(a) A sample of 12 of bags of Calbie Chips were weighed (to the nearest gram), and listed here as follows. [9 marks]

219, 226, 217, 224, 223, 216, 221, 228, 215, 229, 225, 229

Find a 95% confidence interval for the mean mass of bags of Calbie Chips.

(b) Professor GeniusAtCalculus has two lecture sections (A and B) of the same 4th year Advanced Calculus (AMA 4301) course in Semester 2. She wants to investigate whether section A students maybe ”smarter” than section B students by comparing their performances in the midterm test. A random sample of 12 students were taken from section A, with mean midterm test score of 78.8 and standard deviation 8.5; and a random sample of 9 students were taken from section B, with mean midterm test score of 86 and standard deviation 9.3. Assume the population standard deviations of midterm test scores for both sections are the same. Construct the 90% confidence interval for the difference in midterm test scores of the two sections. Based on the sample midterm test scores from the two sections, can Professor GeniusAtCalculus conclude that there is any evidence that one section of students are ”smarter” than the other section? Justify your conclusions. [8 marks]

(c) The COVID-19 (coronavirus) mortality rate of a country is defined as the ratio of the number of deaths due to COVID-19 divided by the number of (confirmed) cases of COVID-19 in that country. Suppose we want to investigate if there is any difference between the COVID-19 mortality rate in the US and the UK. On April 18, 2020, out of a sample of 671,493 cases of COVID-19 in the US, there was 33,288 deaths; and out of a sample of 109,754 cases of COVID-19 in the UK, there was 14,606 deaths. What is the 92% confidence interval in the true difference in the mortality rates between the two countries? What can you conclude about the difference in the mortality rates between the US and the UK? Justify your conclusions. [8 marks]

1. ShopSmart’s International Growth Strategy

ShopSmart, founded by in 1919 by Nick Smart, is a British multinational grocery and merchandise retailer. It is the largest grocery retailer in the United Kingdom, with a 28% share of the local market and the second largest after Walmart measured in revenue. In 2017, ShopSmart had sales of more than £62 billion ($70 billion US dollars), more than 480,000 employees and 6,553 stores in 13 countries.

In its home market of the United Kingdom, the company’s strengths are reputed to come from strong competencies in marketing and store site selection, logistics and inventory management and its own label product offerings. By the early 1990s, these competencies had already given the company a leading position in the United Kingdom. ShopSmart was generating strong cash flows and senior managers had to decide how to use that cash. One strategy they settled n was international expansion.

As managers looked at international markets, they soon concluded that the best opportunities were not in established markets in North America and Western Europe where strong competitors already existed but in emerging markets of Eastern Europe and Asia, where there were strong underlying growth trends. ShopSmart’s first international foray was into Hungary in 1995 where it acquired Globals Stores, a state-owned grocery chain. By 2017, ShopSmart was the market leader in Hungary accounting for 1% of the whole economy of Hungary.

Next, ShopSmart acquired 31 stores in Poland from Stavia Limited. The following year, in 1996, ShopSmart added 13 stores that it purchased from Kmart in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The next year, ShopSmart moved to purchase stores in the Republic of Ireland.

ShopSmart’s Asian expansion begun in 1998 when it moved into Thailand. In 1999, the company entered South Korea when it partnered with Samsung to develop a chain of hypermarkets. This was followed by entry into Taiwan in 2000, Malaysia in 2002, Japan in 2003 and China in 2004.

The move into China came after three years of careful research and discussions with potential partners. Like many other western companies, ShopSmart was attracted to the Chinese market by its large size and rapid growth. In the end, ShopSmart settled on a 50-50 joint venture with Hymall, a hypermarket chain that is controlled by Ting Hsin, which has been operating in China for six years. In 2014, ShopSmaart combined its 131 stores in China in a joint venture with the state-run China Resources Enterprise and its nearly 3,000 stores. ShopSmart owned 20% of the joint venture. As a result of these moves, by 2017, ShopSmart generated sales of about $21 billion outside the United Kingdom. The addition of international stores has helped make ShopSmart the second largest company in the global grocery market behind only Walmart. By 2017, all its foreign ventures were making money.  

(Source: Adapted from Hill, C.W.L. & Hult, G.T.M., (2019), International Business: Competing in the Global Marketplace, 12th Edition, McGraw Hill Education)

1. Examine two reasons why ShopSmart’s initial international expansion focused on emerging markets rather than competing with established companies in the more advanced markets of North America and Western Europe.

2. Discuss two disadvantages that ShopSmart encountered as a first mover into these emerging markets.

3. ShopSmart’s entry strategy into the Eastern European countries was through acquisition. Discuss three disadvantages that the company is likely to encounter as a result of this entry strategy

4. Identify ShopSmart’s strategic entry into the Asian market and discuss two benefits that the company sought to achieve with this strategy

a2 Milk Ltd Pty.

a2 Milk is an Australian company specialising in producing fresh milk and milk formula. The company has its operations in Australia. Therefore, there expenses are generally invoiced in Australian dollars (AUD). However, it has recently imported supplies from New Zealand, and the bill is invoiced in the New Zealand dollars (NZD) for NZD 1,500,000, payable in 6 months’ time.

Suppose a2 Milk’s management is concerned about foreign exchange rate exposure, and would like to hedge this risk. Suppose also that you observe the following quotes in the foreign exchange market:

The banker offers to set up a forward hedge based on the NZD/AUD forward cross-exchange rate implicit in the forward rates against the dollar. Suppose you are a risk manager at a2 Milk. You are required to advise the CEO the following:

1. The AUD equivalent of this transaction at the current spot exchange rates. (Could you explain in details and step by step)
2. The foreign exchange rate risk exposure of this transaction. (Could you explain in details and step by step)
3. Whether the company should hedge. If so, show the CEO how you would hedge this risk exposure with the available forward contracts. (Could you explain in details and step by step)

Our Module 2 discussion will focus on familiarizing yourself with someone in the accounting profession.

The purpose of this assignment is to get a picture of the various roles managers play and the skills required to perform effectively in an accounting role.

You should choose to interview someone who has been in the accounting field for at least 2 years, employed full time. Please use the questions below, but feel free to add your own. Ask frequently for examples which illustrate the interviewee’s experience. When an interviewee tells you an interesting story, make sure to ask further questions so you understand how this experience is related to their work and their skills.

Take notes during the interview and then summarize what you learned. Do not provide a verbatim account of the interview! Rather describe what you learned about he accounting field, the skills needed to be successful, what challenges they face, etc. Start the interview by having the individual describe their organization, their specific role and their background briefly. Then use these questions to follow up:

1. Describe a typical day at work.

2. What are the critical skills needed to be successful in your line of work?

3. Name one recent change you had to deal with at work and describe how you managed that change.

4. What do you like best about your work in the field of accounting? Like the least?

5. What would you like to learn more about that would help you to continue to improve in your job?

6. What one piece of "advice" would you give to someone considering a career in accounting?

Summarize what you learned by conducting this interview. Start your posting by briefly describing your interviewee's role and the organization they work for as well as their background (education/formal training, previous jobs, etc.). Then, list each question and provide your interviewee's answer.:

PLEASE ANSWER AND MAKE A SOLUTION.

1. The capital accounts of Kamprad, Inc. on December 31, 2019, were as follows:

Preference share capital, 20,000 shares, $20 par = $400,000
Share premium - preference = 160,000
Ordinary share capital, 50,000 shares, $80 par = 4,000,000
Share premium – ordinary = 600,000
Retained earnings = 360,000

During the year ending December 31, 2010, the following summarizes the transactions affecting the shareholders’ equity

April 30 - 1,000 preference shares were retired at $25 per share.

June 15 - 2,000 treasury shares, ordinary, were purchased at $85 per share.

June 30 - A two-for-one ordinary share split was declared.

July 31 - 800 treasury shares were reissued at $50 per share.

Dec. 31 – Profit for 2010 was $300,000.

What was the total share premium on December 31, 2020?

a. $760,000        c. $755,000

b. $766,000        d. $761,000

2. Black Corporation was organized on January 3, 2020. Black was authorized to issue 50,000 ordinary shares with a par value of P$10 per share. On January 4, Black issued 30,000 ordinary shares at $25 per share. On July 15, Black issued an additional 10,000 shares at $20 per share. Black reported income of $33,000 during 2020. In addition, Black declared a dividend of $0.50 per share on December 31, 2020. The amount reported on Black Corporation's December 31, 2020, balance sheet as shareholders' equity was

a. $400,000        c. $550,000

b. $950,000        d. $963,000

3. White Corporation was incorporated on June 1, 2020 with an authorized 200,000, no-par, ordinary shares, stated value $10 and 10,000, 9% par value $30, preference shares. Transactions affecting company’s equity as of July 31, 2020 were as follows:

June 1 - 50,000 ordinary shares were issued at $10.

June 5 - Assets with a total appraised value of $600,000 were acquired in exchange for 50,000 ordinary shares.

June 15 - Subscriptions were received for 100,000 ordinary shares at $15 and for 5,000 preference shares at $35.

June 25 - Payments in full for the ordinary and preference shares subscribed June 15 were received and the corresponding shares were issued.

The total shareholders’ equity as of July 31, 2020 is

a. $2,875,000        c. $2,750,000

b. $2,300,000        d. $2,775,000

7. The mean weight of students from a certain university is 70 kg with a standard deviation

of 17 kg. i.

ii. iii.

Assume that the weights of students in the university are normally distributed.

What is the probability that the weight of a randomly chosen student is greater than 100 kg?

What is the probability that the weight of a randomly chosen student is between 60 kg and 80 kg?

If you were to take a sample of 16 students, what is the probability that the mean of this sample is more than 73 kg?

A large university is interested in learning about the average time it takes students to drive to campus. The university sampled 238 students and asked each to provide the amount of time they spent traveling to campus, the average and standard deviation were 21.5 and 4.32 respectively. This variable, travel time, was then used conduct a test of hypothesis. The goal was to determine if the average travel time of all the university's students differed from 20 minutes. Use a level of significance of 0.05. (p value method)

A report claims that 46​% of​ full-time college students are employed while attending college. A recent survey of 60 ​full-time students at a state university found that 28 were employed. Use the​ five-step p-value approach to hypothesis testing and a 0.05 level of significance to determine whether the proportion of​ full-time students at this state university is different from the national norm of 0.46. find the t statistic find the p value find the critical value

Let X represent the weight of the students at a university. Suppose X has a mean of 75 kg and a standard deviation of 10 kg. Among 100 such randomly selected students from this university, what is the approximate probability that the average weight of this sample (X100) lies between

(a) 74 and 75 kg

(b) greater than 76 kg

(c) less than 73 kg

Assume that the sample size(N) is large enough for the CLT (Central Limit Theorem) to be applicable.