Business Problem

Business Problem Paper The team has submitted a business proposal that discusses the business decisions and subsequent decline of Starbucks Coffee 's stock price over the last 12 to 24 months. Starbucks is a publicly traded company that offers a variety of products, including: brewed coffees, Italian-style espresso beverages, cold blended beverages, roasted whole bean coffees, tea products, sodas and coffee liqueur (Datamonitor, 2007). The company also offers food items and gift ideas such as coffee mugs and music CD 's. With India being one of the largest growing economies in the world (see Appendix A), second only to China, and the second largest population (1.1 billion people) the team believes that Starbucks should be targeting the markets where their upscale and modern coffee shops would be successful (CultureGrams, 2007). This paper will discuss the dependent and independent variables of the team 's study as well as the primary and secondary data used to support the study. The team will state the applicable null and alternate hypotheses as well as the methodology used to test the team 's hypotheses. An appropriate sample size will be used to ensure that the team arrives with a representative sample that will be sufficient to use when analyzing the sampling data to make informed business decisions off of the statistical data gathered during the proposed study. Finally, the team will make recommendations to Starbucks based off of the sample data gathered and analyzed.
The team has gathered data for several cities within India relative to gender, level of affluence and cultural preferences. The company also has data related to city population, education level, different languages, religious affiliations, natural resources and major industries that support the local economy. The data also supports the competitive nature of the Indian markets which should be reviewed by Starbucks. Furthermore, the team has acquired data supporting monthly

References: Bhatnagar, P. (2004, Nov. 1). Starbucks: A passage to India. Retrieved January 11, 2008 from http://money.cnn.com/2004/10/28 news/fortune500/starbucks_india/index.htm Cooper, Donald R., Schindler, Pamela S CultureGrams. (2007). Retrieved June 3, 2007, from http://online.culturegrams.com Datamonitor Dickerson, K., and Berlin, J. A. (1992). Meta-Analysis: state of the science. Epidemiologic Reviews 14:154–176. Retrieved January 16, 2008 from http://www.bmj.com/archive/7119/7119ed.htm Fisher, R University of Phoenix. (2003). Managing Research Design [Computer Software]. Retrieved November 29, 2007, from University of Phoenix, rEsource, Simulation, MBA510 Managerial Decision Making Web site. USDA (2005) USDA (2005) USDA (2005) United Nations (2006)