Statistics, Data Analysis, and Decision Modeling

by James R. Evans, David Louis Olson

Unique in approach, this short, basic introduction to business statistics focuses on the practical applications of data analysis to business decision making in an electronic spreadsheet environment. It uses a comprehensive database (in the form of a Microsoft Excel Workbook ) for a fictitious company to illustrate techniques and methodology as well as to provide a source of problems and exercises in a unified business context. Other spreadsheet add-ins-- PHStat ; a student version of Crystal Ball ; and Treeplan --are also used for additional analysis capability. An accompanying CD-ROM contains the database, additional files, the student version of Crystal Ball, and Treeplan software and documentation. Data Analysis and Business Decisions. Displaying and Summarizing Data. Random Variables and Probability Distributions. Sampling and Statistical Analysis for Decision Making. Statistical Quality Control. Regression Analysis. Forecasting. Selection Models and Risk Analysis. Optimization. For anyone needing a quick, hands-on, applied introduction to business statistics in the contemporary electronic spreadsheet

329 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.