Business Statistics: A First Course (2nd Edition)

In Business Statistics: A First Course, the authors leverage their unique blend of teaching, consulting, and entrepreneurial experiences to bring a modern business edge and dynamic approach to teaching statistics to business students. Focusing on statistics in the context of real business issues, the text emphasizes analysis and understanding over computation. This approach helps students be analytical, preparing them to make better business decisions and effectively communicate results. The authors have an accessible and compelling writing style and use short, targeted chapters to build understanding of new topics. They integrate current business applications to capture students’ attention and teach statistical concepts needed in the modern business world.

 

The Second Edition provides a wealth of examples and exercises so that the story is always tied to the way statistics is used to make better business decisions. New to this edition are For Examples (illustrative examples), Section Exercises (single-concept exercises), and part-ending Case Studies (which are more in-depth than the Brief Cases located at the end of chapters). To help students become proficient with technology, the Second Edition includes instructions for JMP^®, Minitab^®, and SPSS^®, as well as new and expanded coverage of Excel^® 2010 and the add-in XLSTAT^™ for Pearson. Screenshots of output are included throughout the chapters.

As a researcher of statistical problems in business and a professor at a business school, Norean Radke Sharpe (Ph.D. University of Virginia) understands the challenges and specific needs of the business student. She is currently teaching at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University, where she is also Senior Associate Dean and Director of Undergraduate Programs. Prior to joining Georgetown, she taught business statistics and operations research courses to both undergraduates and MBA students for fourteen years at Babson College. Before moving into business education, she taught statistics for several years at Bowdoin College and conducted research at Yale University. Norean is coauthor of the recent text, A Casebook for Business Statistics: Laboratories for Decision Making, and has authored more than 30 articles--primarily in the areas of statistics education and women in science. Norean currently serves as Associate Editor for the journal Cases in Business, Industry, and Government Statistics. Her research focuses on business forecasting and statistics education. She is also co-founder of DOME Foundation, Inc., a nonprofit foundation that works to increase Diversity and Outreach in Mathematics and Engineering for the greater Boston area. She has been active in increasing the participation of women and underrepresented students in science and mathematics for several years and has two children of her own.

 

Richard D. De Veaux (Ph.D. Stanford University) is an internationally known educator, consultant, and lecturer. Dick has taught Statistics at a business school (The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania), an engineering school (Princeton University), and a liberal arts college (Williams College). He is an internationally known lecturer in data mining and is a consultant for many Fortune 500 companies in a wide variety of industries. While at Princeton, he won a Lifetime Award for Dedication and Excellence in Teaching. Since 1994, he has been a Professor of Statistics at Williams College, although he returned to Princeton for the academic year 2006–2007 as the William R. Kenan Jr. Visiting Professor of Distinguished Teaching. Dick holds degrees from Princeton University in Civil Engineering and Mathematics, and from Stanford University in Dance Education and Statistics, where he studied with Persi Diaconis. His research focuses on the analysis of large data sets and data mining in science and industry. Dick has won both the Wilcoxon and Shewell awards from the American Society for Quality and is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association. Dick is well known in industry, having consulted for such Fortune 500 companies as American Express, Hewlett-Packard, Alcoa, DuPont, Pillsbury, General Electric, and Chemical Bank. He was named the “Statistician of the Year” for 2008 by the Boston Chapter of the American Statistical Association for his contributions to teaching, research, and consulting. In his spare time he is an avid cyclist and swimmer. He also is the founder and bass for the Doo-wop group, “Diminished Faculty,” and is a frequent soloist with various local choirs and orchestras. Dick is the father of four children.

 

Paul F. Velleman (Ph.D. Princeton University) has an international reputation for innovative statistics education. He designed the Data Desk® software package and is also the author and designer of the award-winning ActivStats® statistics package, for which he received the EDUCOM Medal for innovative uses of computers in teaching statistics and the ICTCM Award for Innovation in Using Technology in College Mathematics. He is the founder and CEO of Data Description, Inc. (www.datadesk.com), which supports both of these programs. He also developed the Internet site, Data and Story Library (DASL) (http://lib.stat.cmu.edu/DASL/), which provides data sets for teaching Statistics. Paul co-authored (with David Hoaglin) the book ABCs of Exploratory Data Analysis. Paul has taught Statistics at Cornell University on the faculty of the School of Industrial and Labor Relations since 1975. His research often focuses on statistical graphics and data analysis methods. Paul is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Paul’s experience as a professor, entrepreneur, and business leader brings a unique perspective to the book.

 

Richard De Veaux and Paul Velleman have authored successful books in the introductory college and AP High School market with Dave Bock, including Intro Stats, Fourth Edition (Pearson, 2014), Stats: Modeling the World, Third Edition (Pearson, 2010), and Stats: Data and Models, Third Edition (Pearson, 2012).