Running head: RESEARCH AND DECISION MAKING ASSIGNMENT
Research and Decision Making Assignment
University of Phoenix Online
January
Introduction
a. In trying to determine where to locate its outlets in India, CoffeeTime had to analyze considerable data. Given this data, what does CoffeeTime really know about the various locations in India? What doesn’t CoffeeTime know that it might learn from further research?
b. How do the limitations of the data available to CoffeeTime affect the validity and reliability of the data?
CoffeeTime had limitations to the data that was available to them. The limitations to CoffeeTime’s data came from the organization’s limited budget, therefore, forcing the company to focus on highly affluent and highly modern cities within the large country of India. Accuracy of the data is affected by the small amount of population examined which produces a smaller sample size. The larger the sample size the lower the standard error and the smaller the sample size the larger the standard error. Increasing the sample size can help ensure CoffeeTime more accurate measurements of the population.
Collecting data from a small sample size does not allow CoffeeTime to decide whether or not to enter the India market. A large company like CoffeeTime cannot make a bad decision about entering this market because it would be very expensive. With an expensive decision such as taking on a foreign market, an inaccurate conclusion from the population can cost the company millions of dollars.
Ideally CoffeeTime with a large enough budget would have to conducted their research with the entire population or at least enough to have accurate results. With the ability to get a larger sample size the company could focus on multiple cities from all areas of the country instead on only the cities they could benefit from. The company could have conducted the rest of their research the same way but could have surveyed a lot more...