SWOT and Linear Regression

Outcomes addressed in this activity:

Unit Outcomes:

Describe types of risks in order to prioritize them.

Distinguish the difference between risks and issues.

Explain root causes and consequences of risk.

Course Outcome:

IT528-1: Enumerate common types of risks and their potential ramifications for modern business.

Purpose

The purpose of this Assignment is to practice developing a SWOT analysis to identify and plan for risk mitigation, and then to prepare a linear regression model in R® that will address that risk. You will be expected to complete both a SWOT analysis and a linear regression model in this Assignment

Assignment Instructions

Complete the following steps:

In a Microsoft® Word® document, create a SWOT table for the following scenario:

Home & Hearth is an American company that distributes heating oil for homes in rural areas across the country. These homes are remote enough that they cannot connect to natural gas services that are a normal part of town and city life. They must purchase heating oil to be delivered to their properties by truck, usually once or twice a month, though sometimes more frequently in colder months. Home & Hearth has been delivering heating oil to such homes all across America since in 1976. The company has a strong network of suppliers of crude oil, and owns its own refineries in eight regional locations around the country to process the crude into heating oil. Although it has more than forty years of experience, the company has been caught off guard from time to time with too little crude oil on-hand when demand for their heating oil has increased, sometimes due to new accounts, sometimes due to harsher or longer than expected winters in some areas. When winters are short or mild, the company is sometimes left with tens of thousands of gallons of crude or refined heating oil on-hand. Heating oil can turn rancid (unusable) if it is not used within a few months, though there are some preservation techniques that can extend the shelf life of heating oil by refrigeration. The price of oil seems to be changing all the time, which frustrates the company’s management as well. Over the years of their existence, oil burning stoves, furnaces, and hot water tanks have also become much more efficient, and the technology continues to improve. As cities and towns across America have continued to grow, some of their customers have gained access to natural gas hookups, but the company has also seen an influx of new customers moving to the country to escape the congestion and bustle of more metropolitan areas.

Note that although there is no hard-and-fast number of items, the paragraph gives enough information that every quadrant of your SWOT table should have at least two items, and could have more depending on your research and knowledge of the energy industry and supply chain concepts. Your lists should include both risks and issues Home & Hearth faces, and should distinguish between them.

Download the HeatingOil.csv data set file from Course Documents. Import it into R using this command: HeatingOil <- read.csv(file.choose(), header=T)

Create a linear regression model to predict heating oil usage based on the other variables in the data set.

Place a screenshot of your linear regression model into your Word document.

Write an interpretation of the predictive ability of your model and independent variables, with specific attention paid to independent variable coefficients and p-values.

Conduct research about the energy industry, focusing specifically on SWOT/risks this industry faces. Write a summary of how your linear regression model could help Home & Hearth respond to risk. Contextualize your summary using the research that you found. You should cite a minimum of five sources. These should be related to SWOT, linear regression, and/or risk management in the energy sector. Do not cite the data set or the course textbook.

Assignment Requirements

Prepare your Assignment submission in Microsoft Word following standard APA formatting guidelines: Double spaced, Times New Roman 12-point font, one inch margins on all sides. Include a title page, table of contents and references page. You do not need to write an abstract. Label all tables and figures. Cite sources appropriately both in the text of your writing (parenthetical citations) and on your references page (full APA citation format).