This is the eighth in a series of lecture notes which, if tied together into a textbook, might be entitled "Practical Regression." The purpose of the notes is to supplement the theoretical content of most statistics texts with practical advice based on nearly three decades of experience of the author, combined with over one hundred years of experience of colleagues who have offered guidance. As the title "Practical Regression" suggests, these notes are a guide to performing regression in practice.This technical note discusses maximum likelihood estimation (MLE). The note explains the concept of goodness of fit and why MLE is a powerful alternative to R-squared. The note follows a simple example that develops the intuition of MLE as well as the computation of the likelihood score and the algorithm used to estimate coefficients in MLE models.
The Sustainable Conservation case presents the story of San Francisco-based nonprofit that was founded to solve environmental problems in California through collaborative partnerships between the public and private sector. The nonprofit had built up strong expertise in the agriculture industry, with an early focus on the issues associated with water quality, air pollution, and land use. With a clear track record and a strong team in place, both the board and management team felt that the organization was poised to have even greater impact by expanding its projects and reach across California. Yet, it would clearly need a major influx of capital to execute upon that vision. Ashley and the board had therefore decided in 2011 to undertake the first major fundraising initiative in Sustainable Conservation's 19-year history. As Ashley read through the feedback from donors who had attended a recent event, she realized there were a number of questions yet to be answered to ensure that the initiative was successful.
As Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) CEO David Denison and SVP and Chief Investment Strategist Don Raymond embarked upon a review of CPPIB's investment strategy, they reflected on the changes that had been made in recent years. The Reference Portfolio played an integral role in allowing CPPIB to look through the labels of asset classes and to holistically consider each asset in terms of its underlying factors. In this case, which draws upon interviews with both Denison and Raymond, students will learn about the history of CPPIB, the genesis of the Reference Portfolio, and how the Reference Portfolio operates to guide CPPIB's high performing investment strategy.
As Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) CEO David Denison and SVP and Chief Investment Strategist Don Raymond embarked upon a review of CPPIB's investment strategy, they reflected on the changes that had been made in recent years. The Reference Portfolio played an integral role in allowing CPPIB to look through the labels of asset classes and to holistically consider each asset in terms of its underlying factors. In this case, which draws upon interviews with both Denison and Raymond, students will learn about the history of CPPIB, the genesis of the Reference Portfolio, and how the Reference Portfolio operates to guide CPPIB's high performing investment strategy.
As Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) CEO David Denison and SVP and Chief Investment Strategist Don Raymond embarked upon a review of CPPIB's investment strategy, they reflected on the changes that had been made in recent years. The Reference Portfolio played an integral role in allowing CPPIB to look through the labels of asset classes and to holistically consider each asset in terms of its underlying factors. In this case, which draws upon interviews with both Denison and Raymond, students will learn about the history of CPPIB, the genesis of the Reference Portfolio, and how the Reference Portfolio operates to guide CPPIB's high performing investment strategy.
The case considers the necessity for rebranding the city of Orlando, Florida, which has a brand known worldwide as a destination only for tourism and sunshine. However, the Greater Orlando Area not only houses many other promising industries including technology, defence and simulation but also has a diverse community and a trade scene with vast potential. Yet, why has Orlando not been recognized as a great place to conduct business? Why is its reputation tied only to tourism? How can the city be marketed as a vibrant business destination in addition to a tourist destination? Many variables affect the brand and, therefore, perception of the city. What can be done to make Orlando more attractive and, through this, become a world city?
Korea Tobacco and Ginseng (KT&G) is a leading tobacco and ginseng company in South Korea, as well as one of the most successful cases of privatization in the country’s history. This case examines KT&G’s business operations during the process of privatization and afterwards in an environment of increasing foreign competition and investment. This case provides a valuable lesson for investors interested in the volatile process of privatization.
Prototypes allow you to consider and test your product or service concept quickly and at low cost, and they play an important role in the development of new ventures. This quick introduction elaborates on the concept and illustrates the use of prototypes in a variety of contexts.
Israeli entrepreneur and inventor Dov Moran envisioned the creation of a mobile device that was a small, stand-alone, fully functional mobile phone that could be slipped into a variety of enclosures, or "jackets," that would provide added functionality and better reflect the personalities of its users. As the development of the Modu phone began to take shape, Moran and his team decided that to ensure the success of the new phone's much anticipated launch, Modu would develop and market the accessory jackets itself. The question now was which of the eight jackets to develop and what factors should be considered in making that decision. The case is about how to estimate optimal product-line extensions after accounting for experience curve and cannibalization effects of products that share similar features, cost, and price. This will require quantitative analysis that estimates the effect of the experience curve and cannibalization on cost, revenues, and ultimately profit. The issue is how to optimize profits by choosing an ideal set of products.
As a birthday present, Mike has just been given a new smartphone by his girlfriend Molly. However, it is not the phone he wants. Over the course of a few days, Mike struggles with the decision of whether to return the phone and get the one he wants, or keep the one he received as a gift. The case is written from the perspective of the consumer, and deals with consumer behavior issues such as anticipatory regret. It would be useful in an introductory marketing or undergraduate consumer behavior course.
This case presents a means by which students can explore how government policy is influenced by the actions of stakeholders in an economy: firms, taxpayers, voters, unions, and other organizations. It highlights how policy-making can be a process endogenous to the interests and influence of the private sector, and not an exogenous one, even in domains that are the power reserve of public policy makers. In 2010, the ruling party in Australia has devised a new tax, the Resource Super Profit Tax (RSPT). This tax has been devised to enable national and state governments to benefit from the boom in the mining industry by expropriating a greater portion of the industry's earnings. The RSPT has been prepared without any input from major mining companies in Australia, and if implemented would represent a substantial increase in their tax payable. The case is presented from the perspective of the CEO of BHP Billiton, one of the largest mining companies in Australia. The situation considers what, if any, action can be taken to combat a tax that has already been devised by the government and is about to be implemented. Successful analysis of the case involves an evaluation of all stakeholders in the Australian economy that will be influenced by the imposition of the RSPT. After this is done, a strategy needs to be devised that will influence the government to withdraw a tax to which it has already demonstrated a firm commitment.
The El Coyote Mexican Caf�, more commonly known as �El Coyote,� is a family owned restaurant located in Los Angeles, California. The restaurant faced criticism from pro-gay rights activists after the manager, and daughter of the owner, made a personal donation to support California Ballot Proposition 8, which activists associated with the restaurant rather than the individual. The case transpires over an eight-day period from November 4, 2008, which was the election day when the ballot proposition passed, to November 12, 2008 which was when the manager held an open breakfast at El Coyote to publicly discuss the issue.The central tension in the case revolves around how the manager�s donation to support a measure that legally defines marriage as �between a man and a woman� has garnered the restaurant with unwanted attention despite being a personal contribution separate from and not endorsed by the business. The goal of the case is to challenge students to think about tensions firms face in managing the external environment of their businesses in the face of both: (i) campaign finance and election issues; and, (ii) activists who may not understand all of the underlying facts.
Smart grid companies such as Viridity Energy are finding profitable opportunities to help their customers cut energy bills and simultaneously get credit for greater environmental responsibility. But will consuming fewer "dirty" watts from fuel sources such as coal and natural gas be a sufficient objective for customers in the future? What will rising societal expectations, tougher environment regulations, and new distributed clean energy technologies mean for the ability of smart grid companies to engage new customers and differentiate themselves in an increasingly crowded field?
The Siemens Kalwa factory in Mumbai, also referred to as Kalwa Works (KW), started in 1973 with the production of motors and later diversified to produce switchgears and switchboards. By 2009, 40 per cent of all Siemens India employees were working in Kalwa and contributing 45 per cent of the total Siemens India production. Kalwa had become the most important business centre for Siemens India. In October 2006, Siemens AG decided to implement lean manufacturing in the Kalwa factory as part of a worldwide rollout of the Siemens Production System in all its medium-voltage facilities. The implementations were expected to bring drastic improvements in labour productivity, lower inventory levels, and higher throughput to improve the factories' financial performance. The lean program promised that the factory's current realized capacity of 4,000 panels per year could be increased by approximately 50 per cent to 6,000 panels per year in the medium term within two years, and to about 12,000 panels within the next four to five years. While the benefits of successful implementation were attractive, the company faced several challenges, including restructuring the organization, getting staff on board to accept and facilitate the change, and handling resistance from internal and external stakeholders. This case provides an opportunity to analyze and discuss lean implementation issues for a global multinational firm in the Indian context.
Credit unions are a specialized type of depository institution with a cooperative, non-profit structure and a federal tax exemption. They originated as small, cooperative institutions with an emphasis on uncollateralized consumer lending to the unbanked working-classes. Over time, credit unions have evolved into a wide range of sizes, though compared to banks, a much higher proportion of credit unions are still very small. One subset of "non-traditional" credit unions have been able to expand as a result of looser field of membership requirements and expanded product and service offerings through the use of corporate credit unions and Credit Union Service Organizations. This case looks at the regulatory proposals around credit unions coming out of the financial crisis from the policy-making perspective. Credit unions have lobbied policymakers for expanded powers that will enable them to help stimulate the economy and create jobs by serving more customers and extending more credit. These expanded powers include increasing the business lending cap and raising secondary capital from non-members. The protagonist is a research analyst who must evaluate the benefits of credit unions against the costs, including the federal tax exemption. He also must consider the policy objectives of credit unions against alternative ways to achieve those objectives.
Centuryply operates in the building materials space - specifically, in interior decoration with plywood, laminates and decorative veneers - alongside other categories like cement, shipping, and logistics. In India, this market is dominated by unorganized players, and plywood has always been treated as a commodity by marketers. Given the boom in real estate across residences and offices, as well as the current rapid lifestyle changes in India, the company expects sustainable and continuous growth and wants to achieve greater success in the wood furnishings category. Centuryply views investment in brand-building as a way to beat commoditization.The focus of the case is to explain innovative branding strategies that may be adopted by marketers to create a brand in the commodity market. In addition, it touches on the difficulties faced by a company to maintain a sustainable brand proposition amid competition. The key question is how to maintain brand-building momentum and take it to the next level.
It was February 2012 and the founder of Nurturing Green, a plants-as-gifts enterprise, faced an important business decision. As he pondered the deal presented to him by an investment firm, he wondered about the wisdom of giving up 50 per cent control of his company in return for the investment firm’s offer of $10 million in capital funding. Would the investors take control of the company out of his hands, or would they provide necessary capital and useful business experience? Further, if he acquired the venture capital, how and where should he allocate the funds and his efforts to maximize the degree of leverage his business could gain from the influx of capital? Should he invest in building warehouses to better serve his customers by achieving lesser lead times? Should he invest in research and development to increase the knowledge capital of his business, or should he consider other options?
After 15 years of remarkable achievements, Taiwan-based HTC Corp. faced difficult times by 2012. CEO Peter Chou, who drove HTC's transformation from an unknown manufacturer of PDAs for other companies to a well-known global player in smartphones, faced an uncertain and complex environment. Apple's lead in the smartphone and tablet markets, the acquisition of Motorola by Google, the Microsoft-Nokia alliance, the rise of Samsung, and the extensive patent wars - each raised questions about how HTC could continue its upward trajectory. In a rapidly evolving and increasingly competitive market, what would a sustainable differentiation strategy look like for HTC? How could HTC, a historically innovative company, compete in the tablet market? And how could it weather - and mitigate - the patent wars?