Business Analytics, Second Edition teaches the fundamental concepts of the emerging field of business analytics and provides vital tools in understanding how data analysis works in today’s organizations. Students will learn to apply basic business analytics principles, communicate with analytics professionals, and effectively use and interpret analytic models to make better business decisions. Included access to commercial grade analytics software gives students real-world experience and career-focused value. Author James Evans takes a balanced, holistic approach and looks at business analytics from descriptive, and predictive perspectives.
New to This Edition
New and Updated for this Edition
- Screenshots throughout the text are updated for Excel® 2013.
- The updated design strikes a better balance between the text and the image size.
- More problems have been added at the end of every chapter.
- There is a new case on Drout Advertising Research.
Content Updates
New and Updated for this Edition
- Screenshots throughout the text are updated for Excel® 2013.
- The updated design strikes a better balance between the text and the image size.
- More problems have been added at the end of every chapter.
- There is a new case on Drout Advertising Research.
Content Updates
- Chapter 1 has been heavily revised with updated sections and new examples throughout
- Chapter 2
- New objective–Use Excel functions for business intelligence queries in database
- New information on VLOOKUP function
- Chapter 3
- New section on Data Visualization with Figures and Captures
- New examples:
- Data Visualization through formal conditioning
- Examples of Sparklines
- Using Slicers
- New Analytics in Practice Box: Driving Business Transformation with IBM Business Analytics
- Chapter 4 includes a revised section on the CORREL function
- Chapter 5
- New section on Join and Marginal Probability
- New example–Applying Probability Rules to Joint Events
- Chapter 7
- New section: Confidence Intervals and Hypothesis Tests
- New section: Cautions in Using the Chi-Square Test
- Chapter 8
- New learning objective: List the Common Types of Mathematical Functions Used in Predictive Modeling
- New section: Practical Issues in Trendline and Regression Modeling
- Chapter 10
- New section: Data Exploration
- New example: Using XLMiner to Sample from a Worksheet
- New example: A Boxplot for Credit Risk Data
- Chapter 11
- New learning objective: Use Excel tools to create user-friendly Excel Models and Applications
- New section: Spreadsheet Applications in Business Analytics
- New section: Developing User-Friendly Excel Applications
- New example: Using Data Validation
- New example: Using Form Controls for the Outsourcing Decision Model
- Chapter 13 includes a new example: Multiple Parameter Analysis for the SSC Problem
- Chapter 14
- New section: Solver Output and Data Visualization
- New example: Little Investment Advisers
- New section on scaling
- Chapter 16
- New section: Risk and Variability
James R. Evans
Professor, University of Cincinnati College of Business
James R. Evans is professor in the Department of Operations, Business Analytics, and Information Systems in the College of Business at the University of Cincinnati. He holds BSIE and MSIE degrees from Purdue and a PhD in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Georgia Tech.
Dr. Evans has published numerous textbooks in a variety of business disciplines, including statistics, decision models, and analytics, simulation and risk analysis, network optimization, operations management, quality management, and creative thinking. He has published over 90 papers in journals such as Management Science, IIE Transactions, Decision Sciences, Interfaces, the Journal of Operations Management, the Quality Management Journal, and many others, and wrote a series of columns in Interfaces on creativity in management science and operations research during the 1990s. He has also served on numerous journal editorial boards and is a past-president and Fellow of the Decision Sciences Institute. In 1996, he was an INFORMS Edelman Award Finalist as part of a project in supply chain optimization with Procter & Gamble that was credited with helping P&G save over $250,000,000 annually in their North American supply chain, and consulted on risk analysis modeling for Cincinnati 2012’s Olympic Games bid proposal.
A recognized international expert on quality management, he served on the Board of Examiners and the Panel of Judges for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Much of his current research focuses on organizational performance excellence and measurement practices.
