described as products such as chocolates or sweets but can also be considered with an object like an Apple Watch. The Apple Watch can be seen as a negative state relief because of the way they are marketing towards helping friends/family in life or death situations. A product like chocolate makes a person feel certain emotions of happiness but the Apple Watch using negative state relief to a more enhanced extent and the advertisement Apple created makes viewers have a feeling of content when they find a product that can help a family member be increasingly safe in any dangerous environment. Viewers could first experience a feeling of nervousness listening to the true stories viewers are listening to and share a similar feeling for someone in their life. Apple is smart in the way they express this as many other advertisements only share one story that not everyone can exactly relate to. But, since Apple shares stories from around the world and in different seasons, the chances increase of a person relating to the nervous feeling for a person close to them and then the feeling of safety/content when the Apple Watch product helped save the person’s life in the stories being told. Secondly, Apple expresses emotions through specific styles of happiness and guilt. Apple has to monitor the level of guilt they are trying to make the viewer feel in the advertisement because it can easily turn into envy. A person watching the advertisement could feel a state of envy if they have lost someone in a similar story told in the advertisement and express negative feelings towards another person making though the same situation they did not make it through. The feeling of envy can be effective but in this advertisement strong feelings of guilt and happiness are much more effective. Guilt is described as, “an individual’s unpleasant emotional state associated with possible objections to his or her actions, inaction, circumstances, or intentions” (Solomon, 2017). An individual watching this advertisement could feel unpleasant hearing near death stories and feel guilty about a family member in a similar situation and make the viewer feel an incentive to buy the product so the person close to you never has to go through a similar situation and the nervousness/guilt can go away. Furthermore, happiness can be defined as, “mental state of well-being characterized by positive emotions” (Solomon, 2017). The positive emotion comes towards the end of the video when the stories are finished and the person survived. The social connections people can make with a person through one video is intense and seeing the person in the video share how they survived or a friend survived due to the Apple product only grows the current incentive to purchase the product no matter how expensive or difficult it is to get. Overall, the Apple advertisement is smart in making the viewer take a “rollercoaster” of emotions from guilt to happiness and can have the viewer thinking about the usefulness of the product for a long time after first viewing the advertisement.

To continue on with the relevance of safety in the product Apple is advertising, being the Apple Watch a great example to explain the great advertising of the product is classical conditioning. Classical conditioning consists of, “learning process creates a conditioned response through associations between an unconditioned stimulus and a neutral stimulus” (Cherry, 2022). The unconditioned stimulus in this commercial would be the person in danger, the neutral stimulus would be the Apple Watch product. Classical conditioning is very important in this advertising campaign for several reasons. Firstly, is the viewer of the commercial having a similar response to the person in the real life danger situation. The use of pleasant stimuli in this commercial consists of interesting backgrounds like a bear wandering around, night skies, or great lighting with a person remaining in eye contact with the camera. Each person is talking about a difficult situation where they had to use the watch to save one’s life but the background of each speaker can also be used as a stimuli to keep the viewers attention. Once this is done and the viewers attention is kept which would be the unconditioned stimulus, the neutral stimulus would be the relatable situations that can happen at any time to anyone. In one study/experiment the researchers found the more times they viewed the advertisement the more the viewer responded and reacted to it, “as the number of CS-US exposures increased, affect and product beliefs had an impact on brand attitude”. This experiment was exposing the viewer multiple times to the same product to enhance the viewers understanding. The Apple ad does not need to be replayed multiple times though, as the advertisement showed multiple people discussing how the Apple Watch saved their own or someone in their life. As more people continue to discuss and talk about the product in the advertisement there is an increased percentage chance that one of the people talking about their real life situation and the product itself will create an unconditioned and neutral stimulus. Having an ad that continuously discusses more than one situation is more effective as it can be more relatable while also showing all the features of the talked about product. This can also be important for the target market as more teenagers are increasingly being diagnosed with ADHD. People with ADHD have increased significantly in this generation, “In the 1980s, one in 20 U.S. children were diagnosed with ADHD. Today, that number is roughly one in 9” (Frye 2021). People with ADHD have trouble focusing on even a short advertisement for a product so having multiple people talking with changing backgrounds for pleasant stimulus is important to try to keep as many viewers attentive as possible. Overall, classical conditioning can play a big part in effective marketing of a product as without knowing a successful ad like this Apple on will create a unconditioned stimulus for the viewer that will at some point throughout a changing advertisement hit a core with the viewer for a reaction of a neutral stimulis.

Market Segment
A famous marketing concept states that “A firm exists to satisfy consumer needs , which can be satisfied only to the extent that marketers understand the people or entity that would use the product and service they are trying to sell”. To achieve this, apple watch marketer segmented their consumers, which can be defined as the process whereby marketing segmentation identifies a group of consumers who are similar to one another in one way or the other and then devices a marketing strategy that appeals to them . This was achieved through the five following ways which includes; Age, Gender, ethnicity, lifestyle and geography.
Firstly, Age, as always consumers of different age groups obviously have different needs and wants but there are certain areas different age group needs correlate like the need of safety (security, shelter and protection) as stated in the Abraham Maslow hierarchy of wants. Which was the core message apple watch reflected .From the ad we could see that their target age group was 10- 99 year (we could see from the ad an 18year old high school senior, a kid of about 10, a 27 year old high school teacher, and a 99year old world traveler…) , and the were able to perfectly navigate this and spread a message that would impact their customer because the targeted a subjected that is rational since no matter how old you are you would always want the reassurance of safety and someone or something to lin on , to guarantee your safety which the able watch provide which the apple watch provide.
Secondly,Gender , many product from fragrance to foot wear are targeted to either female and men.Despite the fact that 2 of this gender where shown through out the ad, the wasn’t really a variation in the message( like pink for girls and blue for boys) , it was theysame for both the female and male highlighting the fact that safety and security is a subject matter for everyone.
Thirdly, Ethnicity, from the ad, we could see that Apple tried as much as possible to include other races, like we could see a black female and male and other ethnicity. Which is a very important aspect in this day and age with the black live matter issue.
More so, Lifestyle , consumer often have different lifestyles even if the show theysame gender and characteristic.This was clearly shown through out this ad campaign from a country boy from mississippi to a world traveller, this was done with the core aim that each customer could see the comparison with their own lifestyle hence captivating their interest.
Furthermore, in terms of geography they targeted different cities in the United states from Atlanta Georgia to San Diego each with a different climate . This was to show that it doesn’t matter whether it is the freezing temperature of the north pole or the sunny whether in the carribbeans, Apple watch got your back and could save you.”

How should you respond? What might you do differently to prevent this from happening in the future? Explain your answers.

/in /by

13-41. Conducting Primary Research (Interviews) [LO-3]

You’re conducting an information interview with a manager in another division of your company. Partway through the interview, the manager shows clear signs of impatience. How should you respond? What might you do differently to prevent this from happening in the future? Explain your answers.