What is the importance of statistics in business decision making? Describe a business situation where statistics was used in making a decision.

1a. I agree that descriptive statistics can be used to perform performance evaluation of departments and individuals. In this curriculum, we go beyond use of descriptive statistics, Our E-Text (Statistics for Business and Economics) in Section 1.3 states that “A statistical inference is an estimate or prediction or some other generalization about a population based on information contained in a sample”.  What are some things that we can achieve by using inferential statistics, as opposed to using descriptive stats alone? What do you think?

1b. It is certain that before launching a new product we should research the customer feedback and market performance of similar products through appropriate descriptive stats.  In this curriculum, we go beyond use of descriptive statistics, Our E-Text (Statistics for Business and Economics) in Section 1.3 states that “Astatistical inference is an estimate or prediction or some other generalization about a population based on information contained in a sample”.  What are some things that we can achieve by using inferential statistics, as opposed to using descriptive stats alone? What do you think?

1c.  The second part of this question was to describe a business situation where statistics was used in making a decision. Your example states that food industry use statistical analysis to evaluate their new programs. It would be interesting to find out what type of statistical research they use. Can you expand on that a little bit?

How would you go about choosing a statistical method for your managerial problem? I suggest you read this article before answering this question.

1d. I believe that, before we decide on what statistical method to use, we would have to determine what type of data are we dealing with.  Our E-Text (Statistics for Business and Economics, Eleventh Edition), Chapter 1.5 Types of data, can help you distinguish between different types of data.

Why is it important to know what types of data are we working with? How will knowing the type of data used in our study impact our decision on how to analyze the data?

1e. Inventory management is certainly valid application of statistics. Our E-Text (Basic Statistics for Business and Economics) Chapter 1 pp.6 states: “For instance, the United States government reports the population of the United States was 179,323,000 in 1960; 203,302,000 in 1970; 226,542,000 in 1980; 248,709,000 in 1990, and 265,000,000 in 2000. This information is descriptive statistics.

It is descriptive statistics if we calculate the percentage growth from one decade to the next”.  What can we do with demographic data so it is MORE than just descriptive statistics?

1f.  I agree, most business depend on statistics to steer their future. In most cases, they use descriptive statistics, not more complex statistical models.

Our E-Text (Basic Statistics for Business and Economics) Chapter 1 pp.6 states: “For instance, the United States government reports the population of the United States was 179,323,000 in 1960; 203,302,000 in 1970; 226,542,000 in 1980; 248,709,000 in 1990, and 265,000,000 in 2000. This information is descriptive statistics. It is descriptive statistics if we calculate the percentage growth from one decade to the next”.  What can we do with demographic data so it is MORE than just descriptive statistics?

2.   How would you define a variable? What is the difference between a dependent and independent variable? What is their significance in research? Do you think both variables are used in every research? Explain why or why not. Provide examples.

2a.  I agree that more than one variable is likely present in most research studies, however, why do you think that we always have to have more than one research variable? What if we just want to research the salaries of UoP MBA graduates (for marketing puposes) ? Would one variable suffice for that research? What do you think?

2b.  You have outlined several ways to classify research variables. You stated: “There are also qualitative variables in statistics which refer to things like age, eye color, and social security number”. That is true, many variables we work with in business research are qualitative. The question is, how are we going to analyze such variables? What measures of central tendency will we be using for non-numerical variables?

3. Select four variables that could be measured by nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio scale. Classify them by measurement scale and select descriptive statistics that can be used to summarize data. Use the following table when posting your response:

Why is it important to make a distinction between four levels of measurement? How do you select measurement levels when developing a survey or data collection tool? Explain with examples.