ECOM90009 – Quantitative Methods for Business Data Analysis Report
2023 Semester 2 Draft Task
Quantitative Methods for Business (ECOM90009)
Quantitative Data Analysis Report: First Draft
Data Enquiries: Tutor
General Enquiries: ED Discussion Board
1. Focus of the Assessment
This assessment task allows students to develop a vital set of tools required from business
graduates. Completing this task will enhance your data skills (visualisation and presentation,
analysis, and storytelling with data), critical and creative thinking, written communication, and
collaborative learning skills.
2. Completion and Submission Guidelines
Due dates:
- Register your group by 11am Monday, 21 August. A link to register groups will be
available on Canvas.
- The report is due by 9am, Monday, 28 August
• A link to submit your report will be available from 9am on Wednesday, 23 August
Instructions:
- This assignment carries 10% towards your final QMB mark.
- This is a Group Assignment. Each group should contain 3 (three) students from the same
tutorial. Students wishing to submit assignments in pairs or individually must seek written
approval from their tutor. Unless in the event of exceptional circumstances, the
composition of your group must remain the same for each of the three submissions of this
assignment.
- Group Work: You should immediately exchange names, phone numbers, and email
addresses with your group members. If you have difficulty with a group member, contact
your tutor immediately. Do not leave issues unresolved until just before or after your group
assignment is due; remember that the group is a team, with all students within your group
receiving the same mark. The leader of each group must register their group before the
ECOM90009 – Quantitative Methods for Business Data Analysis Report
2023 Semester 2 Draft Task
deadline using the link given in Canvas. All group members will receive the same mark
for the assignment. All assignments will be checked for plagiarism and collusion
(including a check to determine if work has been generated by AI software). For further
information, please go to: https://academicintegrity.unimelb.edu.au/
- Please adhere to all deadlines; we have strict deadlines. Any assignments not submitted
by the due date and time will be given a zero mark unless the group has received an
extension approval from the faculty. Please read the information about extensions
available in the subject guide.
- Read the Assignment Rubric to get a clear understanding of the expectations.
- Assignments must be typed and converted into a single PDF document before submitting
online via Canvas. Scanned or handwritten assignments will not be marked.
- Please make sure to include a cover page in the assignment. Names and student IDs of
each group member must be included on the cover page, along with the tutor’s name.
- Students must preview their assignment after uploading it on Canvas to see if they have
uploaded the correct/complete assignment and if the formatting matches their original
document. Any version of the assignment submitted after the deadline due to formatting
issues or submitting an incomplete version will not be accepted.
- Word count policy: Assignments with 10% more words will be marked without a penalty.
Tables and diagrams are excluded, but tables should not be used to house substantive
analysis. Any technical work you would like to include can be included in an Appendix (It
will not be accounted for the word limit).
- Subject material disclaimer: You should use only the techniques and material
discussed in Seminars 1-3 and Workshops 1-3 of ECOM90009. All statistical analyses
should be completed using Excel following the methods covered in the subject. There
is no need (nor marks available) for external research or referencing.
ECOM90009 – Quantitative Methods for Business Data Analysis Report
2023 Semester 2 Draft Task
3. The Task
Write a Report (word limit: 1000):
Health Insurance is a competitive industry1. Imagine you are the financial manager of a
prominent insurance company in the US. Your company is prepared to offer insurance2 to
members of the public for the cost of receiving certain healthcare services.
Suppose you have been asked to write a report analysing the insurance costs (that is, the payouts
to insured customers) based on various characteristics of the individuals. This report is
valuable for the company's strategic decision-making and financial stand. A comprehensive
analysis of the data can reveal the factors that contribute to the amounts individuals claim on
their health. The audience of your report is your organisation's executive staff, who are eager
to get an insight into the factors that decide the financial claims individuals make. You should
assume that not all executive members are statistically trained, so you should avoid jargon and
define all discipline-specific terminology in an Appendix.
You have collected a random sample of individuals who have had an insurance policy with
various insurance companies in the country. You are ready to analyse the data and write a report
(Your tutor will provide the required dataset at or before the tutorial in week 4). The first sheet
of the Excel file your tutor gave you has the data; the second tab has a description of data
description.
Use appropriate descriptive statistics and graphical methods to analyse and extract
information from data. Write an exciting narrative (story) based on your findings of what the
data reveals about the individuals, their demographic characteristics, and health insurance
claims. Descriptive statistics should be presented in Tables. Make sure to label all your Tables
and graphs clearly.
Make sure to include the following tasks in your report:
1. First, the distribution and interesting features of insurance costs and other demographic
characteristics across the entire customer base (dataset): Summarise and discuss
exciting features in the data and what they reveal about the individuals’ characteristics
and health insurance costs. Pay special attention to describing the features of the claims
variable across the whole sample. Also, use the other variables to provide an overview
of your company’s customer base and any other information you believe is relevant.
(Approximate word guide: 400 words)
1 Here is some information about the Insurance Industry in Australia
2 To become insured, a member of the public must buy an insurance plan from your company (the cost
of which is referred to as a ‘premium’), which outlines the circumstances in which they can make a
claim, and the amount which they can claim in those circumstances. If an insured person incurs medical
costs covered by their insurance, your company must pay the amount specified in the insurance plan to
the insured person (this could be an amount exceeding, equal to, or less than the premium they have
paid, depending on the size of the premium charged, and the cost of the service). Even if an insured
person incurs no medical costs covered by their plan, they do not have their premium refunded.
ECOM90009 – Quantitative Methods for Business Data Analysis Report
2023 Semester 2 Draft Task
2. Then, include an analysis of the ways in which insurance costs, BMI, and smoker status
vary across different regions. (Approximate word guide: 250 words)
3. Finally, consider the relationship between the insurance cost and the other variables.
Describe the relationship(s) you think is/are the most important for the executive to
know. (Approximate word guide: 200 words)
4. Include an appropriate title, an introduction, and a conclusion to your report.
(Approximate word guide: 150 words).
You can add an Appendix to the report to report any calculations or a summary of the statistical
terms you used (this is not essential and will not be marked for the first draft report).
Use the “Assignment Rubric” and the “Tips for Report Writing” provided below to guide you
with this task.
The next page has more information.
ECOM90009 – Quantitative Methods for Business Data Analysis Report
2023 Semester 2 Draft Task
Further Tips for Writing Your Quantitative Data Analysis Report
Category Explanation
Purpose of the
writing
• Why are you writing this text?
• Are you trying to convince, inform, recommend?
• What outcome are you hoping for?
Your Audience • Who is your audience?
(You are writing this report to a non-technical audience)
• What’s their level of knowledge?
• How will they read?
• How will they use the information?
Quality of your
written report
• Make your writing clear and easy to follow.
• Have paragraphs and sentences in a logical order.
• Structure your report well: Suggested Sections:
o Introduction (as per task 4 above)
o Description of Data (this can be task 1: a description and
discussion of the whole dataset)
o Analysis and Results (tasks 2 and 3)
o Conclusions/ Recommendations (as per task 4)
o References (if any, not required)
o Appendix containing a Glossary of statistical terms and
calculations you may want to report additionally.
Statistical Analysis Analyse, interpret and present data effectively
• Use (only) appropriate statistical tools
• Think about a variety of methods to present data
• Think about how you use the data and analysis to make your case