Essentials of Business Analytics: An Introduction to the Methodology and its Applications (International Series in Operations Research & Management Science Book 264)

This comprehensive edited volume is the first of its kind, designed to serve as a textbook for long-duration business analytics programs. It can also be used as a guide to the field by practitioners. The book has contributions from experts in top universities and industry. The editors have taken extreme care to ensure continuity across the chapters. The material is organized into three parts: A) Tools, B) Models and C) Applications. In Part A, the tools used by business analysts are described in detail. In Part B, these tools are applied to construct models used to solve business problems. Part C contains detailed applications in various functional areas of business and several case studies. Supporting material can be found in the appendices that develop the pre-requisites for the main text. Every chapter has a business orientation. Typically, each chapter begins with the description of business problems that are transformed into data questions; and methodology is developed to solve these questions. Data analysis is conducted using widely used software, the output and results are clearly explained at each stage of development. These are finally transformed into a business solution. The companion website provides examples, data sets and sample code for each chapter. This comprehensive volume is the first of its kind which serves as a textbook for long duration business analytics courses and as a perfect guide to the practitioner. This is an edited volume. The chapters are written by experts from the Indian School of Business, top US universities and industry. Every chapter has a business orientation. Typically, each chapter begins with business problems that are transformed into data questions; methodology is developed to solve the data question. Data analysis is done using widely used software, the output and results are clearly explained at each stage of development. Finally, the solution is transformed into a business solution. The editors have taken extreme care to ensure continuity across the chapters. The book has three parts: A) Methodology, B) Applications and C) Case Studies. In part A, the methodology is developed in detail. In part B, these methodologies are applied to solve business problems in various verticals. Part C contains case studies illustrating applications in a single instance. There is an appendix that develops the pre-requisites for the main text.