BUS601: Quantitative Business AnalysisSpring 2015

Dave Gilliland, Ph.D.Office: 132 Rockwell Halldave.gilliland@colostate.eduPhone: 970-491-5224Class meeting time: Rockwell West 8; Tuesdays/Thursdays, 2.003.40; 2nd 8 weeksOffice Hours: Mondays 9.00 11.00am (or by appt.)

Course Description: BUS601 is a key introductory course to the MBA program. It will give you specific data tools, strong references, and, most importantly, a thought process for analyzing quantitative business problems. Quantitative data analysis often provides the appropriate answer to a business problem or, more likely, sheds significant light on a solution. With a thorough understanding of the tools and processes available, a student will be able to more effectively analyze and solve business problems both in his/her forthcoming classes and, more importantly, in live business settings. Topics include: data presentation and graphical representation, probability concepts and frequency distributions, discrete and continuous random variables, sampling distributions, parameter estimates, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, and simple and multiple linear regression models.

Learning Objectives: The overarching objective of this course involves making sure you are comfortable with quantitative decision making tools in the business context. While we have learning objectives for each class session, the following objectives guide the entire course. By the completion of this course you should be able to:

1. gain exposure to a spectrum of numerical techniques that support business decision making;2. apply quantitative analysis to help solve business issues; 3. evaluate and prioritize information that influences business decisions; 4. describe and present business data and information properly; 5. interpret and understand quantitative analysis provided by other people; 6. communicate (oral and written) convincing and effective arguments based on quantitative analysis to support positions they take on business issues; 7. derive information from sample data, and draw conclusions about large populations from the information; 8. apply critical thinking skills to develop and improve business processes; and,9. develop improved decision-making skills, including the ability to analyze problems, manage quantitative information, evaluate alternatives, and make better decisions.

Attendance: Attendance is required. The student is responsible for all information, materials, and discussions that take place during the course period.

Course Materials: Textbook: Salkind, Neil J. (2014) Statistics for People Who (Think They) Hate Statistics, 5th edition, Sage Publications, Los Angeles. See student resources at http://sagepub.com/salkind5e Companion to the Text: Bremer, Karin Lindstrom (2015) Study Guide to Accompany Neil J. Salkinds Statistics of People Who (Think They) Hate Statistics, 5th Edition, Sage Publications, Los Angeles. Additional readings and assignments may be posted on WebCT or handed out in class. For additional reference, students are encouraged to consult Statsoft Electronic Statistics Textbook at: www.statsoft.com/textbook/stathome.html. Another valuable statistics reference is Hyperstat, which can be found at http://davidmlane.com/hyperstat/. Qualtrics Survey Software will also support this class. Please establish your Qualtrics account at: http://www.qualtrics.com/academic-solutions/colorado-state-university-college-of-business/ Lecture slides will be posted to RamCT prior to each lecture. All computational software needs for this course can be met with the SPSS Statistics program (Student Standard GradPack available for 6 month rental).

RAMCT: RamCT is the designated means of electronic communication between student and instructor. RamCT mail should be checked daily for class announcements or postings.

Assignments

Exams: Exams (a midterm and final) reflect the material covered in the readings, problems, and class lectures and discussions. Exams vary in content depending on the nature of the material, and are scheduled on the Tentative Daily Schedule. The exams are open book, open note exams. Obviously, no outside help of any kind in completing the exam is allowed.

Practice problems: You are encouraged to do the end-of-chapter practice problems. This will prepare you for completing both the project and the exams. The solutions to the practice problems are in the back of the book. Also, The Study Guide has its own set of practice problems, data sets, and solutions.

Grading

Your grade will be determined by your performance on 2 exams and the project. If assignments are added, deleted, or modified the number of points will be adjusted accordingly. The breakdown for points is as follows:

Midterm Exam100 pts.Final Exam100 pts.Project100 pts.Total300 pts.

The scale for determining your grade is detailed below according to the percentage of points earned of the 300 total that are available (regular rules of rounding apply).

A 93 100C+78 79A- 90 92C70 77B+88 89D60 69B83 87Fbelow 60B-80 82

Tentative Course Schedule

T24-MarClass intro; introduction to SPSS; Descriptive Statistics1, 2, 3, App. A

R26-MarData Illustration4

T31-MarCorrelation coefficient5

R2-AprQuestionnaire design, Qualtrics

T7-AprReliability and validity6

R9-AprHypothesis testing, normal distribution, the z-score7, 8

T14-AprIntro to inferential statistics, one sample z-test9, 10

R16-AprMid-term exam

T21-AprDifferences in means11, 12

R23-AprANOVA13, 14

T28-AprCorrelation revisited15

R30-AprRegression, nonparametrics16, 17

T5-MayWorking on Project18 - 21

R7-MayWorking on Project

T12-MayFinal Exam (9.40-11.40)

Academic Integrity

Students must uphold the academic integrity standards as explained in the universitys 2014-2015 General Catalog (www.catalog.colostate.edu). Academic integrity is conceptualized as doing and taking credit for ones own work. There is a new honor code at CSU, which has been modified by the College of Business as follows: Cheating, attempted cheating, plagiarism, falsification, unauthorized collaboration, and unauthorized possession or disposition of academic work is prohibited. This honor code is in effect for all assignments executed in this class.

Violations of the universitys academic integrity standards include, but are not limited to: Cheating. Cheating includes using unauthorized sources of information and providing or receiving unauthorized assistance on any form of academic work. Plagiarism. Plagiarism includes the copying of language, structure, ideas, or thoughts of another, and representing them as ones own without proper acknowledgment. Unauthorized Possession or Disposition of Academic Materials. Unauthorized possession or disposition of academic materials includes the unauthorized selling or purchasing of examinations or other academic work; stealing another students work; unauthorized entry to or use of material in a computer file; theft or mutilation of library materials; and using information from or possessing exams that an instructor did not authorize for release to students. Falsification. Falsification encompasses any untruth, either verbal or written, in ones academic work. Facilitation of Cases of Academic Dishonesty. Facilitation of any act of academic dishonesty also constitutes violation of Colorado State Universitys academic integrity.

Violations of Colorado State Universitys academic integrity policies will be handled in accordance with the procedures discussed in the General Catalog. Also, note that faculty members and administrative professionals at CSU must also abide by a Code of Ethical Behavior. This code is included on the website http://facultycouncil.colostate.edu/files/manual/sectiond.htm#D.9) and states among other things that faculty members are expected to maintain a high level of discretion and respect in personal and professional relations with students, staff, and the public. This code also notes that faculty must eschew academic misconduct such as fabrication, falsification, and plagiarism.

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