Mr Adidike, owner of Adidike Shoes, has come to you with a request to analyse the Australian retail shoe market. Adidike Shoes currently makes men's sports shoes but Mr Adidike would like to expand his operations into female sports shoes or into another segment of the shoe market. He requires some market analysis to assist him in his decision making.

You agree to prepare a report for Mr Adidike. The report needs to include both analysis and recommendations.

Note: as this is also an academic report, it should refer back to relevant theory. Think of it as your chance to educate a non-economist in some of the fundamentals.

Part A: executive summary

Ensure you provide a concise summary of your report, including its findings.

Part B: introduction and scope

Define the industry and any assumptions you have made in order to provide an analysis.

Part C: qualitative analysis

Discuss the critical factors that impact on the outlook in the segments for which Mr Adidike requires analysis. Be very careful to identify both demand- and supply-side factors. Use demand and supply diagrams to illustrate your arguments. The section on comparative statistics analysis in Topic 2 provides a good starting point for how to do this.

Part D: quantitative analysis

Your quantitative analysis could take a variety of forms. You may write this either as a separate part of your report or you may choose to integrate it with your qualitative analysis from Part 2.

Note: Topic 3 provides a guide to different possible approaches. Chapter 5 in the textbook provides more detailed examples you might use (don't worry that the chapter title refers to 'demand estimation and forecasting'; focus on the techniques identified). A good example to look at is the case study in Topic 3 which forecasts baseball attendance. In this case, you should be looking at the demand side-supply-side data is not readily available.

Be prepared to submit inconclusive results-it is not easy to produce quality quantitative analysis and you are not considered to be quantitative experts. The marking criteria will be based firmly on whether or not you have used your knowledge to attempt the task.