A company that designs websites primarily for minority-owned businesse

Question

A company that designs websites primarily for minority-owned businesses conducted a survey of minority-owned businesses in the United States that do not currently have a website. The survey was designed to help determine what respondents see as the potential benefits of adding a website. The results of that survey are shown in the table.

Potential benefit    Latino (459
respondents)    African American
(394 respondents)    Asian American
(438 respondents)    Native American
(279 respondents)     Expand customer base  26%  29%  25%  25%    Improve communication  15%  4%  4%  6%    Increase customer satisfaction  5%  17%  28%  6%    Increase ratio of profits to costs  14%  19%  17%  19%    Increase tax savings  0%  1%  0%  0%    Preserve market share  6%  6%  4%  6%    Save time  4%  3%  13%  2%    Other  3%  3%  5%  4%    No benefit  27%  17%  22%  21%    Uncertain  10%  11%  13%  10%

For each of the following conclusions, select  Supported  if it is supported by the information in the table. Otherwise select  Not supported .

ID: 100425

Cuco · Answer

Hi all,

Let me give a try to the problematic question (2). I actually had the same doubts while answering regarding overlapping sets. Let's recall what the conclusion said " fewer than 25% of the respondents who believe a website could help expand their customer base also believe a website could help them maintain their current market share "

Are overlapping sets problematic? Well let's see what happens if 100% (max. scenario) of the respondents who believe a website could help them maintain their current market share also responded that they believe a website could help them expand their customer base --> applying % as #EMPOWERgmatRichC previously did, we see that in the max. scenario ( all  respondents that believe a website could help them maintain their current market share also responded that they believe a website could help expand their customer base) is not enough to reach the 25% provided in the conclusion.

Hence, anything under that max. scenario will definitely be a smaller percentage than 25%. Therefore, the information provided in the table is enough to support the conclusion.

Hope the above is clear.

rcaraujo20 · Answer

Adding one sentence to the reasoning above:

Less than 25% means anything between 0 (inclusive) and 25%. Even if noboby from the 6% answered both questions (i. e. 0%), still 'Less than 25% ...' believe in both (X ... 'also' Y ...).

Best,

gmat800live · Answer

I was also super confused when I saw Rich didn't seem to understand what you were asking, until he pointed out the +100% on each column. Man, if you add up the % on each column you will see they add up to more than 100% which already tells you this is not a "only one choice" survey. That's all you need to then deduce B is supported.

I personally added up scores of last column to see if this was the case or not (since this totally affects what the right answer is), and since sum gave me 99% I assumed I made arithmetic error and assumed sum was 100% on all, which means statement is not supported. I should have checked another column just to double check. Column 2 adds up to 110%, so there you go. Statement 2 is then supported.

mimishyu · Answer

To EMPOWERgmatRichC

I have the same problem as JarvisR. and Shrivathsan

Preserve Market Share(PMS) : 28 Respondents
Expand Customer Base (ECB): 30 Respondents

How can we assume 28 Respondents of PMS are in those 30 Respondents of ECB ?
Is there anything i am missing ?

Here’s my question point
If we try to solve/underatand question2 from the opposite side

Less than 25%-if here we assume maybe it’s ‘20%’
Then 459*26%=119
 119*20%=23.8 ,after rounding it's 24
24people are also all included in the set of group which believe can maintain their market share(459*0.06=28)’-this maybe true/established

However, there’s a possibility that all these 24people also belong to a group of people who ‘all’ did not believe can maintain their market share-then question2’s assumption will be denied
I saw somebody said that Official answer is ‘supported’, well, like other students, I’m really confused about this Official answer????

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi mimishyu,

Since this discussion is spread over several posts in this thread, I'm going to consolidate all of the relevant information here:

Based on the table (and the description above it), we can deduce that some people in this survey responded to MORE than one category. Here's why:

1) If you add up all of the percentages in the first column, you end up with a total of 110%. That would not happen if each person chose just one reason. Thus, some of those people chose 2 (or more) reasons.
2) The text above the survey states that the survey "...was designed to help determine what respondents see as the potential BENEFITS of adding a website". The word "benefits" is plural; if each person chose just ONE option, then the wording would have stated "...was designed to help determine what respondents see as the potential BENEFIT (singular) of adding a website".

Thus, while we don't know which people chose more than one option from the list, we do know that some of them did.

Question 2 from the set of 3 focuses on a COMPARISON: is one number (PMS) less than 25% of another number (ECB). Your calculations here are correct; we have....

Preserve Market Share(PMS) : 28 Respondents
Expand Customer Base (ECB): 30 Respondents

In simple terms, is 28 less than 30? YES - it clearly is. This does not change regardless of the number of people who are in "both" groups because the overall totals (28 and 30) will still be the same. You are given EXACT data/numbers to work with here, and no 'hypothetical' situation changes those numbers.

Even if you did not do that math though, you can still determine that Question 2 can be inferred based on the percents in each column of the table:
-In the Latino column...what is 25% of 26%? It's 6.5%...Is PMS less than ECB?... is 6% less than 6.5%?.....YES
-In the African American column...what is 25% of 29%? It's 7.25%...Is PMS less than ECB?.....is 6% less than 7.25%....YES
-In the Asian American column...what is 25% of 25%? It's 6.25%....Is PMS less than ECB?.....is 4% less than 6.25%....YES
-In the Native American column...what is 25% of 25%? It's 6.25%....Is PMS less than ECB?....is 6% less than 6.25%....YES

Since each individual column gives us a 'YES' result, summing up all of those numbers would also give us a "YES" result (we'd just be dealing with one big calculation instead of four smaller ones.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

suminha · Answer

Can we really add up all? Cuz there is “no benefit” and “uncertain” sections too. So if we add up each every section, we include people who thinks that adding website is not beneficial. Thus, I simply thought that since there is only 27 percent of people who said it wasn’t beneficial, even adding 10 percent of people who are uncertain, the rate is below majority. And since we can tell that there is no one who didn’t answer the inquiry, b/c when you add up all the percentages it exceeds 100, I infer that majority of people think that was good for the biz.

Posted from my mobile device

hassan233 · Answer

For number 2, imagine there 100 items in group A, and 20 items that are in group B. Also, assume that anything in group B can also be in group A. In the absolute worst case, everything in group B is in group A. This means that fewer than 25% of the items in group A are also in group B (it would be 20%). IF we take other cases of when not everything in group B is in group A, the percentage of items in group A that are also in group B will just keep getting lower (still LESS than 25 %).

lakshya14 · Answer

Do we need to calculate in these types of questions because it has only asked whether it can be inferred from the data?

hassan233 · Answer

In integrated reasoning, for something to be "inferred," it must be true. For example, if you can find a true or false answer for a question, if the answer is false, it is not inferrable. IR inference and DS differ in this way.

jabhatta2 · Answer

Bunuel   EMPOWERgmatRichC  - just wanted to confirm on statement # 3 ?

Statement 3 is  Not supported  because there is nothing in the table (now specific row) regarding % of people who concerned about   losing market share .

The other rows (  Expanding Customer Base   and   Preserve Market Share  ) are not the same as   losing market share .

Could you confirm ?

Thank you !

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Official Explanation

For each of the following conclusions, select Supported if it is supported by the information in the table. Otherwise select Not supported.

Explanation

A majority of the respondents believe adding a website could benefit their businesses.

Adding the percentages in the  "No benefit"  and  "Uncertain"  rows for each group shows that the total percent of respondents who indicated that adding a website could not benefit their businesses or that they were uncertain whether adding a website would benefit their businesses was at most 37%—far less than 50%. This suggests that a majority of the respondents in each group, and thus a majority of all the respondents, believe that adding a website could benefit their businesses.

The correct answer is Supported.

Fewer than 25% of the respondents who believe a website could help expand their customer base also believe a website could help them maintain their current market share.

Each percentage in the  "Preserve market share"  row is less than one-fourth (25%) of the percentage in the same column in the  "Expand customer base"  row. Thus, the survey results suggest that the number of respondents who believe that adding a website could help them maintain their current market share is less than 25% of the number of respondents who believe that adding a website could help expand their customer base.

The correct answer is Supported.

Only a small proportion of the respondents are concerned that they are losing market share.

The  "Preserve market share"  row only lists the percentages of respondents who indicated that adding a website would help them preserve market share. Far more of the respondents may be concerned that they are losing market share, but nonetheless doubt that adding a website would help solve that problem.

The correct answer is Not Supported.

nisen20 · Answer

The wording of the second statement is tricky and it leads some misunderstandings, especially one discussed for years.

How do we interpret this phrase? It should be such a set  A Complete Overlap 
 In this case, the 6% set is a part of the 26% set.
If we choose 25% of the 26% set randomly and compare the resulting number with 6%,
25% × 26% = 6.5% > 6%
we will conclude that the proportion we choose from the 26% set must be lower than 25%.
Otherwise, the number of people who care about market share will be greater than 6%.

Two Seperate Sets 
 The respondents who believe the benifit of expanding customer base have no faith in another benifit, and vice versa.
How many people can we choose from the 26% set and compare the resulting number with 6%? None. Is this number lower than 25%?
Sure, 0 < 25%
We can draw the same conclusion that fewer than 25% of the 26% set—in this case it's Zero—also believe yada yada yada.

DhruvBadaya · Answer

I faced the most difficulty here:

Fewer than 25% of the respondents who believe a website could help expand their customer base also believe a website could help them maintain their current market share.

After tinkering a bit, I understood the logic behind this. So, the logic is simple. The maximum can be that all respondents believe this statement. That would be less than 20%  .

It can also be the case that no customers are common between those who believe a website could help expand their customer base and those who believe a website could help them maintain their current market share. In that case, it would be 0%.

It's interesting to note that  0% customers are fewer than 25% of the customers . Hence, it is SUPPORTED.

Gemmie · Answer

1. A majority of the respondents believe adding a website could benefit their businesses. => Supported

By a quick look, we can see that for each ethnic group, the total for [No Benefit] + [Uncertain] is less than 50%
=> That means [Benefit] > 50%

2. Fewer than 25% of the respondents who believe a website could help expand their customer base also believe a website could help them maintain their current market share. => Supported

For [Preserve market share] category, 4x of each ethnic group is

Latino: 24% < 26% in [Expand customer base]
African: 24% < 29%
Asian: 16% < 25%
Native: 24% < 25%

That means even all those in [Preserve market share] categor are also in [Expand customer base] category, that doesn't add up to 25% (or in other words, fewer than 25%)

3. Only a small proportion of the respondents are concerned that they are losing market share. => Not supported

Losing market share is not mentioned anywhere

sg_mba · Answer

Hi, what about the word "also" mentioned in Q2 ? It is asking specifically for the 25% of respondents of customer base agree that their market share can be preserved.

It may or may not be the case.
May be all those who agree for customer base expansion, might have told will not help in preserving the market share

Posted from my mobile device

rishi16 · Answer

i am okay with other option choosen by you guys but with 3 option i strongly think it wrong as the information provided supported the point as if  we look out there is a option avaiable of  OTHER , that does means rest all category are include inside it , so please kindly look into this matter

fin1254 · Answer

I am also looking for the explaination, if this reasoning is correct or not?

CorporateAsset · Answer

Fewer than 25% of the respondents who believe a website could help expand their customer base also believe a website could help them maintain their current market share.

A =respondents who believe a website could help expand their customer = 26%(x)+29%(y)+25%(z)+25%(w)
B = respondents who believe a website could help them maintain their current market share = 6%(x)+6%(y)+4%(z)+6%(w)

C = Fewer than 25% of A in overlap means < 1/4 
 < 6.5%(x)+7.25%(y)+6.25%(z)+6.25%(w)

This is true because 
min overlap between A & B = 0
max = B i.e.

Hence, True

anirchat · Answer

2nd question is the tricky one here. Fewer tha 25% is actually correct even if there is no overlap, partial overlap, complete overlap.
OMG !! I got tricked. So this will be  Supported .

Komal324 · Answer

Hello  EMPOWERgmatRichC

Hope you are doing well. 
I attempted the question and got all the answers correct. Just wanted to know if my approach and calculations are correct. My calculations might seem a bit lengthy hence, please bear with me:

1. A majority of the respondents believe adding a website could benefit their businesses.  
 This means more than 50% of the respondents believe that adding a webiste could benefit their businesses.  
 I added the all the percentages from each column except No Benefit and Uncertain.  
 Latino-73%  
 African American-82% 
 Asian American-96% 
 Native American-68% 
 All are above 50% so yes, Supported.

2. Fewer than 25% of the respondents who believe a website could help expand their customer base also believe a website could help them maintain their current market share.

Here, 25/100*1570 is 392.5. 1570 is the number of total respondents. Then, I added the percentages of Preserve Market Share, which is 22%. Now, 22% of 1570 is 345.4. 345.4/1570*100 is 22% which is fewer than 25%. Supported.

3. Only a small proportion of the respondents are concerned that they are losing market share.  
 22% of the respondents feel that market share is a potential benefit. That means 78% respondents feel it is not. And 78% is not a small proportion. Hence, Not Supported.

Kindly let me know your thoughts. Please feel free to suggest a shorter version to solve this question. 
 Your guidance is hughly appreciated.

Thank you!

Best, 
 Komal Singh

A company that designs websites primarily for minority-owned businesse

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Potential benefit	Latino (459 respondents)	African American (394 respondents)	Asian American (438 respondents)	Native American (279 respondents)
Expand customer base	26%	29%	25%	25%
Improve communication	15%	4%	4%	6%
Increase customer satisfaction	5%	17%	28%	6%
Increase ratio of profits to costs	14%	19%	17%	19%
Increase tax savings	0%	1%	0%	0%
Preserve market share	6%	6%	4%	6%
Save time	4%	3%	13%	2%
Other	3%	3%	5%	4%
No benefit	27%	17%	22%	21%
Uncertain	10%	11%	13%	10%

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A company that designs websites primarily for minority-owned businesse

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615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

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