KEY BENEFIT: The ninth edition of Business Forecasting presents basic statistical techniques that are useful for preparing individual business forecasts and long-range plans. Written in a simple, straightforward style and making extensive use of practical business examples, the book includes many cases that provide readers with the necessary link between theoretical concepts and their real-world applications. Readers should have a basic knowledge of statistics and be familiar with computer applications such as word processing and spreadsheets. KEY TOPICS: The book first presents background material such as the nature of forecasting and a quick review of basic statistical concepts; proceeds with the exploration of data patterns and choosing a forecasting technique; covers averaging the smoothing techniques and time series decomposition; emphasizes causal forecasting techniques such as correlation, regression, and multiple regression analysis; and concludes with judgmental forecasting and forecast adjustments. MARKET: Useful as a reference for students and professionals with job titles including: forecasting manager, marketing manager, production manager, and analyst.

John E. Hanke

Eastern Washington University, Emeritus

 

Dean W. Wichern

Texas A&M University

 

In the first eight editions, the computer was recognized as a powerful tool in forecasting.

The computer is even more important now with the availability of powerful

forecasting software and easy access to data via networking capabilities and the

Internet.

A nationwide research study of all AACSB member institutions conducted by

the authors to determine what faculty do about using computers for teaching forecasting

showed that (1) most forecasting faculty (94.2%) attempt to provide

students with hands-on experience in using the computer, and (2) several statistical

packages and specific personal computer forecasting packages were mentioned in

the survey. The packages mentioned most frequently were Minitab, SAS, and

spreadsheets.

The authors have tried several different approaches to help faculty and students

use the computer for forecasting.This edition features the following:

1. Minitab instructions presented at the end of most chapters.

2. Excel instructions presented at the end of most chapters.

3. Three data collections available on the Internet (Minitab, Excel, other programs).

Each collection contains data from the text examples and problems. Each collection

also contains several new data series.To access the data sets on the Internet go

to the Prentice Hall Web site at www.prenhall.com/hanke

4. Examples of different computer outputs are placed throughout the text.