Research and Evaluation for Business

Research and Evaluation for Business is intended for use in either a one or two semester introductory business statistics course. The focus of the text is on decision making based on data analysis. This is a real data, and problem-oriented text that teaches the actual practice of statistical thinking, management of decision making for tool selection, assumptions management, outcome interpretation, and reporting. The text incorporates, where appropriate, Excel and Minitab commands and output in examples and exercises.

Marilyn K. Pelosi is the author of Research and Evaluation for Business, published by Wiley. Theresa M. Sandifer is the author of Research and Evaluation for Business, published by Wiley.

WORKSHOP 1

1

(119)

Introduction: The Role of Statistical Thinking in Business Research

2

(18)

Chapter Objectives

3

(1)

Dispelling the Myths about Research and Statistics

3

(1)

What Managers Should Know about Research and Statistics

4

(1)

Statistical Thinking---A New Paradigm for Management

5

(1)

Situations That Call for Research and Statistical Thinking

6

(5)

Starting to Think Statistically

8

(3)

Types of Research

11

(2)

Steps in Conducting Business Research

13

(3)

Key Components of Statistical Thinking

16

(1)

Organization of this Book

16

(4)

Summary

18

(1)

Exercises

19

(1)

The Language of Research and Statistics

20

(38)

Chapter Objectives

21

(1)

The Difference Between the Population and a Sample of the Population

21

(8)

Introduction to Sampling and Variability

26

(3)

The Difference Between a Parameter and a Statistic

29

(2)

Factors That Influence Sample Size: Some Sampling and Sample Size Considerations

31

(3)

Selecting the Sample

34

(7)

Introduction to Sampling

38

(3)

Sources and Types of Data

41

(4)

The Difference Between Descriptive Statistics and Inferential Statistics

45

(3)

Basic Summation Notation

48

(3)

Selecting a Sample in Excel

51

(7)

Summary

54

(2)

Exercises

56

(2)

Graphical Displays of Data

58

(61)

Chapter Objectives

59

(1)

Organizing Data

59

(16)

Graphical Displays of Data

75

(14)

Describing and Comparing Data

89

(9)

Thinking about Variability

95

(3)

Creating Graphical Displays Using Excel 97

98

(21)

Summary

109

(1)

Exercises

110

(9)

WORKSHOP 2

119

(128)

Measurement: Scaling, Reliability, Validity

120

(22)

Chapter Objectives

120

(1)

Rating Scales Frequently Used

120

(6)

Goodness of Measures

126

(1)

Item Analysis

127

(1)

Realibility

127

(2)

Validity

129

(13)

Summary

132

(2)

Exercises

134

(1)

Appendix: Examples of Some Measures

134

(8)

Data Collection Methods

142

(37)

Chapter Objectives

142

(1)

Data Collection Methods, Settings, and Sources of Data

143

(28)

Some Special Data Sources

171

(2)

Multimethods of Data Collection

173

(1)

Managerial Advantage

174

(5)

Summary

176

(2)

Exercises

178

(1)

Numerical Descriptors of Data

179

(68)

Chapter Objectives

180

(1)

Describing Data Numerically

180

(1)

Measures of Central Tendency

180

(20)

The Trimmed Mean

189

(6)

Investigating Variability

195

(5)

Measures of Dispersion or Spread

200

(13)

Descriptive Statistics for Grouped Data

213

(8)

Measures of Relative Standing

221

(12)

Numerical Descriptors in Excel

233

(14)

Summary

237

(2)

Exercises

239

(8)

WORKSHOP 3

247

(72)

Probability

248

(71)

Chapter Objectives

249

(1)

Basic Rules of Probability

249

(16)

Random Variables

265

(7)

The Binomial Probability Distribution

272

(16)

Exploring the Binomial Distribution

283

(5)

Continuous Random Variables

288

(2)

The Normal Distribution

290

(15)

Using Excel to Generate Probability Distributions

305

(14)

Summary

311

(1)

Exercises

312

(7)

WORKSHOP 4

319

(42)

The Business Research Proposal

320

(14)

Chapter Objectives

320

(1)

The Research Proposal

320

(7)

Ethics in Business Research

327

(7)

Appendix: Some On-line Databases Useful for Business Research

330

(4)

Sampling Distributions and Confidence Intervals

334

(27)

Chapter Objectives

335

(1)

Motivation for Point Estimators

336

(1)

Common Point Estimators

337

(5)

Desirable Properties of Point Estimators

342

(4)

Distribution of the Sample Mean, X

346

(2)

The Central Limit Theorem---A More Detailed Look

348

(9)

The Central Limit Theorem in Action

356

(1)

Drawing Inferences by Using the Central Limit Theorem

357

(4)

WORKSHOP 5

361

(92)

Sampling Distributions and Conidence Intervals (cont.)

363

(40)

Large-Sample Confidence Intervals for the Mean

363

(16)

Exploring Confidence Intervals for μ

373

(6)

Distribution of the Sample Mean: Small Sample and Unknown σ

379

(2)

Small-Sample Confidence Intervals for the Mean

381

(4)

Confidence Intervals for Qualitative Data

385

(3)

Sample Size Calculations

388

(5)

Using Excel to Find Confidence Intervals

393

(10)

Summary

396

(1)

Exercises

397

(6)

Hypothesis Testing: An Introduction

403

(50)

Chapter Objectives

404

(1)

What Is a Hypothesis Test?

405

(1)

Designing Hypotheses to Be Tested---An Overview

405

(5)

The Pieces of a Hypothesis Test

410

(4)

Formulating Hypotheses

412

(2)

Two-Tail Tests of the Mean: Large Sample

414

(12)

Exploring the Impact of Varying the Value of α

419

(7)

Which Theory Should Go into the Null Hypothesis?

426

(8)

One-Tail Tests of the Mean: Large Sample

434

(9)

What Error Could You Be Making?

443

(6)

Hypothesis Testing in Excel

449

(4)

Summary

452

(1)

Exercises

453

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Research and Evaluation for Business

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials