Statistics, Data Analysis, and Decision Modeling

by James R. Evans, David Louis Olson

This book covers basic concepts of business statistics, data analysis, and management science in a spreadsheet environment. Practical applications are emphasized throughout the book for business decision-making; a comprehensive database is developed, with marketing, financial, and production data already formatted on Excel worksheets. This shows how real data is used and decisions are made. Using Excel as the basic software, and including such add-ins as PHStat2, Crystal Ball, and TreePlan, this book covers a wide variety of topics related to business statistical thinking in business; displaying and summarizing data; random variables; sampling; regression analysis; forecasting; statistical quality control; risk analysis and Monte-Carlo simulation; systems simulation modeling and analysis; selection models and decision analysis; optimization modeling; and solving and analyzing optimization models. For those employed in the fields of quality control, management science, operations management, statistical science, and those who need to interpret data to make informed business decisions.

512 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Dr. James Evans is licensed in clinical and school psychology. Following graduation with a bachelor's degree in education, and a tour of duty in the U.S. Army, he taught in a public high school. Later he earned a master's degree in psychology. After working for three years at a state hospital and a county mental health center, he attended Peabody College of Vanderbilt University where he received a Ph.D. degree in psychology. He was on the faculty of the Psychology Department at the University of South Carolina for thirty years, and is retired from that position. He has completed postdoctoral work in neuropsychology at the University of California at San Francisco, the University of Georgia and the Medical College of Georgia. For over thirty years he also has maintained a successful private practice involving working with children and adults in hospital, school, prison, and private office settings. He has expertise in psychological, neuropsychological and psychoeducational assessment, as well as years of experience in psychotherapy and neurotherapy.. He is the author of thirty-five journal articles and five book chapters, and editor or co-editor of eight psychology-related books, including Rhythm in Psychological, Linguistic and Musical Processes, published in 1986. Presently he is self-employed as a psychologist at the Sterlingworth Center in Greenville, SC.