Book Description

This book provides a step-by-step manual on the application of permutation tests in biology, business, medicine, science, and engineering. Its intuitive and informal style will ideally suit it as a text for students and researchers whether experienced or coming to these resampling methods for the first time. The real-world problems of missing and censored data, multiple comparisons, nonresponders, after-the-fact covariates, and outliers are dealt with at length. The book's main features include: * detailed consideration of one-, two-, and k-sample tests, contingency tables, experimental design, clinical trials, cluster analysis, multiple comparisons, multivariate data, regression, and sample size reduction; * numerous practical applications in archeology, biology, climatology, economics, education, medicine, and the social sciences; * valuable techniques for reducing computation time; * practical advice on experimental design; * comparisons with bootstrap, parametric, and nonparametric techniques; * an extensive three-part bibliography featuring more than 1,000 articles. This new edition has more than 100 additional pages, and includes streamlined statistics for the k-sample comparison and analysis of variance plus expanded sections on computational techniques, multiple comparisons, multiple regression, comparing variances, and testing interactions in balanced designs. Comprehensive author and subject indexes, plus an expert-system guide to methods, provide for further ease of use. The invaluable exercises at the end of every chapter have been supplemented with drills and a number of graduate-level thesis problems. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

3rd much enhanced edition is now available
3rd much enhanced edition is now available as a graduate text.

Second Edition of highly regarded book on permutations
This is the second edition of a popular text on permutation methods which just came out in February 2000. Dr. Good has been an expert on permutation tests for over 25 years. In the 1980s he was the editor of a journal called Randomization which dealt specifically with the latest developments in permutation methods. He has also contributed to the scholarly research on this subject with a number of useful publications. In addition through his company he has done a great deal of consulting and has written many reviews on statistical software. He brings all of this valuable experience to the table in this book which emphasizes the wide variety of practical applications for this powerful tool. Permutation methods are gaining increasing popularity along with other resampling methods because of the amazing improvement in speed of digital computers over the past 15 years. This is emphasized in the book which is written at an elementary level for practitioners. It also is filled with practical advice and applications from Dr. Good's many years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. The book has expanded from 228 to 270 pages with additional references and expansion of chapters 12 and 13 which incorporate computing advances over the 6 years since the publication of the first edition. ... Read more

Book Description

Traditionally, Complete Business Statistics has been praised for its quality of presentation and the richness of problem sets that are realistic, stimulating and challenging.The new edition will continue to provide students with a solid understanding of statistical concepts and rich problems to stimulate learning.In addition students will be exposed to the most current uses of technology in business statistics.Students and instructors alike will enjoy using this text that now has more Excel and other software applications integrated than ever before. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Clear and complete !
Thorough textbook that can be used by professionals to refresh knowledge.Comes with CD of examples and presentations. Lots of real life examples. ... Read more

Book Description

Organizational change is becoming increasingly complex, challenging and difficult to handle as technology advances. And there is a need to discuss how it can be both more effectively managed by large and small organizations, while at the same time the strategies for changes are based on ethical notions of democracy and participation. Redesigning Human Systems assists those interested in and responsible for the management of major change within organizations, and provides the theories and values that should be adhered to in order to achieve that change successfully and effectively. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Rare Find!
Enid Mumford's book is a must read for anyone interested in the potential and impact of socio-technical design. She takes us into a wonderful journey of work system advocates for dignity, participation and good working life for everyone included.

This book shows that beneath all the hype of management, there is a continuing need to establish management as a noble profession in which management can enhance human freedom, democracy and creativity. In this effort, Enid Mumford's voice has been significant over the last four decades. This book is an excellent testimony to this.

This is a rare book on design and research on design. You can learn from real experiences of real people, and see their struggle and anxiety. It shows that good research at the end must address somehow what it means to be a human being, and what constitutes good life for all of us.

The Mumford Phenomenon
Enid Mumford is a phenomenon.Throughout her long and active life as an academic and researcher she has championed the importance of the human participant in the design of organizational systems.She has demonstrated again and again that we can design better, more robust and efficient systems by involving all the stakeholders in the design process.This book is both a reprise of her work and at the same time a practical step by step guide on how to set about redesigning organizations.In this book Enid Mumford sets out a masterly step by step practical guide to redesigning systems to make use of new technology.The guide is based on a series of case studies representing her life's work, with each case contributing lessons on redesign.It is essential reading for all those preparing to engage in change using new technology - students as well as mangers. ... Read more

Book Description

Bowerman and O'Connell's, Essentials of Business Statistics (EBS) delivers clear and understandable explanations of business statistics concepts through the use of case studies and examples. The non-calculus-based approach thoroughly covers descriptive and inferential statistics with an emphasis on business applications. Both procedural and conceptual aspects of the subject are covered, analysis and interpretation are emphasized, and shows students how to select the appropriate statistical tool for use in a particular business application.The abundant examples reflect real applications of statistics relevant to business students. A key distinction of EBS is the rich and realistic continuing case study examples that provide the architecture of the text. Unlike virtually all other texts, which use discreet examples for each individual subject area, EBS relies on these continuing examples to "frame" the study of statistics and place it squarely into the realm of real business problems and scenarios. Part and parcel with this approach are the rich and relevant data sets used to demonstrate statistical concepts. Finally, Bowerman and O'Connell also provide a fresh technology perspective. Excel and Minitab output is included in the text to help students visualize concepts, and a robust Excel add-in package, Megastat is both available on the accompanying CD ROM and has been thoroughly integrated into the text. The coverage of the Internet included in the book is second to none. ... Read more

Book Description

Written for successful study, every aspect of Elementary Statistics: Picturing the World has been carefully crafted to help readers learn statistics.Chapter topics cover an introduction to statistics, descriptive statistics, probability, discrete probability distributions, normal probability distributions, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing with one sample, hypothesis testing with two-samples, correlation and regression, chi-square tests and the F-distribution, and nonparametric tests.For individuals who want to learn statistics. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Elementary Statistics by Larson et al.
This work is geared for the above average arts or business
student. It has a good coverage of the various probability
density functions and hypothesis testing and evaluation. A typical chapter has important definitions set forth, a "Try
It Yourself" problem set, notes to the instructor, numerous
exercises and an exhaustive summary. In chapter 1, the four levels of measurement are depicted. i.e. Nominal, Ordinal,
Interval and Ratio . The author provides a simple experimental
design consisting of identifying variables, developing a
detailed plan for collecting data, actual data collection,
descriptive statistics techniques and inferential statistics.

This book could be covered in one semester with the following
organization:
Data Collection Chapter 1
Scales, frequency Chapter 2
Probability Chapter 3
Distributions Chapter 4
Normal Distribution Chapter 5
Confidence Intervals Chapter 6
Hypothesis Testing Chapter 7
Correlation/Regression Chapter 9

Moving Averages

Chi Square Chapter 10

Theory of Expected Value

General Review and Finals

The appendix of the work contains an excellent presentation
on how to find areas under the standard normal curve. Overall,
the work presents a very ambitious agenda aimed at the
above-average collegiate student. The book could be supplemented
with the Schaum's Outline in Statistics. Students may utilize
a statistical calculator to assist with the work of the course.

Confusing!
I had to purchase this book for an online stats course - BIG mistake! The organization of the book is so incredibly confusing, and the "expanding the basics" problems are not illustrated in the chapter, nor do they have answers with which to check your answers. I have taken other reasoning courses (in class and online) and they were organized much better, with relevant examples that explained every step -- perfect for anyone who is basically trying to teach him/herself! I hope mathematics teachers nationwide realize how difficult this text is for students to follow. Consider another text!

A terrible...book.
I have been forced to purchase the second edition of this book, which is similar to the first edition, but with CD rom for the data set instead of diskettes in the first edition. Also, the numbering for the problem sets have been altered, probably to make more money by making the first book obsolete.

The only reason I had to buy the book was to do the problem set. The book itself has terrible organization as a reference, where a few crutial concepts are discussed briefly, in a overwhelming mixture of examples and practice problems. Perhaps this is all well if you are trying to read the text from cover to cover, but unfortunately that won't help student learn any faster if they have to mull over unimportant details outside of the lecture.

Edward Tufte will have a field day with the barrage of unnecessary use of color and unprofessional (confusing) layout of the charts, tables and graphs (what he calls "the ducks"). The conventions used in the books are used inconsistently, and *every* page has at least three colors, which drives up the printing cost for no good reason other than profit. Furthermore, it is printed on glossy paper, where it's glare will strain the eyes and it is hard to mark with pencil. I will preach against using glossy paper for texts until someone listens!

Fortunately, the book calms down after the absolutely terrible first three chapters, but it still manages to waste pages and pages on useless information (to most) such as step-by-step instruction on how to use a TI-83 calculator - each time I open a page filled with screen shot of applications that I will never touch, I feel insulted and ripped off. Why not use the CD for these screenshots?? Doesn't TI-83 come with a user's manual???

I understand that the book strives to be a tutorial, augmenting what a poorly trained instructor may miss during a lecture, but it also tries to be a textbook which supplements a lecture. Unfortunately, the two concepts do not mix well together in a book. This is a worthless book after the lecture, and I do not intend to keep it for reference.

I have "inherited" DeVore & Peck's "Statistics: Exploration and Analysis of Data" - and found that to be more informative and engaging introduction to statistics and probability.

It is sad to hear that Larson & Farber is a popular book - it makes me shudder to think of all the high-school students out there learning the horrible examples of presentation of data. I hope that these authors will realize that insulting the readers' intelligence by diluting the content will only alienate them. I hope they fix their ways.

Very Ambitious Introduction to Stat!
Plentiful, practical examples by picture and problem sets related to our lives! The authours make use of an up-to-date approach using web, CD-ROM, MINITAB, TI-83 and Videos, in order to deepen understandings in statistics. You can start learning or going over stat from high school level. This is the best introduction to statistics! ... Read more

Book Description

Statistical Tools in Finance and Insurance presents ready-to-use solutions, theoretical developments and method construction for many practical problems in quantitative finance and insurance. Written by practitioners and leading academics in the field, this book offers a unique combination of topics from which every market analyst and risk manager will benefit.

Covering topics such as heavy tailed distributions, implied trinomial trees, support vector machines, valuation of mortgage-backed securities, pricing of CAT bonds, simulation of risk processes and ruin probability approximation, the book does not only offer practitioners insight into new methods for their applications, but it also gives theoreticians insight into the applicability of the stochastic technology. Additionally, the book provides the tools, instruments and (online) algorithms for recent techniques in quantitative finance and modern treatments in insurance calculations.

Written in an accessible and engaging style, this self-instructional book makes a good use of extensive examples and full explanations. The design of the text links theory and computational tools in an innovative way. All Quantlets for the calculation of examples given in the text are supported by the academic edition of XploRe and may be executed via XploRe Quantlet Server (XQS). The downloadable electronic edition of the book enables one to run, modify, and enhance all Quantlets on the spot.

Book Description

Essential Mathematics for Economics and Business has become established as one of the leading introductory textbooks on mathematics for students of these subjects. It combines a non-rigorous approach to mathematics with applications in economics and business. The fundamental mathematical concepts are explained as simply and briefly as possible, using a wide selection of worked examples, graphs and real-world applications.

FEATURES:

• This second edition includes new material on important topics such as currency conversion, annuities, debt repayment, sinking funds, integration by algebraic substitutions, integration by parts, solution of equations, Gaussian elimination, and Excel for linear algebra.

• Sections on the following topics have been rewritten in a clearer and more accessible style: the straight line, some applications of translations, exponential functions, hyperbolic functions, optimisation of functions of one variable, and the inverse matrix.

• A website has been developed that contains supplementary material for lecturers, as well as additional material for students.

'The text is aimed at providing an introductory-level exposition of mathematical methods for economics and business students. In terms of level, pace, complexity of examples and user-friendly style the text is excellent - it genuinely recognises and meets the needs of students with minimal maths background.' Colin Glass, University of Ulster

'One of the major strengths of this book is the range of exercises in both drill and applications. Also the "worked examples" are excellent; they provide examples of the use of mathematics to realistic problems and are easy to follow' Donal Hurley, University College Cork

'Students have often complained bitterly about some of the texts we have used in the past. The feedback for this book is excellent' Alexander Lee, University of Western Sydney

'Overall the book is very thorough without being too rigorous. Almost everything I would expect to see is there.' Hilary Lamaison, Brunel University

'I used the text for the first time this semester and found it very good. So did the students!' Anca Porojan, University of Bradford ... Read more

Book Description

With Statistics for Management, Levin and Rubin have provided a non-intimidating business statistics book that users can easily read and understand. Like its predecessors, the seventh edition includes the absolute minimum of mathematical/statistical notation necessary to teach the material. Concepts are fully explained in simple, easy-to-understand language as they are presented, making the book an excellent source from which to learn and teach. After each discussion, readers are guided through real-world examples to show how book principles work in professional practice. Includes easy-to-understand explanations of difficult statistical topics, such as sampling distributions, relationship between confidence level and confidence interval, interpreting r-square. A complete package of teaching/learning aids is provided in every chapter, including chapter review exercises, chapter concepts tests,"Statistics at Work" conceptual cases, "Computer Database Exercises", "From the Textbook to the Real-World Examples." ... Read more

Reviews (3)

The best part of the book was the curve fitting algorithms
Listen Software Solutions: I found the book to be easy to understand and packed with alot of step by step illustrations. Using the samples and easy to follow instructions such as concepts like Least Square Approximation and Multiple Regression Model techniques, I felt comfortable in solving my trend analysis problems. The authors do not overwhelm the reader with advanced mathematical notation but instead provide an learn by example method to their teaching. After each chapter, a number of homework problems are available, for the the student to try. This is a great college textbook to learn business statistics from. I used the textbox to learn how to program MFC VC++ curve fitting alogrithms for a stock trends analysis algorithm. I must say the internet has a ton of material, however, this book provided me the clearest explanations and helped me gain the greatest understanding of my curve fitting solutions.

Great choice for beginner
The text is very easy to understand. The case study is great as well as the exercises.

Great book for a business student
Great book and also "great" price ... Read more

Book Description

Twenty-two of the most important and influential strategy thinkers identify the fundamental questions and issues in the field today. Addressing four critical questions (How do firms behave? Why are firms different? What are the functions of the headquarters unit in a multibusiness firm? What determines success or failure in an international company?), the contributors set a research agenda for the coming decade, asserting that researchers must refocus their efforts now. This major project was cosponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Strategic Management Society. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Essential Researchers' Reference
The thesis of the book is that research in strategy needs to be directed at fundamental questions, like "Why are firms different (despite attempts to imitate one another)?" The writers don't even bother to discuss the popular sillyness of advising firms to be "quick" or "invest in IT" and so on. Rather, there is a real attempt to describe what is known and not known about fundamental issues, like imitability.

The book's strength is the quality of the 22 authors involved. It is the strongest showing of intellectual talent on this subject ever assembled. The weakness is that it was written just before the rise of "competence-based" views of strategy, so that it offers little perspective on that literature.

Twelve years after the papers in this book were written, it remains an essential reference to research in strategy. MBAs and business people looking for the newest guru ideas should stay away---there are plenty of guru books out there to satisfy their needs for cool hip ideas ("seek chaos!").

Essential Researchers Reference
The thesis of the book is that research in strategy needs to be directed at fundamental questions, like "Why are firms different (despite attempts to imitate one another)?" The writers don't even bother to discuss the popular sillyness of advising firms to be "quick" or "invest in IT" and so on. Rather, there is a real attempt to describe what is known and not known about fundamental issues, like imitability.

The book's strength is the qulaity of the 22 authors involved. It is the strongest showing of intellectual talent on this subject ever assembled. The weakness is that it was written just before the rise of "competence-based" views of strategy, so that it offers little perspective on that literature.

Twelve years after the papers in this book were written, it remains an essential reference to research in strategy. MBAs and business people looking for the newest guru ideas should stay away---there are plenty of guru books out there to satisfy their needs for cool hip ideas ("seek chaos!").

Fundamental Issues in Strategy: A Research Agenda
This book is not recomended for undergraduate, you must thinking hardly to understand the "soul" of this book. Read it carefully, once you read it, you will understand why the titled is
"Research Agenda", but anyway, this is usefull book for a reference in research or comprehensive analysis in area of strategy.

Things we don't understand
This book resulted from a conference held in Napa valley a few years before the book's publication. The editors and contributors examine critical issues in strategic management. Ten years later, these issues remain unresolved. This is because these issues are complex and enduring. Anyone interested in understanding enduring competitive advantage will benefit greatly by reading this book. One of its major contributions is that it delineates the boundaries of current understanding. To those looking for immediate help to their organizational problems this volume will offer few solutions. For those wanting to understand how firms behave, adapt, and organize for sustainable advantage this book will be a great start.

Very Poor Reader
This book isn't worth the paper it's written on. It's a lengthy reader with tons of references and little creative thinking or new inspiring ideas. The content is rather basic and doesn't go beyond summarizing history and restating what's written in other books. What we need is not someone who can repeat what was written by others in another 600 pages - we need new thoughts and ideas. Don't make the same mistake I made in wasting money and time on this book! ... Read more

Book Description

Providing an introduction to modern data analysis techniques, these casebooks can be used as the primary or secondary text for elementary business statistics courses. Statistics has the reputation of being a boring, complicated, and confusing mix of mathematical formulas accompanied by computers used to do something. This casebook and its companion volume Business Analysis Usuing Regression change that impression by showing how statistics gives insights and ansswers interesting business questions.

The material is organized into classes of related case studies that develop a single key idea of statistics. The authors begin by discussing an application that motivates the key idea. Students are then shown how to analyze a data set. The emphasis of the analysis is to answer important business questions with statistics rather than talk about statistics.

Basic Business Statistics introduces ideas often not emphasized in elementary texts such as issues of robustness, the use of transformations to simplify problems, sampling bias, confounding, kernel density, quality control, and scatterplot matrices. Business Analysis with Regression includes a discussion of scatterplot smoothing, prediction intervals for new observations, collinearity, logistic regression, nonlinear models, and multiple comparisons in regression.

The text includes directions for data analyses with JMP and an appendix with Minitab commands. Professors Dean P. Foster, Robert A. Stine, and Richard P. Waterman are members of the Department of Statistics at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

GOOD FOCUS, POORLY PRESENTED
This book has an interesting premise of focusing statistics for business at the mid-level using the JMP software. The concepts addressed are the right ones, even the order is good.

However, on the downside, it is very difficult to read. The cases are not well explained. This book is used at Wharton's 1st year core course in statistics and the general agreement is that it is very hard to comprehend it. I recommend an editor to the authors. ... Read more

Book Description

Designed for instructors who want to stress the understanding of basic concepts and the development of "statistical intuition," this book demonstrates that statistical reasoning is everywhere and that statistical concepts are as important to students' personal lives as they are to their future professional careers. Ramsey aims to develop statistically literacy - from the ability to read and think critically about statistics published in popular media to the ability to analyze and act upon statistics gathered in the business world. The underlying philosophy of this book is that given a reasonable level of depth in the analysis, the student can later acquire a much more extensive, and even more intensive, exposure to statistics on their own or in the context of the work environment. Some use of calculus is included. Use of the computer is integrated throughout. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Researcher and Lecturer in Financial Ecometrics
James Ramsey has written the ideal introductory statistics text for those with inquisitive minds. Ramsey's The Elements of Statistics with Applications to Economics and the Social Sciences presents an insightful, but accessible approach to the processes of statistical reasoning and problem solving.There are plenty of well-developed and realistic case studies that offer the reader straightforward explanations of the statistical reasoning used in setting up the problem solution.Ramsey does not just present statistics as facts and numbers; the why's and how's behind the use of specific statistical tools required in case studies and other examples are addressed in a straight forward and simple to understand manner.This contrasts most contemporary introductory statistics texts where it seems there is always an attempt to be the biggest encyclopedia of statistical examples. Ramsey's style of exposition offers the reader the depth and perspective required to facilitate both the current and future statistical requirements of the reader.In short, this is one of the few introductory texts that allow the reader to attain a stable grounding in the field of statistics on one hand, and on the other, will still be a useful reference throughout one's professional career.I highly recommend Ramsey's text as both a starter text and as a reference for those looking to clarify their fundamental statistical queries.

Associate Professor of Economics, East Carolina University
This book is a wonderful introductory statistics text. In contrast to the usual extensive approach in which students are exposed to a large cookbook of statistical procedures that end up being memorized 'for the exam,' this text operates on the intensive margin in a successful effort to provide the conscientious student a far deeper introduction to statistical reasoning and practice.

Each chapter contains a large set of exercises and the text comes with a simplified student version of S-Plus. Most of the computational work required for these exercises can be carried out through a menu-driven GUI interface. To help facilitate learning, many worked examples are also provided.

The mathematical requirements include a little beyond what a student should have upon entry into a first calculus course in an American university, i.e., little beyond basic algebra. An appendix explains all the mathematics used in the text.

I enthusiastically recommend this text!

The Elements of Statistics - A Review
The Elements of Statistics: with Applications to Economics and the Social Sciences by James B. Ramsey is an innovative and excellent undergraduate level text on the foundations and reasoning of statistics estimation and inference.This book is written for the curious student who is interested in understanding the basics of statistical analysis, the intuition behind statistical and information processing, and the process of decision making based on some data.Most importantly, in this book Ramsey takes the student through a fascinating voyage of discovery.In this voyage, Ramsey devotes significant effort to explaining what are the fundamental rules underlying most data analyses within the social and natural sciences.This is done without requiring much prior knowledge of calculus and with almost no formal mathematics. Ramsey accomplishes this task by building on a large number of real world examples, some of which he re-evaluates at the end of each chapter. By doing so, he allows the reader (student or researcher) to see the real value of the knowledge just acquired in the most recent chapter.That is, "what can I understand now about that specific problem that I could not understand before." In that way the student is going through an on-going learning process. A process that allows one to understand the data by recognizing what is observed and what is not observed, what is random and what is not random, what process may have generated the data, and what one can infer from the data.
To summarize, once Ramsey expresses his philosophy of approaching statistical analyses, he proceeds to teach statistics in a completely new and innovative way.First, unlike existing undergraduate textbooks, Ramsey teaches the students via a "discovery" approach where each step starts with a new set of questions and the students are guided toward discovering the relevant answer, given the information they have. Second, the text is easy to read and is full with real world examples taken from a large number of disciplines.Finally, the book is equipped with complete software (S-Plus) that provides the necessary tool for the students to practice and understand how to work with real data. This is an ideal undergraduate level textbook.It is a very useful statistical text for the open minded and advanced undergraduate student and provides the teacher with a perfect teaching tool.It is highly recommended.

Amos Golan
Research Professor ... Read more

Book Description

This example-rich exploration of both elementary probability and basic statistics places a strong emphasis on engineering and science applications.Coverage explores the treatment of data; probability; probability distributions; probability densities; sampling distributions; inferences concerning means; inferences concerning variances; inferences concerning proportions; nonparametric tests; curve fitting; analysis of variance; factorial experimentation; the statistical content of quality-improvement programs; and applications to reliability and life testing.For practicing engineers or anyone interested in probability and statistics. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

A poor quality book
For 6th edition:

One may use this book as a handbook for some statistical problems. However, I find it very poor in terms of reading it from scratch. Moreover, many important issues are not covered, and those covered are not very analysed.

i.e. I cant find the transformation of stochastic variables, The properties of the gaussian d. are not fully covered. No Rayleigh or Rice distribution? After all I am not sure this book is for engineers.

Shoddy, WAY overpriced piece of junk
This is truly the worst "math" book I've ever used. Too many very important pieces of information are just incidentally glossed over in the text, which is often vague (as if it assumes you know statistics already). As if the vagueness of the material were not bad enough, the homework problems do not provide a sufficient challenge to allow you to see if you actually understand the material after reading it (note to authors, EXAMS ARE NEVER JUST PLUG AND CHUG). Hmmm... vague text and poor test of comprehension in the homework problems, sounds like a disaster waiting to happen if it isn't the case that you've had some statistics before(maybe if you have a good professor this may not be necessary, mine was horrendously bad and that made me depend all the more on this piece of garbage). Oh yeah, before I forget, the price is absurd for such a poor quality, and thin book. If you can, please search hard for a good book before suffering with this piece of work,even the schaum's outlines can be a bigger help than this (and they're not that great themselves.)

------
Note to intro stat professors:
Look at the title before you assign this text. We're not engineers yet and some of us aren't planning to become engineers. Perhaps this was the reason for my bad experience with the text.

Very good book
The probability and statistics for engineeting book provides a very good first book on probability and statistics. It is very useful to engineers and scientists that need to analyse and interpret data. It has a very goodmaterial on statistical inference and on quality and reliability. Istrongly recommend this book. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

A great book for big picture seekers
Levers of Control presents a comprehensive theory illustrating how managers control strategy using 4 basic levers: belief systems, boundary systems, diagnostic systems, and interactive control systems (the whole book is based on these 4 levers). Simons shows how these control levers complement each other when used together and how effective top managers use these levers to stimulate and guide the search for strategies in the futures.

Focus on strategy implementation
The book is far more interesting than the title suggests. "Levers of control" makes one think of man/woman being reduced to robots directed by the pulling of levers. The book is exactly about the opposite, how one can have his cake and eat it. It provides a practical framework on how to combine opposing forces in managing a company. Opposites like creativity and meeting profit objectives, precise objectives and alertness to the necessasity of changing course, reward and punishment, control and freedom. Some of the insights require reader effort to understand. For example. "Strategic planning is useless to develop strategies. Strategic planning starts once the strategy has been determined." What is meant is this. Long range planning carried out by staff departments trying to involve managers is a waste of time. Real strategies evolve interactively between several layers of managers in the organisation. Once a strategy is determined a plan must be made for implementing it. However the reader has to figure out that strategic planning no longer means strategy development but the development of a plan for strategy implementation, the execution of which has to be monitored. The book covers how to deal with the positive and negative motivations of employees, how it is possible to manage the tension between a budget system (referred to as a diagnostic system) and an action oriented intelligence-gathering system (referred to as an interactive control system). These two "control systems" are combined with two higher level "control systems", the vision and core values on the one hand and clarification of authority, accountability and no-go areas (referred to as boundary systems)on the other. None of these "control systems" are original. The originality of Prof Simons is that he shows how to operate these systems so that they reinforce and complement each other. This book is very useful for persons that have experienced how hard it is to implement strategies and to reconcile freedom with the requirement of delivering predictable financial results. ... Read more

Book Description

Lind, Schwartz, Lathrope and Rosenberg’s casebook provides detailed information on corporate taxation. The casebook provides the tools for fast, easy, on-point research. Part of the University Casebook Series®, it includes selected cases designed to illustrate the development of a body of law on a particular subject. Text and explanatory materials designed for law study accompany the cases. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Internal Revenue Code --> Plain English
This book does a very good job of translating the dry language of the internal revenue code into plain English. A must read for tax accountants in the corporate tax field. In addition, related court cases and revenue rulings and revenue procedures are clearly identified by its footnotes. When this book is cross-referenced with the actual code sections, the mystiques of tax are dispelled. I saw the light! ... Read more

Book Description

World Development Indicators, the World Bank's respected statistical publication presents the most current and accurate information on global development on both a national level and aggregated globally. This information allows readers to monitor the progress made toward meeting the goals endorsed by the United Nations and its member countries, the World Bank, and a host of partner organizations in September 2001 in their Millennium Development Goals.

The 400-page print edition of World Development Indicators 2004 allows you to consult over 80 tables and over 800 indicators for 152 economies and 14 country groups, as well as basic indicators for a further 55 economies. There are key indicators for the latest year available, important regional data, and income group analysis. The report contains six thematic presentations of analytical commentary covering: World View, People, Environment, Economy, States and Markets, and Global Links.

The CD-ROM* editions contain 40 years of time series data for more than 200 countries from 1960-2002, single-year observations, and spreadsheets on many topics. It contains more than 1,000 country tables and the text from the World Development Indicators 2004 print edition and the World Bank Atlas 2003. The Windows® based format permits users to search for and retrieve data in spreadsheet form, create maps and charts, and fully download them into other popular software programs for study or presentation purposes.

* The CD-ROM system requires Windows 98 or NT 4.0 or later, 20 MB of available hard disk space, 32 MB of RAM, and 2 MB of video memory. 64 K color video display recommended. Microsoft Internet Explorer version 4.0 or higher and sound card optional. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Great Companion/Workbook
This is a great study guide and workbook for those who are excelling in the difficult subject of statistics.

The authors present each method in a clear and concise manner and offer groupings of work problems that keep you progressing to the point that you will feel at ease with each chapter.

The text is a wonderful guide in itself, but combined with the companion book there is no problem that cannot be overcome. ... Read more

Book Description

STATISTICS FOR MANAGEMENT AND ECONOMICS is the worldwide best selling business statistics text. It is currently being used at hundreds of colleges and universities throughout the world. This text teaches students how to apply statistics to real business problems through the authors' unique three-step approach to problem solving. Students learn to IDENTIFY the right technique by focusing on the relationship between the problem and data type. They then learn to COMPUTE the answer either by hand, using Excel, or using MINITAB. Finally, they INTERPRET the results in the context of the problem. This approach enhances student comprehension as well as practical skills, and offers maximum flexibility to instructors wishing to teach concepts by hand or with the computer, or by using both hand and computer methods. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

My Bible
This book became my statistics bible. After never attending any statistics classes at the University, I was suddenly forced to work with multiple regressions at work. This book helped me understand all about statistics that I needed for my business purposes. The examples are very helpfull to understand what the tests actually do and how you can solve your own inference problems. I read the whole book in about 10 days (2 hours a day) at the beach and now work mainly with the overviews in the last chapters when I have a problem to solve at work.

A lot of ambiguity and errors
I had to use this edition as text book for my Statistics Course in an MBA Program and found multiple errors and ambiguities in describing basic concepts. Lack of rigurousity in presentation is pervasive. Although an engineer by formation, I found this book a terrible reading as an initiation in statistics!

Warning don't go near the 5th edition
The 5th edition of this book, available still in many places, is one awful book. The instructions for most of the Minitab examples are incomplete and in many cases worthless. Many explanations are superficial and the tie in to the overall statistical picture is weak. I have heard the 6th is better, the 5th should not have been printed.

Basic an clearly understandable
This book covers a wide area of fields necessary for business and economic students. It also explains how to go on if necessary conditions are violated. Time-series analysis, which is very important for economic students, are not covered to the extent as other topics, but it nevertheless gives a good introduction of other statistical concepts necessary for understanding following books on time series analysis. For my opion there are a little bit to much exercises than necessary, for an autodidactic study but enough for class room work. A very fine feature is that there never come up terminologies which has not been discussed before and one can use MS-Excel.

It's a very usefull book
It's realy usefull for to problem solving. It helps to learn easly to solve the problems with Excel. ... Read more