ASSESSMENT TASK 3: ANALYSIS OF DATA USING SPSS (40%) Due Week 12

Word limit: 2500 words

For this task students will demonstrate an understanding of how to use the statistical analysis tools presented and used in the SPSS workshops.

SPSS is short for Statistical Package for the Social Sciences and was developed by three students at the University of Stanford (Norman Nie, Tex Hull and Dale Bent) in 1968. Initially only for distribution within their home university, the publication of the first manual made SPSS widely known and used. Created for IBM mainframe computers, versions for most other mainframe brands and other computer platforms were developed. SPSS Inc. was the founded in 1975 and acquired by IBM in 2009; it is now fully integrated into the IBM Corporation Business Analytics Software portfolio.

SPSS is used by researchers for complex statistical data analysis and most of the top marketing research agencies use SPSS to analyse survey data and mine text data. It is also widely used as the preferred quantitative data analysis tool amongst academics.

Attitudes of students towards entrepreneurship

A SPSS database has been provided on the LMS system and a copy of the original questionnaire to gauge the attitudes of students towards entrepreneurship is reproduced in Appendix D. Using the questionnaire provided students are to analyse the data by describing the sample characteristics (SPSS Exercise 4) and conducts SPSS tests (SPSS Exercises 5-9) for a series of hypotheses.

Using the exercises in the SPSS workshops as a guide formulate the hypotheses from amongst the variables available in the questionnaire and conduct the statistical analysis as described in SPSS Exercises 5 to 9. The report content results section contains additional information for this assessment task.

 

Report the findings using tables and figures (do not duplicate information) and make recommendations.

 

Report content

 

• Cover page with title, name of author, and student ID .etc.
• Table of contents
• Introduction (purpose of this report)
• Results
  • Describe the characteristics of the sample using descriptive statistics (SPSS Exercise 4).
  • Conduct a reliability analysis of a set of variables (SPSS Exercise 9) to measure an abstract construct that you will later use as a variable in a regression analysis.
  • State the null and alternative version of each hypotheses as well as the dependent and independent variables (questions) to be used in the SPSS analysis. As you will need to use each of the SPSS Exercises 5-8 you should have four null hypotheses to test.
  • Report whether rejecting the null hypothesis and why.
  • Provide a conclusion based on the results.
• References from literary and industry resources to support the proposed research. References should be cited in the text and listed in this section of the report in the discipline sanctioned Harvard Referencing Style at http://www.lib.latrobe.edu.au/referencing-tool/harvard

 

The Assessment Sheet for Task 3 is attached as Appendix E as a guide to the both the content of the report and the assessment. Grading criteria (rubrics) for Assessment Task 3 can be found on the following pages.

 

 

 

 

 

Grading Criteria (rubric) Assessment Task 3: SPSS Analysis Written Report (40%)

 

Criteria	Excellent (A 80-100%)	Very Good (B 70-79%)	Good (C 60-69%)	Pass (D 50-59%)	Fail (N 0-49%)	Grade
Reporting and writing of a data analysis report	Clearly states the purpose, and research design of the report and supports this with evidence in a sustained and logical fashion. Analysis statistics well justified and fully explained.	Organises and orders ideas in a structured and sequenced fashion, aimed at making a clear, coherent report with justification of analysis statistics.	Contains many relevant ideas and attempts to structure them in a coherent fashion. Analysis is adequate.	Contains some relevant ideas but is unable to relate them in an organised fashion in the report. Analysis is basic.	Contains little or no meaningful information relating to the task and makes no attempt to produce an organised response to the task. Analysis is insufficient.	(50%) 20
Inquiry/Research	Locates, evaluates and	Locates and synthesises a	Uses a range of prescribed	The response to the task	Irrelevant sources and	(25%) 10
	integrates a range of	range of relevant	information sources (or	relies upon a narrow or	data selected to inform
	relevant information (or	information (or data) to	data) to inform the response	partially relevant selection	the response to the task,
	data) into the construction	inform the response to the	to the task, and uses the	of information sources (or	or used inappropriately,
	of a response to the task,	task, and uses the discipline	discipline sanctioned	very limited data), and	with little or no
	and uses the discipline	sanctioned Harvard	Harvard Referencing Style at	uses the discipline	attribution.
	sanctioned Harvard	Referencing Style at	http://www.lib.latrobe.edu.	sanctioned Harvard
	Referencing Style at	http://www.lib.latrobe.edu.	au/referencing-tool/harvard	Referencing Style at
	http://www.lib.latrobe.edu.	au/referencing-tool/harvard	to cite sources in a timely	http://www.lib.latrobe.ed
	au/referencing-tool/harvard	to cite sources in a timely	and appropriate fashion, but	u.au/referencing-
	to cite sources in a timely	and appropriate fashion.	with some errors.	tool/harvard to cite
	and appropriate fashion.			sources in a timely and
				appropriate fashion, but
				with some errors
Disciplinary Specific	Demonstrates in-depth	Demonstrates knowledge of	Demonstrates adequate	Demonstrates limited	Unable to demonstrate	(25%) 10
Knowledge and Skills	knowledge of the	the application of marketing	knowledge of the	knowledge of the	knowledge of marketing
	application of marketing	research to analyse	application of marketing	application of marketing	research or employ
	research to analyse	secondary data to bring	research to analyse	research to analyse	secondary data analysis.
	secondary data to bring	together a logical, creative,	secondary data and	secondary data with little
	together a logical, creative,	and persuasive justification	attempts to bring together a	attempt to justify
	and persuasive justification	of recommendations or	logical, creative, and	recommendations or
	of recommendations or	strategies presented.	persuasive justification of	strategies.
	strategies presented.		recommendations or
			strategies presented.
TOTAL						(100%) 40

Appendix D: Entrepreneurial Questionnaire (Task 3)

 

ATTITUDES OF STUDENTS TOWARDS ENTREPRENEURSHIP

 

We are conducting research to better understand students’ attitudes and beliefs regarding entrepreneurial ventures. The results of the present research will provide analysis of factors, which are crucial to career choices of young generation. While answering the questions, always choose only ONE answer.

 

1. Gender:      q Male     q Female
2. Age category:
   1. Under 20 2. 20-29

3.   30-39

4.   40-50

5. 50 +

 

3. Select the option that best describes your current work situation:

3.1. I work for: A private company. Public institution. Non-profit Organization.

3.2. I am self employed: q Free-lance. Partnership. Initial start-up.

I am unemployed: q Unemployed. Student.

 

4. What is your major? 1. Business     2. Non-Business (i.e psychology, law, science, etc)

 

5. Using a scale from 1 to 7, indicate your intention to choose one of the following career options:

Not Somewhat   Very

interested interested interested

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

I1 Creating a new company (being an entrepreneur). I2 Developing your career in a private company.

I3      Working as a civil servant for the government. I4           Working in a Non Profit Organization.

Creating a new company or becoming an entrepreneur would mean for you …

Totally              Somewhat                    Totally

improbable            probable                  probable

1  2  3  4  5  6  7

A1 Facing new challenges. A2 Creating new jobs.

A3 Economic uncertainty (insure earnings). A4 To be creative and innovative.

A5 Obtaining high incomes. A6 Taking calculated risks.

A7    To be my own boss (independence)

Now, please indicate how desirable are they for you in your everyday life:

 

 

Not	Somewhat	Totally
desirable	desirable	desirable

 

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

B1 Facing new challenges. B2 Creating new jobs.

B3 Economic uncertainty (insure earnings). B4 To be creative and innovative.

B5 Obtaining high incomes.. B6 Taking calculated risks.

B7     To be my own boss (independence)

 

 

Please, indicate the extent to which you agree or not with the following statements

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Absolutely Neither agree or Absolutely disagree disagree agree

 

C1      My closest family members think that I should pursue a career as an entrepreneur

C3      My closest friends think that I should pursue a career as an entrepreneur

C4      My colleagues or class-mates think that I should pursue a career as an entrepreneur.

 

Now, indicate to what extent do you care about what they think as you decide on whether or not to pursue a career as an entrepreneur

Not Somewhat Very

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

important important important

 

D1 My closest family members. D2 My closest friends.

D3      My colleagues or class-mates.

If you were to create your own business, to what degree would you be able to complete the following tasks effectively?

 

Not effective			Somewhat effective				Totally effective
	0	1	2	3	4	5	6
F1	Define your business idea and strategy of your company.
F2	Write your business plan (do a market research, financial analysis, etc.)
F3	Complete the necessary and administrative and bureaucratic work to create your own business
F4	Develop and maintain favorable relationships with potential investors and banks.
F5	Work productively under continuous stress, pressure and conflict.
F6	See new market opportunities for new products/services.
F7	Develop relationships with key people who are connected to capital sources.
F8	Tolerate unexpected changes in business.
F9	Identify potential sources of funding.

F10 Design products or services that solve current problems. F11 Persist in the face of adversity.

 

Indicate the extent to which you agree or not agree with the following statements:

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Absolutely Neither agree or Absolutely disagree disagree agree

 

 

H1 I identify with the entrepreneurs.

H2 Being an entrepreneur is an important aspect of the persona that I am.

H3 I feel I have a strong bond with other entrepreneurs

H4 I feel a strong solidarity with others entrepreneurs.

H5 I positively value to be part of the entrepreneur’s group.

I1 Do you think that in the future you will create your own company?

 

1            2            3            4            5            6            7

 

Definitely no                                                       Definitely yes

 

 

I2. If you had the opportunity to choose freely the career to follow, what would you prefer?

 

1            2            3            4            5            6            7

 

I’d prefer to be employed by somebody                                                                                     I’d prefer to create my own business

 

 

I3. Nevertheless, considering your actual situation and the limitations towards your options (e.g. lack of money) indicate which career is more probable to be chosen?

 

1            2            3            4            5            6            7

 

Working for somebody                                                                            Creating my own business

 

I4. With what probability do you consider to create your own business from present to five years time?

 

1            2            3            4            5            6            7

 

Totally improbable                                                                      Totally probable

 

 

Thank you very much for your time