Data Analysis for Business Decisions: Case Studies in Excel, R, and ChatGPT

In today’s data-driven world, the ability to analyze and interpret data is no longer optional—it’s a necessity for making informed business decisions. This book provides a comprehensive, hands-on guide to mastering the essential techniques and tools that empower business analysts to transform raw data into actionable insights. Packed with practical exercises and real-world case studies, this book focuses on applying statistical methods across the most widely used tools, including Excel, R, Python, and generative AI platforms like ChatGPT. Key topics include framing analytical questions, descriptive and advanced statistical techniques, text analytics and A/B testing, and big data and visualization. Whether analyzing sales trends, optimizing marketing strategies, or improving operational efficiency, you’ll gain the skills to make data-backed decisions that drive business success.

FEATURESIncludes hands-on exercises with industry-standard tools, including Excel, R, Python, and generative AICovers step-by-step instructions for advanced techniques like time series forecasting and contingency analysisUses real-world case studies to demonstrate the application of concepts to business scenariosFeatures companion files with datasets, surveys, and cases (available for downloading from the publisher)TABLE OF CONTENTS
1: Data Analysis and Business. 2: Framing Analytical Questions. 3: Shaping and Cleaning Data. 4: Installing the Analysis Tools. 5: Descriptive Statistics. 6: Histograms. 7: Pareto Analysis. 8: Scatter Plots. 9: Correlation and Linear Regression.
10: Multivariate Regression. 11: Forecasting and Time Series. 12: Inferential Statistics. 13: Contingency Analysis.
14: A/B Testing. 15: Text Analytics. 16: Analyzing Big Data Sets. 17: Data Visualization. 18: Summary of Analysis Techniques. Data Sources. Index.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Andres Fortino, PhD holds an appointment as a Clinical Associate Professor of Management and Systems at the NYU School of Professional Studies, where he teaches business analytics, data mining, and data visualization. He also leads his own consulting company, Fortino Global Education. Dr. Fortino has published ten books and over 40 academic papers and has made over 100 technical presentations. He received IBM’s First Invention Level Award for his work in semiconductor research. He holds three US patents and ten invention disclosures. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE, and a member of the Academy of Management, INFORMS and the Decision Science Institute.