Research Methods for Managerial Decision Making

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Research Methods for Managerial Decision Making

(RES 503), Fall 2015

Assignment 1: Due on Oct 6th 11:59pm

“Juventus” team members:

Ayaz Guliyev

Mohammad Shayan

Zakir Pashayev

Answers:

1. The dilemma is an increasing number of competitors in the fast food market in Oxford City. The competitors of “Wings On Fire” are providing different types of food (such as fish tacos, specialty pizzas and gourmet burgers) as well as they are giving delivery guarantee of "30 minutes or free."

2. Tony should decide what types of promotional campaigns should be conducted and what changes in terms of service should be done in order to succeed in the market. The management question is the following: How to improve the service facility so that Tony Smith’s restaurant could compete with its rivals and get back its lost market as well as to attract potential customers?

3. Research questions:

• Should Tony Smith open a full-fledged restaurant in order to allow its customers to dine in it?
• Should Tony Smith provide special discounts to students since it's close to university?
• Should Tony Smith broaden the menu list? By broadening the menu he could provide customers with more choices.
• Should Tony Smith expand its service to other cities?
• Should Tony Smith hire more employees to improve the service?

4. Investigative questions:

• What is the average number of customers asking about dine-in facility?
• What is the average number of customers constituting students?
• What is the most preferred fast-food meal in Oxford?
• In which cities the expansion would bring success? Where Smith’s wings would be more preferred by people?
• What is the number of employees Tony Smith should hire to meet the weekend rush?

5. Tony Smith’s research designs:

a. Exploratory vs. Formal

Tony Smith knew that “30 minutes or free” guarantee will bring him success, but he was not certain about accomplishment of this promise during football games. Therefore he conducted the formal type of research.

b. Monitoring vs. Communication

Tony Smith was inspecting the time of order delivery to various places in different conditions. He was not conducting any survey and collecting data through people’s answers to questions. Thus, the research design was monitoring.

c. Experiment vs. Ex-Post Facto Design

Tony was not able to manipulate variables and had no control over them. Information was derived through usual daily delivery cases. Hence, the research design was ex-post facto.

d. Reporting vs. Descriptive vs. Causal

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