Business Statistics: Quality Information for Decision Analysis

by David Louis Olson

This text is a comprehensive, introductory, undergraduate business statistics textbook. The emphasis is on helping students convert data using statistical methodology into Quality Information for Decision Analysis. This text shifts the emphasis from computation to interpretation and informational value of statistics. This is accomplished in part by a continuous series of examples that link the subject of statistics with computer-based information science technologies. The value of statistical information is also emphasized by the applied managerial focus of this statistics text. Examples of how statistics can help solve real-world business problems and make decisions are presented throughout this text. Business Statistics is pedagogically friendly. The content of this book requires only a college algebra level of mathematics. No other prerequisites are necessary. The structural design of the chapters includes learning objectives, highlighted important terms, glossary sections, introductory sections, summary sections, formula summary sections, discussion questions sections, problems sections (with selected answers in an appendix), and short cases. This text does not limit itself to a single computer package for computational purposes. Instead it illustrates the type of informational printouts available from the more prominent computer packages to help students understand informational differences between packages. Instructors are not locked into a single package but are free to use any type of statistical computer package.

Hardcover

First published April 30, 1999