Indian Institute of Foreign Trade

Course: Business Statistics

EPGDIB 21-22
Semester-I

Course Coordinator: Dr. Sonu Verma Course Credit: 3

Pre-requisites for the course

The course requires some basic aptitude for learning analytical skills and applying them for
informed business decision making.

Objective

Every day business managers have to make decisions and rely on interpretations based on hard
facts so its imperative for them to study statistics to make better decisions and learning its
applications in business. Statistics is about dealing with data. Data are found in all areas of
business. This is a time to have the students brainstorm on the wide variety of places in business
where data are measured and gathered. It is important to define statistics which focuses on
procedures and methods involved in collecting, presenting and summarizing of a set of data or
forming conclusions about that data.

This module is an attempt to explore the intelligent use of statistics in decision-making

simultaneously emphasizing on the fundamentals The goal is to empower them with tools and
techniques for structured decision making across various functional areas of business- that is
economics and finance, information systems, management and marketing and international
business.

Program Learning goals covered through this course

LG 2: Innovative thinking in complex business situation

.
LO 2.1:
Able to apply knowledge of international business management concepts to analyse business
problems critically and suggest innovative solutions.

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Pedagogy

Sessions will be based on lectures, class exercises and case studies and assignment. Reading
material will be provided to students well in advance, so that they will get enough time to study
it intensively. Initiative to solve exercises and interaction in the class is encouraged to facilitate
class participation and to give them ample exposure to understand how statistics is used in
business. Students will be made familiar with software packages like MS Excel and SPSS used
in business world. A small project will be assigned to participants in a group involving
primary data collection and its analysis using statistical tools learned in the course to test the
understanding of fundamentals and the proficiency developed for applications in business
decision making.

Evaluation Criteria:

Midterm : 30 %
Case study/Assignments/Quiz : 30%
End Term Exam : 40 %
(Measurement of LG 2 by any one component or part thereof)

Course content Total No. of Sessions (30 hrs)

Session Content Reading

(With a brief description of what intends to be
Reference/*Cases
achieved)
1 Introduction to Statistics and Presenting Data in Chapters 1 and 2
Tables and Charts
(KB)
 Need of Statistics in Management
 Need of Data in decision making
 Types of data- nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio
 Grouped and ungrouped data

 Explain frequency distribution, histogram,

frequency polygon, ogive, pie chart, stem and

2
 leaf plot, and scatter plot
 Introduction to Statistical Software Packages:
Excel, SPSS
2-3 Descriptive Statistics Chapter 3 (KB)
 Distinguish between measures of central
tendency, measures of dispersion, and measures
of shape.

 Understand application of mean, median, mode,

quartile, percentile, and range. Variance, standard
deviation, and mean absolute deviation on
ungrouped & grouped data.
 Coefficient of Variation
 Understand the meaning of standard deviation as
it is applied using the empirical rule and
Chebyshev’s theorem.
.
4-5 Introduction to Probability Chapter 4 (KB)
 Basic Definitions
 Types of Probability
 Rules / Conditions of Probability
 Conditional probability
 Bayes’ Theorem
6 Expected value and variance of Random Chapter 5 (KB)
Variable
 Random Variable: Discrete and Continuous

 Expectation of Discrete and Continuous

Variables
 Variance of Discrete and Continuous Variables
7 Introduction to Probability Distributions Chapter 5 and
Discrete 6 (KB)
 Binomial Distribution
 Poisson Distribution
Continuous
 Normal Distribution

8 Sampling and Sampling Distributions Chapter 7 (KB)

a. Sampling
b. Sampling methods
c. Sampling & Non sampling errors
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 d. Central limit theorem
e. Overview of Sampling Distributions – t,
F, Chi-square.

9-10 Statistical Inference: Estimation Chapter 8 (KB)

a. Meaning and concept
b. Point estimates and interval estimates
c. Interval estimates and confidence
intervals
d. Calculating interval estimates of the
mean from large sample
e. Interval estimate using the t distribution
f. Determining the sample size in
estimation

Introduction to hypothesis testing Chapter 9, 10 and

11,12,13,14and 11(KB)
a. Understand the logic of hypothesis testing
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and know how to establish null and
alternative hypothesis
b. Understand Type I and Type II error
c. Concept of one tail and two tail test
d. Various Statistical Tests (Parametric):
i.To test the proportion & mean of the
population (single population)
ii. To test the equality of proportions &
means of 2 populations.
iii.ANOVA ( one way)

16 Nonparametric Statistics Chapter 16 (KB)

a. Recognize the advantages and disadvantages of

nonparametric statistics.
b. To test the association among the

4
 attributes/variables

17,18 and 19 Simple Correlation and Regression Chapter 12 (KB)

a. Simple Correlation (Bivariate)

b. Simple Regression (Bivariate)
c. Determining the simple linear
regression equation
d. Measures of variation, Assumptions and
Residual Analysis.
e. To test the significance of correlation
coefficients and regression coefficients.
f. To test the significance of the regression
model.

20 Time series Analysis and Forecasting Chapter 15 (KB)

 Time series
Components of Time series,
b. Using smoothing methods in forecasting
Moving average /Weighted moving
average
Exponential Smoothing
c. Using Trend and seasonal Components in
Forecasting
.

*Relevant cases/assignments will be provided during the sessions.

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 Linkage with the courses to be taught in the subsequent trimesters.

This will build the basic foundation for taking next core course of supply chain management
and help better understand quantitative aspects of modeling for EPGDIM/EPGDIF and
EPGDIB.

Text Book:

Black, K: Applied Business statistics: Making Better Business Decisions: Willey (7th
Edition) abbreviated as KB.

Suggested Readings

(1) Aczel, A.D. & Sounderpandian, J. (2002): Complete Business statistics, Tata Magraw
– Hill.
(2) Levin, D. M.; Krehbiel, T. C. & Berenson, M. L. (2004) : Business Statistics A first
line course, Pearson Education
(3) Berenson, M.L. & Levine, D.M (1999) : Basic Business Statistics, Prentice Hall
International Editions.
(4) Levin, R.I. & Rubin, D.S. (7th ed.): Statistics for Management, Pearson Education
(5)Statistics for Management and Economics by Keller. Seventh edition, Thomson
Learning
(6)Introductory Statistics by Weiss. Seventh edition, Pearson education.
(7)Data analysis & Decision Making by Albright, Winston, Zappe. Second edition,
Thomson Learning
(8)Statistics for Management and Economics by Anderson. ninth edition, Thomson Learning

AOL Evaluation

LEARNING GOAL 2:
Innovative Thinking in Complex Business Situations

LO 2.1: Able to apply knowledge of business management concepts to analyze business

problems critically and suggest innovative solutions

Evaluation Component: Case Study/Individual Assignment

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 Rubrics are defined below:
Learning Learning Excellent Good Fair
Goal Objective Unsatisfactory
LEARNING LO 2.1: Able to Able to Able to Unable to
GOAL 2: Able to apply demonstrate demonstrate demonstrate fair demonstrate ability
Innovative knowledge of excellent ability good ability ability to apply to apply
Thinking in business to apply to apply knowledge of knowledge of
Complex management knowledge of knowledge of business business
Business concepts to business business management management
Situations analyze management management concepts to concepts to
business concepts to concepts to analyze business analyze business
problems analyze business analyze business problems problems critically
critically and problems problems critically and and suggest
suggest critically and critically and suggest innovative
innovative suggest suggest innovative solutions
solutions innovative innovative solutions
solutions solutions