Topic outline

  • Assignments

    Instructions 

    There are 5 assignments (one for each lecture day). They will be available here before each lecture.

    Each assignment is graded 0-10 points. So the total points from assignments is 0-50 points (50% of the course).

    Submit your assignments in one file here (one file has all the 5 assignments). 

    The deadline is 14.4.2023 16:00.

    If you wish you can use any software you like for Assignments 3-5 (on the course we use SPSS but it is possible to do them with other softwares as well).

    Assignment 1

    • Learn how to do a systematic literature review.  
    • Choose a topic (e.g. your likely masters thesis topic or topic such as collaborative consumption or brand love). Search the 10 most important journal articles on that topic (you evaluate which are the 10 most important articles). 
    • List them to an Excel-file and find for each article (these were explained in the lectures): 1) Quality of the journal based on AJG (Academic Journal Guide by Chartered Association of Business Schools). Current or 2015 if you do not want to register to their website, 2) Impact factor of the journal, 3) Is the journal a FT50-journal?, 4) number of citations the article has. 
    • Do this exercise for 10 articles. Report the exercise as a single Excel-table. No need to explain it anyway. Just report the table.

    Assignment 2

    • Learn how to get organized with journal articles and create citations and bibliography automatically with the style of your choice.
    • Choose one reference management software (e.g. Mendeley or Endnote) and install it to your computer. Mendeley you can download for free from Mendeley.com or Endnote from download.aalto.fi
    • Next make a list of references where you have the 10 articles you listed in the table in the Assignment 1. You need to install add-on to Word and then create citations and the list of references.
    • Use the style you like. E.g.  In Mendeley it could be ’Chicago Manual of Style 17 Edition (Author-date)’ or some other style you like.
    • Create a list of references of those 10 articles and report that as your Assignment 2.


    Asssignment 3

    • After this Assignment you are able to analyze quantititative datasets with SPSS-software using methods such as Chi-Square test, t-test and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Use the lecture slides, SPSS manuals (available on their website) and course textbook for doing this assignment.
    • In a survey pre-test, data were obtained from 45 participants on Benetton clothes. Below you find an Excel-table and you must yourself import it to SPSS-software and give labels to variables and their values (i.e. female instead of 1) . The data is about the usage, gender, awareness, attitude, preference, intention and loyalty towards Benetton of a sample of Benetton users. Usage was coded as 1, 2 or 3, representing light, medium or heavy users. Gender was coded as 1 for females and 2 for males. Awareness, attitude, preference, intention and loyalty were measured on a sevenpoint Likert-type scale (1 = very unfavourable, 7 = very favourable). Note that five participants have missing values, which are denoted by 9.
    • Import the data to SPSS software, give names to the variables and values and mark values with 9 as missing values.
    • Next, analyse the Benetton data to answer the following questions. Report  the tables (copy the SPSS output tables) and interpret the results (with 1-4 sentences). 
    • A. Calculate means and standard deviations for all Likert-type variables (those measured from 1 to 7).
    • B. Conduct a cross-tabulation with percentages of the usage with gender (a Table where you have gender as columns and usage as rows). Use Chi-Square test to study whether there is difference between males and females related to usage. 
    • C. Do males and females differ in their awareness of Benetton? Their attitude towards Benetton? Their loyalty to Benetton? Use t-test to investigate these.
    • D. Do the participants with different levels of usage (light, medium or heavy) differ on loyalty. Use Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) to study this. 

    Assignment 4

    • After this Assignment you are able to analyze quantitative datasets with SPSS-software using methods such as factor analysis, reliability analysis (Cronbach's Alpha), and cluster analysis. Use the lecture slides, SPSS manuals (available on their website) and course textbook for doing this assignment.
    •  200 persons have answered questions related to Collaborative Consumption (e.g. Airbnb and Uber). Below you find a SPSS dataset. Analyze the data to answer the following questions. Report  the tables (copy the SPSS output tables) and interpret the results (with 1-4 sentences).
    • A. Do one factor analysis with following 14 variables: ENJ1-5, ECO1-4, SUS1-5. Use Principal Components-method with Varimax Rotation. Report the KMO and Bartlett's test statistics, Communalities and Factor Loadings. What KMO and Bartlett's test tell us? Based on communalities which variable has the most in common with other variables? Based on factor loadings which variables have highest loadings in each factor (Factors are called components in SPSS)? Present the tables and answer the questions with a couple of sentences. 
    • B. Scale reliability: Calculate Cronbach’s Alpha for ECON1-4 variables. What does the value of Cronbach's Alpha statistic tell us? Would the statistic get better by leaving some of the variables out of the analysis? Present the tables and answer the questions.
    • C. Do one cluster analysis with following 14 variables: ENJ1-5, ECO1-4, SUS1-5. Create 3 consumer groups. Report the tables and explain what is the main difference between the attitudes of groups 1, 2, and 3.
    • D. Save results of the Cluster analysis as a new variable. After that study how many men and women there are in different clusters.  (Crosstabulation: gender and cluster membership). Use Chi Square-test to investigate whether there is statistical difference between males and females related to which cluster they belong to. Report the tables and explain the results of the Chi Square-test.
    • E. Do one factor analysis with following 14 variables: ENJ1-5, ECO1-4, SUS1-5. Use Principal Components-method with Varimax Rotation. This is the same analysis you did before. Now also save the factor scores as new variables. Next, create 3 groups of consumers with cluster analysis using these new variables. Report the cluster analysis tables and explain what is the main difference between the attitudes of groups 1, 2 and 3.

    Assignment 5 

    • After this Assignment you are able to do correlation analysis and regression analysis. Use the lecture slides, SPSS manuals (available on their website) and course textbook for doing this assignment.
    • Use the same dataset as in Assignment 4.
    • A. Run correlations (Analyze-Correlate-Bivariate) with following variables: ECON1, ENJ1, SUST1, SWLS3 and GREEN3.  Which of the variables related to collaborative consumption (ECON1, ENJ1, SUST1)correlate with life satisfaction variable (SWLS3)? And which of the collaborative consumption variables (ECON1, ENJ1, SUST1) correlate with green consumption variable (GREEN3)? Present the tables and answer the questions with a couple of sentences. 
    • B. Run the following regression analysis (Analyze-Regression-Linear): Dependent variable BL2, Independent variables ECON1, ENJ1, SUST1 and GENDER. Which variables affect the willingness to recommend collaborative consumption companies (BL2) at the significance level .05? Which variable has the highest impact on willingness to recommend (BL2)? What is the R Square of the model and what is the interpretation of the value? Is the entire model statistically significant? Present the tables and answer the questions with a couple of sentences. 

◄ Previous section
Materials