BUSINESS RESEARCH PROJECT: PART I 1 Business Research Project: Part I QNT 561 BUSINESS RESEARCH PROJECT: PART I 2 ABSTRACT Business Research Project: Part I identifies the organization Learning Team A is familiar with. The Business Research Project: Part I provides background information, a defined business problem, and Team A's role with the selected organization. In completion of Part I, the team has identified an independent variable and a dependent variable, created a research question based on the two variables, and developed a hypothesis statement. Learning Team A has selected Peppers Restaurant for the course research project and the information of the research is identified below. BACKGROUND Peppers Restaurant was founded by the current, Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer in Denver, Co in 1993. The founder used a personal loan of $85,000 to launch his passion, \" to show that food served fast didn't have to be a \"fast-food\" experience. Using highquality raw ingredients, classic cooking techniques, and distinctive interior design, Peppers Restaurant has been successful in bringing features from the realm of fine dining to the world of quick-service restaurants (Chipotle 2016).\" Peppers Restaurant now has more than 1500 locations which are all company owned with no franchising. Peppers Restaurant has a notable investor. \"In 1998, McDonald's made its first investment in the company, and by 2001 it was a majority shareholder. There were 16 locations in 1998, and by 2005 there were more than 500. McDonald's invested about $360 million into Peppers Restaurant in total, and when it divested itself in 2006, its investment had grown to $1.5 billion (The Daily Meal 2016).\" Peppers Restaurant stock is priced at $511.58 as of February 19, 2016. BUSINESS RESEARCH PROJECT: PART I 3 INDEPENDENT VARIABLE & DEPENDENT VARIABLE Independent variables are described as the variable manipulated by the researcher, thereby causing an effect or change on the dependent variable (Statistical Techniques in Business & Economics, 2015). The dependent variable is the variable measured, predicted, or otherwise monitored by the researcher; expected to be affected by a manipulation of the independent variable (Statistical Techniques in Business & Economics, 2015). Peppers Restaurant has recently been impacted by an outbreak of E.coli. The scare has caused a health scare among guests. Team A identifies the following independent and dependent variables: Independent Variable: How have health concerns affected the sales of Peppers Restaurant?of the customers (weekly? Monthly?) Dependent variable: Sales (Weekly? Monthly? Please be more specific)is identified as the dependent variable RESEARCH QUESTION Has health concerns regarding E. coli caused a decline in Peppers Restaurant sales? HYPOTHESIS The null hypothesis is that there is no significant relationship between health concerns and sales. The alternate hypothesis is that there is a significant relationship between the two variables. The scare of E.coli present in the food served by Peppers Restaurant will cause sales to decline. Consumer health concerns due to the quality of food, the means in which food is BUSINESS RESEARCH PROJECT: PART I 4 prepared, and the cleanliness of the restaurant are likely causes to choose a different restaurant. In today's market it is easy to pick a different but similar services or products if customers are unhappy or taken aback by the first service or product. Therefore, if there is any question in consumer health being affected by the restaurant, those consumers will not eat at Peppers Restaurant. As a direct result, sales will decline when consumers choose to dine elsewhere. CONCLUSION Learning Team A identified and agreed to create research surrounding Peppers Restaurant. Requirements and information for the course research project have been discussed. Team A members will seek the most current information and data available for the identified business problem. Team A will collaborate, coordinating tasks to deliver a quality project. The team will work together to make revisions and changes as necessary, mindful of the larger goal. BUSINESS RESEARCH PROJECT: PART I 5 References Chipotle 2016 Retrieved from: http://ir.chipotle.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=194775&p=irolirhome Lind, D. Marchal, W. Wathen, S. (2015). Statistical Techniques in Business & Economics (16th edition). McGraw-Hill Education The Daily Meal 2016 2016 Retrieved from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/the-daily-meal/6-things-you-didnt-knowa_b_5232706.html Descriptive statistics Would you eat at Peppers Restaurant after hearing about the count mean sample standard deviation sample variance minimum maximum range e Coli Breakout te restaurant 10 10 3.10 2.90 1.73 1.52 2.99 2.32 1 1 5 5 4 4 confidence interval 95.% lower confidence interval 95.% upper half-width 1.86 4.34 1.24 1.81 3.99 1.09 1st quartile median 3rd quartile interquartile range mode 1.25 3.50 4.75 3.50 5.00 1.50 3.00 3.75 2.25 3.00 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .5271 0.40 2.50 .0578 3.60 2.50 3 2 2 3 3 0 4 3 low extremes low outliers high outliers high extremes normal curve GOF p-value chi-square(df=1) E O(-0.67) O(+0.00) O(+0.67) O(inf.) BoxPlot 3/9/2016 9:23.49 (2) 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 Would you eat at Peppers Restaurant after hearing about the 4.5 5 5.5 e Coli Breakout BoxPlot 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5 Is Peppers Restaurant your favorite restaurant Frequency Distribution - Qualitative Would you eat at Peppers Restaurant after hearing about the 1 2 3 4 5 Histogram 35 30 25 20 Percent 15 10 5 0 1 2 3 4 Would you eat at Peppers Restaurant after hearing about the 5 e Coli Breakout e Coli Breakout frequency 3 1 1 2 3 10 percent 30.0 10.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 100.0 Frequency Distribution - Qualitative Is Peppers Restaurant your favorite restaurant frequency 3 0 4 1 2 10 1 2 3 4 5 Histogram 45 40 35 30 25 Percent 20 15 10 5 0 1 2 3 4 5 Is Peppers Restaurant your favorite restaurant Would you eat at Peppers Restaurant after hearing about the Is Peppers Restaurant your favorite restaurant e Coli Breakout percent 30.0 0.0 40.0 10.0 20.0 100.0 Rate 1-5 One being the least chances and 5 being the highest chances of that occuring Person 1 Person 2 Person 3 Person 4 Person 5 Person 6 Person 7 Person 8 Person 9 Person 10 Would you eat at Peppers Restaurant after hearing about the Coli Breakout 5 5 1 1 5 2 3 1 4 4 e Is Peppers Restaurant your favorite restaurant 5 5 1 1 4 3 3 1 3 3 1 2 3 4 5 Running head: DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS Descriptive Statistics QNT/561 March 7, 2016 1 DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS 2 Descriptive Statistics Numeric Variable: Continue eating Distribution: Normally distributed Central Tendency: Mean = 3.10 Dispersion: Standard Deviation = 1.73 Number: 10 Min/Max: Min = 1 and Max = 5 Confidence Interval: (1.86, 4.34) Numeric Variable: Favorite restaurant Distribution: State if not normally distributed Central Tendency: Mean = 2.90 Dispersion: Standard Deviation = 1.52 Number: 10 Min/Max: Min = 1 and Max = 5 Confidence Interval: (1.81, 3.99) Descriptive Statistics Interpretation DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS 3 Numeric Variable: Continue eating 10 paired data points (i.e. \"Would you eat at Peppers Restaurant after hearing about the e Coli Breakout\" and \"Is Peppers Restaurant your favorite restaurant\") is randomly collected. The histogram and box plot of the data of Continue eating indicated normal distribution thus the appropriate measure of central tendency is mean and variation is Standard deviation. The mean is 3.10 is the average of the considered variable's scores. The median is 3.50 and mode is 5. The standard deviation value of 1.73 indicated a low variation in the data. Numeric Variable: Favorite restaurant 10 data points for Favorite restaurant is collected. The histogram and box plot of the data of Favorite restaurant indicated normal distribution thus the appropriate measure of central tendency is mean and variation is Standard deviation. The mean is 2.90 is the average of the considered variable's scores. The median is 3.00 and mode is 3.00. The standard deviation value of 1.52 indicated a low variation in the data. Appendix A Raw data used in the analysis Rate 1-5 One being the least chances and 5 being the highest chances of that occurring Would you eat at Peppers Restaurant after hearing about the e Coli Breakout 5 5 1 1 5 2 3 1 4 Is Peppers Restaurant your favorite restaurant 5 5 1 1 4 3 3 1 3 Appendix B Charts and Tables Appendix C Descriptive Statistics Appendix D Scatter Plot