Question 1
Gekok Inc. produces and sells home appliances. To better understand its operations, Gekok collects 60 months of inventory turnover and marketing spending data for analysis. The marketing spending data are the total amount the firm spent in marketing its finished goods in a month, and the inventory turnover data are calculated as the cost of goods sold in a month divided by the average on-hand inventory in
that month. Data are included in an Excel spreadsheet.

(a) Analyse the inventory turnover and marketing spending data. Provide a visualization and a numerical description of the two variables according to the following requirements:

• Select an appropriate chart type to visualize and present data. Provide a brief
  justification of your choice. What observations and conclusions can you make
  from the data visualization?
•  Present descriptive statistics of the two variables. Provide a brief explanation of the key statistics. What can you observe and conclude from the descriptive
  statistics? Are these observations and conclusions consistent with those from
  (a)(i)?

(b) Inventory is a critical asset in a manufacturing company. Increasing inventory turnover can increase the return on assets. It is hypothesized that marketing efforts can help increase inventory turnover. Gekko’s management team wants to find out if the hypothesis can be supported by the collected data. You are tasked to perform an association analysis according to the following requirements.

• Use an appropriate chart type to examine the relationship between the two
  variables, inventory turnover, and marketing spending. Provide a brief
  justification of your choice. What can you observe and conclude from the chart?
• Use an appropriate statistical tool to examine the relationship between the two variables. Clearly present the steps and components of the tool (if any), as well as the result of the analysis. What can be concluded from the analysis? Is the
  conclusion consistent with the observations and conclusions in (b)(i)?
• Is it possible to establish causality between marketing spending and inventory
  turnover, i.e. marketing spending drives the firm’s inventory turnover, based on
  the conclusion in (b)(i) and (b)(ii)?