Quantitative Methods for Business, Management and Finance: Second Edition

by Swift; Piff

• ISBN13: 9781403935281
• ISBN10: 1403935289
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-10-07
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

A comprehensive, student-focused textbook designed primarily for undergraduate business students taking an introductory course on quantitative methods. Starting with no assumptions about students' knowledge, the authors use numerous examples, checkpoints and assessments to encourage "learning by doing" and provide support for students of all abilities. This edition includes a new chapter on decision-making, incorporates the use of SPSS in addition to Excel, and offers an expanded set of companion web resources for students and lecturers. Companion Website: http://www.palgrave.com/business/swift/home.htm

Author Biography

Louise Swift is a Medical Statistician in the Department of Health Policy and Practice, University of East Anglia.

Sally Piff is a Tutor in the School of Management, University of East Anglia.

Table of Contents

Preface to the second edition	ix
To the student ... please read this first	xi
Choosing books for further work	xv
Acknowledgements	xix
Essential Maths
Numbers and symbols	2	(31)
Positive and negative numbers: adding and subtracting	4	(2)
Positive and negative numbers: multiplying and dividing	6	(4)
Combining addition, subtraction, multiplication and division	10	(4)
Using a calculator	14	(6)
Introducing letters and symbols	20	(7)
Working with symbols: adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing	27	(6)
Simplifying expressions	33	(60)
Equivalent fractions and cancelling	34	(6)
Adding and subtracting fractions	40	(6)
Multiplying and dividing fractions	46	(8)
Putting it all together - and a note on percentages	54	(3)
Expanding brackets	57	(7)
Factorising	64	(6)
Powers	70	(10)
Powers of products and quotients	80	(5)
Fractional powers	85	(8)
Solving problems	93	(40)
How equations arise	94	(3)
Solutions to equations: recognising and guessing	97	(4)
A method for solving equations	101	(7)
Formulating and solving equations	108	(3)
Rearranging equations and substituting	111	(12)
Inequalities	123	(10)
Modelling using straight lines	133	(27)
Introducing straight lines	134	(6)
Interpretation of a and b	140	(6)
Linear equations for modelling	146	(4)
Pairs of linear equations	150	(10)
More Maths
Some special equations	160	(28)
Introducing logs	161	(7)
Solving equations when the unknown is a power	168	(6)
Quadratic equations	174	(7)
The expert equation solver	181	(7)
Modelling using curves	188	(32)
Functions	189	(3)
Quadratic curves	192	(11)
Some common functions	203	(5)
Variations on standard curves	208	(4)
When do these curves arise?	212	(5)
Curve sketching in general	217	(3)
Rates of change	220	(36)
The gradient of a curve	221	(8)
More differentiation	229	(5)
Interpreting derivatives	234	(8)
Maximising and minimising	242	(14)
Describing Data
Pictures of data	256	(35)
Frequencies and histograms	257	(10)
Stem and leaf diagrams	267	(4)
Pictures of one categorical variable: bar charts and pie charts	271	(6)
More graphs for numerical data	277	(4)
Categorical data that come in pairs	281	(5)
Lies, more lies and statistics?	286	(5)
Summarising data	291	(37)
The centre of a set of data	292	(6)
The spread of a set of data	298	(6)
Σ and a short-cut for variance	304	(5)
Quartiles	309	(2)
Technology to the rescue!	311	(3)
Constructing indices	314	(4)
Grouped data	318	(6)
Describing data: your toolkit	324	(4)
Probability
Measuring uncertainty	328	(47)
Introduction to probability	329	(15)
Combining events: AND and OR	344	(8)
Conditional probability	352	(8)
Calculating joint or AND probabilities	360	(8)
More complicated probabilities -- made simple!	368	(7)
Numerical outcomes	375	(51)
Introducing random variables	376	(8)
Expectation: the long run average	384	(7)
The variance of a random variable	391	(7)
The binomial distribution	398	(17)
The Poisson distribution	415	(11)
Continuous numerical outcomes	426	(57)
Probability density functions (pdfs)	427	(13)
The exponential distribution	440	(9)
Introducing the normal distribution	449	(11)
Calculating normal probabilities	460	(11)
The normal approximation to the binomial distribution	471	(12)
Statistics
Estimation	483	(42)
Samples	484	(6)
Estimating from a sample	490	(6)
How good is an estimator?	496	(9)
Interval estimates	505	(11)
Beware, variance unknown!	516	(9)
Testing hypotheses	525	(38)
Introduction to testing	526	(7)
The structure of a test	533	(6)
Tests for the mean	539	(16)
Rejection regions: another approach to testing	555	(8)
Correlation and regression	563	(48)
Data that come in pairs	564	(10)
Fitting a straight line to the data	574	(11)
The linear regression model	585	(17)
Extending the linear regression model: the multiple linear regression model	602	(9)
Forecasting	611	(37)
Displaying time series	612	(4)
Introduction to forecasting	616	(11)
Coping with trend and seasonal effects	627	(17)
Forecasting series with a trend and seasonal effect	644	(4)
Comparing two populations	648	(24)
The difference between two means	649	(8)
Difference between two means: small samples	657	(6)
Paired samples	663	(9)
Categorical data	672	(33)
Proportions	674	(6)
More than two categories	680	(9)
Contingency tables	689	(10)
Statistics formulae	699	(6)
Business Modelling
Linear programming models	705	(20)
A small linear programming problem	707	(8)
More complicated linear programming models	715	(10)
Planning projects	725	(17)
Drawing a project planning network	726	(7)
Scheduling activities	733	(9)
Models for inventory control	742	(15)
An inventory model	743	(6)
Making the model more realistic	749	(8)
Time and money	757	(32)
Calculating interest	758	(9)
Present values	767	(8)
Series of payments	775	(14)
Decision making	789	(31)
Introducing decision making	790	(3)
Payoff tables	793	(4)
Decision-making criteria	797	(7)
Decision trees	804	(16)
Controlling quality	820	(19)
Control charts for the mean	821	(9)
R-charts and p-charts	830	(9)
Simulating reality	839	(22)
Why simulate?	840	(1)
A simple simulation	841	(6)
Generating random inputs	847	(6)
Simulating from other probability distributions	853	(8)
Statistical tables	861	(13)
Index	874