Chapter1:Data and Statistics

BusinessWeek also uses statistics and statistical information in managing its own business.In a broader sense,statistics is defined as the art and science of collecting, analyzing, presenting, and interpreting data. Particularly in business and economics, the information provided by collecting, analyzing, presenting, and interpreting data gives managers and decision makers a better understanding of the business and economic environment and thus enables them to make more informed and better decisions.

• Applications in Business and Economics：

1. accounting
2. finance
3. marketing
4. production
5. economics

•  Data:Data are the facts and figures collected, analyzed, and summarized for presentation and interpretation. All the data collected in a particular study are referred to as the data set for the study.
• Elements are the entities on which data are collected.
• A variable is a characteristic of interest for the elements.
• Measurements collected on each variable for every element in a study provide the data.The set of measurements obtained for a particular element is called an observation.