Principles of Business Forecasting

Ord/Fildes PRINCIPLES OF BUSINESS FORECASTING, 1E, International Edition is designed for both students and current practitioners in a variety of fields. The authors motivation for writing this book is to give users the tools and insight to make the most effective forecasts. Ord/Fildes PRINCIPLES OF BUSINESS FORECASTING, 1E, International Edition is designed for users who have taken a first course in applied statistics or have an equivalent background and provides an introduction to both standard and advanced forecasting approaches. This new, first edition text presents general principles that are the basis of forecasting practice. The information and data used are from actual government and business sources wherever possible. Forecasting techniques are shown in a variety of software platforms and the chapter organization provides an overview of forecasting in a variety of situations using time series and cross-sectional data. The focus then shifts to using extrapolative methods in forecasting, followed by statistical model-building. Finally, the authors cover more advanced techniques in the latter chapters, including the selection of the best forecasting method based on available data and the construction of a forecasting system with an organization.

Keith Ord is Sebes Fellow and Professor in the Operations and Information Management group at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University. He completed his graduate work at the University of London and held faculty positions at the Universities of Bristol and Warwick before moving to The Pennsylvania State University in 1980 and then to Georgetown University in 1999. His research interests include time series and forecasting, spatial modeling and the statistical modeling of business processes. He is a co-author of the 2008 research monograph FORECASTING WITH EXPONENTIAL SMOOTHING: THE STATE SPACE APPROACH and also co-authored Kendall's ADVANCED THEORY OF STATISTICS. He has served as an editor of the INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FORECASTING and is currently an associate editor, as well as being on the editorial boards of several other journals. Keith is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association and of the International Institute of Forecasters. Robert Fildes is Distinguished Professor of Management Science in the School of Management, Lancaster University and Director of the Lancaster Centre for Forecasting. He has a mathematics degree from Oxford and a Ph.D. from the University of California in Statistics. He was co-founder in 1981 of the JOURNAL OF FORECASTING and in 1985 of the INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FORECASTING. For ten years from 1988 he was Editor-in-Chief of the IJF and remains an associate editor. He was president of the International Institute of Forecasters between 2000 and 2004. His research interests are concerned with the comparative evaluation of different forecasting methods, the implementation of improved forecasting procedures in organizations and the design of forecasting systems. In 1976 he wrote one of the earliest business forecasting textbooks. Though long out-of-print, many of its core ideas have survived the test of time. Robert is a Fellow of the International Institute of Forecasters and of the Operational Research Society.