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The first edition of Business Statistics: Communicating with Numbers provides a unique, innovative, and engaging learning experience for students studying Business Statistics. It is an intellectually stimulating, practical, and visually attractive textbook, from which students can learn and instructors can teach. Throughout the book, the authors have presented the material in an accessible way by using timely business applications to which students can relate. Although the text is application-oriented, it is also mathematically sound and uses notation that is generally accepted for the topic being covered. Written as Taught: The authors introduce topics just the way they teach them; that is, the relevant tools follow the opening application. The roadmap for solving problems is
start with intuition
introduce mathematical rigor and
produce computer output that confirms results.
Worked out examples are used throughout the text to illustrate how to apply concepts to solve real-world problems.
Writing with Statistics: Interpreting results and conveying information effectively is critical to effective decision making in a business environment. Students are taught how to take the data, apply it, and convey the information in a meaningful way. An important innovation is the inclusion of a sample report within every chapter (except Chapter 1). The author™s intent is to show students how to convey statistical information in written form to those who may not know detailed statistical methods.
For example, such a report may be needed as input for managerial decision-making in sales, marketing, or company planning. Several similar writing exercises are provided at the end of each chapter. Each chapter also includes a synopsis that addresses questions raised from the introductory case. This serves as a shorter writing sample for students. Instructors of large sections may find the synopsis a practical sample to use for incorporating writing into their statistics courses.
Unique Coverage of Regression Analysis: The coverage of regression analysis is more extensive than the vast majority of texts. This focus reflects the topic™s growing use in practice. A combination of simple and multiple regression is used in the first regression chapter (14), which leads to a seamless grouping and eliminates needless repetition. However, for those instructors who prefer to cover only simple regression, doing so is still an option. Three more in-depth chapters cover statistical inference, modeling nonlinear relationships, dummy variable and binary choice models.
Integrated Introductory Cases: Each chapter opens with a real-life case study that forms the basis for several examples within the chapter. These case studies are linked explicitly to the learning objectives for each chapter. A synopsis is presented of the case study when the last of these examples has been discussed. In addition, several case studies are revisited in subsequent chapters.
Integration of Microsoft Excel: Microsoft Excela® is the primary software package used in this book and it is integrated within each chapter.
Connect Business Statistics. Connect is an online system that gives students the tools they need to be successful in the course. Through interactive guided examples and LearnSmart adaptive study tools, students receive guidance and practice to help them master the topics.
Learnsmart- LearnSmart adaptive self-study technology within Connect Business Statistics helps students make the best use of their study time. LearnSmart provides a seamless combination of practice, assessment, and remediation for every concept in the textbook. LearnSmart™s intelligent software adapts to students by supplying questions on a new concept when they are ready to learn it. With LearnSmart, students will spend less time on topics they understand and practice more on those they have yet to master.
Interactive Guided Examples: The Interactive Guided Examples in Connect Business Statistics provide a narrated, animated, step-by-step walk-through of select exercises similar to those assigned. These short presentations provide reinforcement when students need it most.
Inclusion of Important Topics: The majority of traditional texts ignore several fundamental topics of importance in business. For example, most books do not integrate the geometric mean and mean-variance analysis with descriptive statistics. Similarly, the discussion of probability concepts generally does not include odds ratios, risk aversion, and the analysis of portfolio returns. The authors cover these important topics throughout the text. Overall, the text contains material that practitioners use on a regular basis.
Conceptual and Applied Exercises: Chapter exercises are a well-balanced blend of conceptual, computational-type problems followed by more ambitious, interpretive-type problems. The benefits to simpler drill problems tend to build students™ confidence prior to tackling more difficult applied problems. Data sets are repeatedly used in the text““including house prices, rents, stock returns, salaries, and debt. For instance, students first use these real data to calculate summary measures and then continue on to make statistical inferences with confidence intervals and hypothesis tests and perform regression analysis.
Conceptual Review: At the end of each chapter a conceptual review is provided for a more holistic approach to reviewing the material. This section revisits the learning outcomes and provides the most important definitions, interpretations, and formulas.
ISBN - 9781259097386
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Pages : 748
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