Problem 3 (A Real Data Application). Recall in the simple linear regression model in Module 3, I gave a real data example using the Nobel-winning Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM). In that example, we obtained R² = 0.108, or 10.8%, which is a small value way less than 100%. This means that the single independent variable, the market return, R_M, does not explain the return of an individual stock or portfolio very well in this simple linear regression model. Researchers have been developing new methodologies to add other independent variables to better capture the relationship between returns of an individual asset and the measures of these independent variables. Fama and French (1992) [1] develop a three-factor model by adding two other variables on the basis of the CAPM.

The model is in a form of: R = α + β1RM + β2SMB + β3HML + ɛ

where R is the returns of an individual financial asset (i.e. a stock or a portfolio), R_Mis the market return (such as the S&P 500’s return as we used in the CAPM), SMB is the Small (market capitalization) Minus Big, and the HML is the High (book-to-market ratio) Minus Low. Here R_M, SMB, and HML are the three factors. This is a typical multiple linear regression model.

This three-factor model can be used in the mutual fund industry to explain the return of an individual asset by the three factors. I have uploaded one real data set in EXCEL into the Homework Assignment#4 area in Canvas. Please download the data file to work on the following question. In the file, we look at a famous mutual fund called Fidelity Megellan fund. It is a monthly data spanning from January of 1979 to January of 2006.

Question: Using EXCEL, please run the estimation procedure for the above-mentioned three-factor model, and illustrate your findings/comments based on the estimation of the model. Please specially pay attention to the R² (35 points). This is not all of the data but if you could just show me how to run the model that would be great!

The success of an airline depends heavily on its ability to provide a pleasant customer experience. One dimension of customer service on which airlines compete is on-time arrival. The tables below contains a sample of data from delayed flights showing the number of minutes each delayed flight was late for two different airlines, Company A and Company B.

(a)

Formulate the hypotheses that can be used to test for a difference between the population mean minutes late for delayed flights by these two airlines. (Let μ₁ = population mean minutes late for delayed Company A flights and μ₂ = population mean minutes late for delayed Company B flights.)

H₀: μ₁ − μ₂ ≤ 0

H_a: μ₁ − μ₂ > 0

H₀: μ₁ − μ₂ < 0

H_a: μ₁ − μ₂ = 0

H₀: μ₁ − μ₂ ≥ 0

H_a: μ₁ − μ₂ < 0

H₀: μ₁ − μ₂ = 0

H_a: μ₁ − μ₂ ≠ 0

H₀: μ₁ − μ₂ ≠ 0

H_a: μ₁ − μ₂ = 0

(b)

What is the sample mean number of minutes late for delayed flights for each of these two airlines?

Company A  minCompany B  min

(c)

Calculate the test statistic. (Round your answer to three decimal places.)

What is the p-value? (Round your answer to four decimal places.)

p-value =

Using a 0.05 level of significance, what is your conclusion?

Reject H₀. There is statistical evidence that one airline does better than the other in terms of their population mean delay time.Do not reject H₀. There is no statistical evidence that one airline does better than the other in terms of their population mean delay time.     Do not Reject H₀. There is statistical evidence that one airline does better than the other in terms of their population mean delay time.Reject H₀. There is no statistical evidence that one airline does better than the other in terms of their population mean delay time.

It is a strategic management

Question 1: Discuss the business-level and corporate-level strategies of Apple, as discussed in the articles below. Why is Apple pursuing these strategies? Be sure to discuss competitive pressures from Sony as it pursues its strategy. Compel your response with data from the articles.

Article 1:

THE NEWEST NUMBERS ARE IN —While iPhone sales remain stagnant, Apple services hit $10 billion in revenue

Apple announced on its earnings call today that it had surpassed its revenue estimates for Q4 2018. The iPhone maker boasted $62.9 billion in revenue, slightly more than the $60-62 billion it previously estimated, as well as $14.1 billion in profit, up from $11.5 billion in the previous quarter.

"We're thrilled to report another record-breaking quarter that caps a tremendous fiscal 2018, the year in which we shipped our two billionth iOS device, celebrated the 10th anniversary of the App Store, and achieved the strongest revenue and earnings in Apple's history,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement.Ars Technica

Apple sold 46.8 million iPhones, 9.6 million iPads, and 5.2 million Macs in the final quarter of 2018. While that represents a 14 percent increase in iPhone sales when compared to last quarter, it's about the same number of iPhones sold this time last year. However, year-over-year revenue from iPhone sales was up by 29 percent, thanks to the increase in iPhone prices.

This quarter saw the reveal of the iPhone XS and XS Max, but only a fraction of those sales contribute to these numbers because of the handsets' late release date. The YoY increase mostly comes from the $1,000 iPhone X, which has been the best-selling iPhone since its launch in September 2017. The X continues to sell well enough that Apple moved roughly the same number of iPhones and made nearly 30 percent more. Now, the average sale price for an iPhone is $793, up drastically from $618 in the same quarter last year.

Apple's services business, a constant bright spot in recent quarters, hit a revenue milestone in Q4 2018: $10 billion (it's $9.98 billion to be exact, but Apple rounded up). That's an increase of 27 percent from Q4 2017, in which services including iCloud, Apple Music, the App Store, and others brought in $7.9 billion in revenue.

When asked about how Apple plans to continue growing its services business, CFO Luca Maestri highlighted the "exponential trajectory" of all of Apple's services from Apple Music to the Apple Store to Apple Pay. Maestri also called out Apple's "very large and growing" install base, which is currently at an all-time high. With so many users within the Apple ecosystem, the company now has the opportunity to monetize more services, improve existing services, and add new ones like Apple's Search Ad business on the App Store. Maestri said that the company is on track to double its fiscal 2016 services revenue by 2020.

iPad numbers were lackluster: unit sales were down 16 percent from last quarter, and revenue was down 14 percent as well. That might be due to all the rumors leading up to this week's "special event" in which Apple released the new iPad Pros. Those devices feature all-new designs, a new Apple Pencil, and higher prices to boot. Meanwhile, Mac sales brought in 39 percent more revenue than last quarter, thanks in part to sales of the updated MacBook Pros and the back-to-school season overall.

Apple's "other products" category, which includes the Apple Watch, AirPods, Apple TV, HomePod, and others, saw a 13 percent sequential increase and a 31 percent increase from this time last year. Cook praised the wearables segment (Apple Watch, AirPods, and Beats devices) numerous times on today's call, although Apple still doesn't provide individual product sales numbers for the devices included in that category.

Cook said the company saw an "overwhelmingly positive" response to the Apple Watch Series 4, which debuted in September alongside the iPhone XS and XS Max. When asked about Apple's future in the health care space, Cook said that health is an "area of major interest" for Apple as the company looks to add more health products and services into its business.

Notably, Apple will start treating all of its hardware like it does the "other products" category we're used to seeing in its earnings reports. Apple stated that it will no longer report unit sales for iPhones, iPads, and Macs in future reports. Maestri said that unit sales are "not representative of the underlying strength of our business." Analysts and investors often look to those numbers to determine how well certain devices have sold in comparison to previous quarters and years, and they help calculate average selling prices per product. Apple clearly wants to highlight how much it's making from product sales, without also showing that some devices, like the iPhone, may not be selling as many units as some expected.

Both Apple and investors are looking forward to the first quarter of 2019, which will include holiday sales and more data about iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR sales. Apple set its sights high: it estimates Q1 2019 revenue to be between $89 and $93 billion.

Article 2 - Sony:

Pioneer of Walkman targets premium market dominated by Bose and Beats

TOKYO -- When Ichiro Takagi took over Sony Corp.'s audio business seven years ago, he found the staff took pride in being the global No. 1 in headphones, in terms of units sold. But he was appalled at how many were $10 headphones sold for minimal profit at grocery stores. "What's the point of that? Where's our brand image?" Mr. Takagi recalls telling employees. Fast forward to this fall and the international electronics show in Berlin, where Mr. Takagi was showing off the latest version of his flagship product, a $350 pair of noise-canceling wireless headphones.

The premium-price headphone market has been largely dominated by Bose, the industry pioneer popular with frequent fliers, and Beats, the fashion-savvy brand acquired by Apple Inc. for $3 billion in 2014. All share the challenge of wooing listeners who already get free earbuds with their smartphones.

Sony said in May it has 11% of the headphone market in terms of revenue, the third-largest slice. It didn't name the top two companies.

The audio business -- where Sony has been a player since the 1950s -- is a prime example of how it got back to profitability in recent years, even in a traditional hardware business that once looked like a lost cause. For the year that ended in March, sales for the audio unit rose for the first time in 20 years after having fallen some 80% from the peak.

More important for Chief Executive Kenichiro Yoshida, the home-electronics division, including audio and televisions (another former money loser), posted operating profit of nearly $800 million for the year, helping Sony achieve record overall profit. Mr. Yoshida is hoping roughly to match that record in the current fiscal year: Quarterly earnings coming Tuesday will give a progress report. The rise of Spotify Technology SA and other music services has been good for headphone makers, increasing the time consumers spend listening on the go. Streaming companies such as Spotify and France-based Deezer offer high-resolution services that have expanded the market for higher-quality headphones costing hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Recent product releases by Sony include a $280 pair of earphones; an $8,500 portable music player targeted at audiophiles goes on sale in December, with a gold-plated volume controller and a battery system designed to reduce noise.

In the first generation of portable MP3 music players, "the quality of the music sources was poor," Sony audio executive Yoshinori Matsumoto said. "We couldn't push high-end listening devices because they would highlight the coarseness." Now, better technology has "made high-quality music more accessible both to customers and creators," he said.

Audio has paralleled Sony's highs and lows through its 72-year history. The Walkman in 1979 set off a revolution in portable electronic devices, with Sony in the lead. But in the 2000s, Sony let Apple and the iPod seize the dominant position. By 2011, the Tokyo company was nearly giving up on its old hardware products. "The attitude of management at that time was like, 'If you're so-so, that's fine,' " Mr. Takagi, the audio-unit chief, said. That changed under then Chief Executive Kazuo Hirai, who took over in 2012, and Mr. Yoshida, who was chief financial officer under Mr. Hirai and became CEO this year. They pushed the audio team to drop cheap products and focus on a few high-end models.

Mr. Takagi says the new management scrapped an organizational chart that had separate groups of engineers focusing on subcategories like car audio. "I told them to look around the whole industry to come up with products that consumers are willing to pay extra for," he said.

Sony says the $350 headphones can detect the owner's facial shape, hairstyle and presence of glasses, as well as pressure changes in an airplane, all to optimize the noise-canceling feature. "Our latest model is distinctly the best in terms of noise-canceling technology," says Mr. Takagi, who is in the habit of visiting electronics stores to eavesdrop on what customers are saying to salespeople. "It's obvious if you ask your ears."

Another Sony rival, especially for younger customers, is Beats. Mr. Matsumoto says the competition has led Sony to stress fashion as well as sound quality. "In China, headphones have become part of the outfit for young people, and they have to have a style that people want to wear all the time, even when they are not listening," he said.

Mr. Takagi said there is more innovation to come, such as headsets that stream music from the internet on their own without having to be hooked up to a smartphone. "Audio will remain a profitable business so long as we keep listening to music," Mr. Takagi said. "If we remain as a strong and respected player in the industry, then the whole company will be too because audio is the origin of Sony."

Write a C++ program that does the following:

Read and input file containing the following

PersonAName, PersonBName, XA,YA, XB, YB

where the coordinates of PersonA in a 100 by 100 room is XA, YA

and the coordinates of PersonB is XB, YB.

Use square root function in cmath sqrt() to calculate the shortest distance between two points.

A file will be uploaded in this assignment that will list coordinates of two people.

The program should use a function call that returns the distance. If the distance is less than 6 feet, the report the case giving the names and the calculated distance.

Blackboard will be updated with a data file by Saturday morning.

Data fields

Person A Name Column 1-10

Person B Name Column 11-20

Person A X coordinate 21-23

Person A Y coordinate 25-27

Person B X coordinate 31-33

Person B Y coordinate 35-37

Attached file coordinates.txt

1---+----1----+----2----+----3----+----4----+----5----+----6----+----7----+----8
Apple     John      5   2     3   4
Apple     Ben       5   2     10  4
Apple     Carla     5   2     4   3
Apple     Sonny     5   2     70  55
Tom       Jerry     24  34    29  39
Tom       Tim       24  34    50  55
Tom       Tracy     24  34    88  31
Tom       Tammy     24  34    87  90
Jim       Tammy     74  89    87  90
James     Tammy     72  88    87  90
Josh      Tammy     59  24    87  90
Barry     Tom       12  78    13  65
Barry     Carla     12  78    4   3
Barry     John      12  78    3   4
Barry     Sonny     12  78    70  55
Barry     Jerry     12  78    29  39
Barry     Juan      12  78    14  80
Ann       Margaret  25  44    28  79
Ann       Silvia    25  44    25  55

Royal Corporation’s inventory at December 31, 2021, was $126,000 (at cost) based on a physical count of inventory on hand, before any necessary adjustment for the following:

• Merchandise costing $16,000, shipped f.o.b. shipping point from a vendor on December 27, 2021, was received by Royal on January 5, 2022.
• Merchandise costing $46,000 was shipped to a customer f.o.b. shipping point on December 28, 2021, arrived at the customer’s location on January 6, 2022.
• Merchandise costing $22,000 was being held on hand for Jess Company on consignment (i.e., Royal is the consignee).
• Estimated sales returns are 20% of annual sales. Sales revenue was $552,000 with a gross profit ratio of 30%.

What amount should Royal Corporation report as inventory in its December 31, 2021, balance sheet?

ultiple Choice

• $197,280.

• $181,280.

• $227,280.

• $225,405.

What is the “window period” for HIV infection?

A bank with a branch located in a commercial district of a city has developed an improved process for serving customers during the noon-to-1 P.M. lunch period. The bank has the business objective of reducing the waiting time (defined as the number of minutes that elapse from when the customer enters the line until he or she reaches the teller window) to increase customer satisfaction. A random sample of 15 customers is selected and waiting times(in minutes) are collected and stored in the Bank 1 column. Another branch, located in a residential area, is also concerned with the noon-to-1 p.m. lunch period. A random sample of 15 customers is selected and waiting times  (in minutes) are collected and stored in the Bank 2 column.

a.Assuming that the population variances from both banks are notequal, is there evidence of a difference in the mean waiting time between the two branches? (Use α = 0.05.)

b. Determine the p-value in (a) and interpret its meaning.

c.Construct and interpret a 95% confidence interval estimate of the difference between the population means in the two branches.

Thank you!

A consumer product testing organization uses a survey of readers to obtain customer satisfaction ratings for the nation's largest supermarkets. Each survey respondent is asked to rate a specified supermarket based on a variety of factors such as: quality of products, selection, value, checkout efficiency, service, and store layout. An overall satisfaction score summarizes the rating for each respondent with 100 meaning the respondent is completely satisfied in terms of all factors. Suppose sample data representative of independent samples of two supermarkets' customers are shown below.

(a) Formulate the null and alternative hypotheses to test whether there is a difference between the population mean customer satisfaction scores for the two retailers. (Let μ₁ = the population mean satisfaction score for Supermarket 1's customers, and let μ₂ = the population mean satisfaction score for Supermarket 2's customers. Enter != for ≠ as needed.)

H₀:

H_a:

(b) Assume that experience with the satisfaction rating scale indicates that a population standard deviation of 15 is a reasonable assumption for both retailers. Conduct the hypothesis test.

Calculate the test statistic. (Use μ₁ − μ₂. Round your answer to two decimal places.)

Report the p-value. (Round your answer to four decimal places.)

p-value =

(c)

Provide a 95% confidence interval for the difference between the population mean customer satisfaction scores for the two retailers. (Use x₁ − x₂.Round your answers to two decimal places.)

to

1. Return the full names (first and last) of actors with “SON” in their last name, ordered by their first name.
2. Find all the addresses where the second address (i.e. address2) is not empty (i.e., contains some text), and return these second addresses sorted.
3. Your Professor wants you to find all the information from rental table associated with those staff (or staff ID) whose address ID is 4 (in staff table). Professor wants you to use Sub-query function.
4. Your Professor wants you to find out the first name and district of all the customers whose district ends on “ia” – such as California.
5. Your Professor wants you to find all the payment-related information of customers other than the customer whose ID is 1.
6. Your Professor wants you to find out the full name (i.e. combine the first and last name) and the district of all the customers that live in a district called California.
7. Your Professor wants you to find the title, film id and category name (such as action) of those movies that are of the action genre (i.e. category name is Action).
8. Return the first and last names of actors who played in a film involving a “Crocodile” and a “Shark”, along with the release year of the movie, sorted by the actors’ last names.
9. Find all the film categories in which there are between 55 and 65 films. Return the names of these categories and the number of films per category, sorted by the number of films.
10. In how many film categories is the average difference between the film replacement cost and the rental rate larger than 17?

A recent Pew Center Research survey revealed that 68% of high school students have used tobacco related products. Suppose a statistician randomly selected 20 high school students. Use this information to answer questions 39-41.

1. To find the probability that exactly 15 used tobacco products, would you use the Binomial, Geometric, or Poisson distribution to find the probability?
2. Set up the problem to find P (X = 15) using the appropriate distribution. Do NOT solve.
3. What is the expected number of high school students in the sample who have used tobacco products?

For a self check out at the local Walmart, the mean number of customers per 5 minute interval is 1.5 customers. Use this information to answer questions 42 and 43.

1. To find the probability of 2 customers in the next 5 minutes, would you use the Binomial, Geometric, or Poisson distribution to find the probability?
2. What is the variance (numeric value)?  

Assuming the grades on the first homework are nearly normal with N(90, 4.3), what proportion of grades fall between 85 and 90?
Assuming the grades on the final exam are nearly normal with N(90, 4.3), for a grade of 95 or more on the exam, find the z-score and explain what it means.
Assuming the grades on the final exam are nearly normal with N(90, 4.3), what is the minimum grade putting you in the top 15% of the class?
Assuming the grades on the final exam are nearly normal with N(82, 3.86), what proportion of grades fall between 85 and 90?