Robert P. Burns - Business Research Methods and Statistics Using SPSS

Robert B. Burns and Richard A. Burns

Robert Burns and Richard Burns 2008

First published 2008

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ISBN 978-1-4129-4529-5

ISBN 978-1-4129-4530-1 (pbk)

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This text aims to enable students to:

• understand the importance and application of statistics and research in the business world;
• design effective research studies;
• interpret statistical results;
• use statistical information meaningfully;
• use a statistical package on a computer.

We have set ourselves the daunting task of writing about statistics and research methods for those studying statistics and research methods on business courses at degree and diploma levels. Most students believe they have trouble coping with numbers. So the book is addressed predominantly to non-mathematicians who do not consider themselves to be mathematically minded. These people will constitute part of the next generation of managers and executives, and thus the health of the organizations for whom they will work and carry responsibility will benefit from studying this book.

Our experience as teachers of research methods and statistics has taught us that business people need:

• Reassurance that they are not being blinded by science or bamboozled by the number providers.
• The ability to judge the validity, reliability and true worth of the data provided to them and, if necessary, to be able to challenge the data and the way they have been displayed, summarized and statistically manipulated.
• Sufficient understanding of the basic principles of data collection and processing and some working knowledge of the more important quantitative techniques in common use, including their uses and limitations.
• Enough knowledge to be able to formulate problems and to discriminate between and select the most appropriate techniques for finding the solution to a given problem.
• The confidence to take decisions and to act on the basis of the data provided.

We are all receivers and users of other peoples data. Numbers are all-pervasive in our lives, as business people, as consumers, as voters for political parties and as readers, listeners and viewers of the media. We have to live, work and survive in an increasingly complex world, force-fed on a diet of often incomprehensible, indigestible and, frequently, spurious statistical gobbets from the computer kitchens of government, stock exchanges, banks, market research organizations, and professional and educational institutions. As business people, we are frequently called upon to do something with the figures, to regurgitate them for other peoples use, probably in a different form, write a report, give an oral presentation, and make decisions based on them. We are often required to produce data of our own to submit to others (e.g. tax returns, sales analyses and forecasts, membership statistics, consumer surveys and the like).

With a minimum of mathematical and statistical knowledge, most people can reduce the data to more manageable proportions and make their own valid interpretation. A few simple statistical techniques and test procedures can be applied by most business people to the numbers they are normally presented with; all you need is to know enough about a particular technique or mathematical tool to be able to judge its value and validity in a particular situation and what significance to attach to the figures presented to you. What can be done with the information? Is it actionable? What conclusions can safely be drawn from it? How reliable and valid is it?

You do not need any special aptitudes, mathematical or otherwise, to get to grips with the contents of this book. All you need is (a) the ability to add, subtract, multiply, divide, square and square root, and (b) the willingness to work through the book with an open mind. Being fairly simple fellows, mathematically speaking, the authors are not clever enough to engage in other than the most simple arguments and explanations which they themselves can understand. This should benefit the reader.

In writing this book, we have tried to achieve several important goals: