Description

For undergraduate and graduate courses in Business Forecasting. Written in a simple, straightforward style, Business Forecasting presents basic statistical techniques using practical business examples to teach students how to predict long-term forecasts.

Features

Emphasis on the 9th edition has been placed on the application of theoretical concepts and techniques by incorporating end-of-chapter exercises such as:

• Twelve additional cases.
• Thirty two new problem sets.
• Minitab Applications are presented at the end of each chapter with step-by-step guidance.
• Excel 2003 Applications have been added to demonstrate how a forecasting problem is solved.
• Background material on the nature of forecasting and a quick review of statistical concepts.
• The exploration of data patterns, averaging, smoothing techniques, and an introduction to time series decomposition in terms of underlying components.
• Causal forecasting techniques.
• Judgmental forecasting and managing the forecasting process.

Table of Contents

• 1. Introduction to Forecasting.
• 2. Exploring Data Patterns and Choosing a Forecasting Technique. 
• 3. Moving Averages and Smoothing Methods. 
• 4. Time Series and Their Components. 
• 5. Simple Linear Regression. 
• 6. Multiple Regression Analysis. 
• 7. Regression with Time Series Data. 
• 8. The Box-Jenkins (ARIMA) Methodology.
• 9. Judgmental Forecasting and Forecast Adjustments.
• 10. Managing the Forecasting Process.
• Appendix A: Derivations.
• Appendix B: Data for Case Study 7.1.
• Appendix C: Tables.
• Appendix D: Data Sets and Databases.
• Index.