Essentials of Business Analytics

This book provides coverage over the full range of analytics--descriptive, predictive, prescriptive--not covered by any other single book. It includes step-by-step instructions to help students learn how to use Excel and powerful but easy to use Excel add-ons such as XL Miner for data mining and Analytic Solver Platform for optimization and simulation.

James J. Cochran is Associate Dean for Research, Professor of Applied Statistics and the Rogers-Spivey Faculty Fellow at The University of Alabama. Born in Dayton, Ohio, he earned his B.S., M.S., and M.B.A. from Wright State University and his Ph.D. from the University of Cincinnati. He has been at The University of Alabama since 2014 and has been a visiting scholar at Stanford University, Universidad de Talca, the University of South Africa and Pole Universitaire Leonard de Vinci. Dr. Cochran has published more than 40 papers in the development and application of operations research and statistical methods. He has published in several journals, including Management Science, The American Statistician, Communications in Statistics―Theory and Methods, Annals of Operations Research, European Journal of Operational Research, Journal of Combinatorial Optimization, Interfaces and Statistics and Probability Letters. He received the 2008 INFORMS Prize for the Teaching of Operations Research Practice, 2010 Mu Sigma Rho Statistical Education Award and 2016 Waller Distinguished Teaching Career Award from the American Statistical Association. Dr. Cochran was elected to the International Statistics Institute in 2005, was named a Fellow of the American Statistical Association in 2011 and was named a Fellow of INFORMS in 2017. He received the Founders Award in 2014, the Karl E. Peace Award in 2015 from the American Statistical Association and the INFORMS President’s Award in 2019. A strong advocate for effective operations research and statistics education as a means of improving the quality of applications to real problems, Dr. Cochran has chaired teaching effectiveness workshops around the globe. He has served as operations research consultant to numerous companies and not-for-profit organizations.

Dr. David R. Anderson is a leading author and Professor Emeritus of Quantitative Analysis in the College of Business Administration at the University of Cincinnati. He has served as head of the Department of Quantitative Analysis and Operations Management and as Associate Dean of the College of Business Administration. He was also coordinator of the college’s first Executive Program. In addition to introductory statistics for business students, Dr. Anderson has taught graduate-level courses in regression analysis, multivariate analysis, and management science. He also has taught statistical courses at the Department of Labor in Washington, D.C. Dr. Anderson has received numerous honors for excellence in teaching and service to student organizations. He is the co-author of ten well-respected textbooks related to decision sciences and actively consults with businesses in the areas of sampling and statistical methods. Born in Grand Forks, North Dakota, he earned his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees from Purdue University.

Dennis J. Sweeney is Professor Emeritus of Quantitative Analysis and founder of the Center for Productivity Improvement at the University of Cincinnati. Born in Des Moines, Iowa, he earned a BSBA degree from Drake University and his MBA and DBA degrees from Indiana University, where he was an NDEA Fellow. Professor Sweeney has worked in the management science group at Procter & Gamble and has been a visiting professor at Duke University. Professor Sweeney served as Head of the Department of Quantitative Analysis and four years as Associate Dean of the College of Business Administration at the University of Cincinnati. Professor Sweeney has published more than 30 articles and monographs in the area of management science and statistics. The National Science Foundation, IBM, Procter & Gamble, Federated Department Stores, Kroger and Cincinnati Gas & Electric have funded his research, which has been published in Management Science, Operations Research, Mathematical Programming, Decision Sciences and other journals. Professor Sweeney has co-authored ten textbooks in the areas of statistics, management science, linear programming and production and operations management.

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Michael J. Fry is Professor of Operations, Business Analytics, and Information Systems (OBAIS) and Academic Director of the Center for Business Analytics in the Carl H. Lindner College of Business at the University of Cincinnati. Born in Killeen, Texas, he earned a B.S. from Texas A&M University, and M.S.E. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Michigan. He has been at the University of Cincinnati since 2002, where he was previously department chair and has been named a Lindner Research Fellow. He has also been a visiting professor at the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University and the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Fry has published more than 25 research papers in journals such as Operations Research, M&SOM, Transportation Science, Naval Research Logistics, IIE Transactions, Critical Care Medicine and Interfaces. His research interests focus on applying analytics to the areas of supply chain management, sports and public-policy operations. He has worked with many different organizations for his research, including Dell, Inc., Starbucks Coffee Company, Great American Insurance Group, the Cincinnati Fire Department, the State of Ohio Election Commission, the Cincinnati Bengals and the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden. He was named a finalist for the Daniel H. Wagner Prize for Excellence in Operations Research Practice, and he has been recognized for both his research and teaching excellence at the University of Cincinnati. In 2019 he led the team that was awarded the INFORMS UPS George D. Smith Prize on behalf of the OBAIS Department at the University of Cincinnati.