Introductory Statistics and Analytics

A non-technical guide to leveraging retail analytics for personal and competitive advantage Style & Statistics is a real-world guide to analytics in retail. Written specifically for the non-IT crowd, this book explains analytics in an approachable, understandable way, and provides examples of direct application to retail merchandise management, marketing, and operations. The discussion covers current industry trends and emerging-standard processes, and illustrates how analytics is providing new solutions to perennial retail problems. You'll learn how to leverage the benefits of analytics to boost your personal career, and how to interpret data in a way that's useful to the average end business user or shopper. Key concepts are detailed in easy-to-understand language, and numerous examples highlight the growing importance of understanding analytics in the retail environment. The power of analytics has become apparent across industries, but it's left an especially indelible mark on retail. It's a complex topic, but you don't need to be a data scientist to take advantage of the opportunities it brings. This book shows you what you need to know, and how to put analytics to work with retail-specific applications. Learn how analytics can help you be better at your job Dig deeper into the customer's needs, wants, and dreams Streamline merchandise management, pricing, marketing, and more Find solutions for inefficiencies and inaccuracies As the retail customer evolves, so must the retail industry. The retail landscape not only includes in-store but also website, mobile site, mobile apps, and social media. With more and more competition emerging on all sides, retailers need to use every tool at their disposal to create value and gain a competitive advantage. Analytics offers a number of ways to make your company stand out, whether it's through improved operations, customer experience, or any of the other myriad factors that build a great place to shop. Style & Statistics provides an analytics primer with a practical bent, specifically for the retail industry.

A unique primer on quantitative methods as applied to Islamic finance Introductory Mathematics and Statistics for Islamic Finance + Website is a comprehensive guide to quantitative methods, specifically as applied within the realm of Islamic finance. With applications based on research, the book provides readers with the working knowledge of math and statistics required to understand Islamic finance theory and practice. The numerous worked examples give students with various backgrounds a uniform set of common tools for studying Islamic finance. The in-depth study of finance requires a strong foundation in quantitative methods. Without a good grasp of math, probability, and statistics, published theoretical and applied works in Islamic finance remain out of reach. Unlike a typical math text, this book guides students through only the methods that directly apply to Islamic finance, without wasting time on irrelevant techniques. Each chapter contains a detailed explanation of the topic at hand, followed by an example based on real situations encountered in Islamic finance. Topics include: Algebra and matrices Calculus and differential equations Probability theory Statistics Written by leading experts on the subject, the book serves as a useful primer on the analysis methods and techniques students will encounter in published research, as well as day-to-day operations in finance. Anyone aspiring to be successful in Islamic finance needs these skills, and Introductory Mathematics and Statistics for Islamic Finance + Website is a clear, concise, and highly relevant guide.

A comprehensive resource that offers an introduction to statistics with a Bayesian angle, for students of professional disciplines like engineering and economics The Bayesian Way offers a basic introduction to statistics that emphasizes the Bayesian approach and is designed for use by those studying professional disciplines like engineering and economics. In addition to the Bayesian approach, the author includes the most common techniques of the frequentist approach. Throughout the text, the author covers statistics from a basic to a professional working level along with a practical understanding of the matter at hand. Filled with helpful illustrations, this comprehensive text explores a wide range of topics, starting with descriptive statistics, set theory, and combinatorics. The text then goes on to review fundamental probability theory and Bayes' theorem. The first part ends in an exposition of stochastic variables, exploring discrete, continuous and mixed probability distributions. In the second part, the book looks at statistical inference. Primarily Bayesian, but with the main frequentist techniques included, it covers conjugate priors through the powerful yet simple method of hyperparameters. It then goes on to topics in hypothesis testing (including utility functions), point and interval estimates (including frequentist confidence intervals), and linear regression. This book: Explains basic statistics concepts in accessible terms and uses an abundance of illustrations to enhance visual understanding Has guides for how to calculate the different probability distributions, functions , and statistical properties, on platforms like popular pocket calculators and Mathematica / Wolfram Alpha Includes example-proofs that enable the reader to follow the reasoning Contains assignments at different levels of difficulty from simply filling out the correct formula to the complex multi-step text assignments Offers information on continuous, discrete and mixed probability distributions, hypothesis testing, credible and confidence intervals, and linear regression Written for undergraduate and graduate students of subjects where Bayesian statistics are applied, including engineering, economics, and related fields, The Bayesian Way: With Applications in Engineering and Economics offers a clear understanding of Bayesian statistics that have real-world applications.

A detailed, multi-disciplinary approach to investment analytics Portfolio Construction and Analytics provides an up-to-date understanding of the analytic investment process for students and professionals alike. With complete and detailed coverage of portfolio analytics and modeling methods, this book is unique in its multi-disciplinary approach. Investment analytics involves the input of a variety of areas, and this guide provides the perspective of data management, modeling, software resources, and investment strategy to give you a truly comprehensive understanding of how today's firms approach the process. Real-world examples provide insight into analytics performed with vendor software, and references to analytics performed with open source software will prove useful to both students and practitioners. Portfolio analytics refers to all of the methods used to screen, model, track, and evaluate investments. Big data, regulatory change, and increasing risk is forcing a need for a more coherent approach to all aspects of investment analytics, and this book provides the strong foundation and critical skills you need. Master the fundamental modeling concepts and widely used analytics Learn the latest trends in risk metrics, modeling, and investment strategies Get up to speed on the vendor and open-source software most commonly used Gain a multi-angle perspective on portfolio analytics at today's firms Identifying investment opportunities, keeping portfolios aligned with investment objectives, and monitoring risk and performance are all major functions of an investment firm that relies heavily on analytics output. This reliance will only increase in the face of market changes and increased regulatory pressure, and practitioners need a deep understanding of the latest methods and models used to build a robust investment strategy. Portfolio Construction and Analytics is an invaluable resource for portfolio management in any capacity.

Be prepared for the arrival of automated decision making Once thought of as science fiction, major corporations are already beginning to use cognitive systems to assist in providing wealth advice and also in medication treatment. The use of Cognitive Analytics/Artificial Intelligence (AI) Systems is set to accelerate, with the expectation that it’ll be considered ‘mainstream’ in the next 5 – 10 years. It’ll change the way we as individuals interact with data and systems—and the way we run our businesses. Cognitive Analysis and AI prepares business users for the era of cognitive analytics / artificial intelligence. Building on established texts and commentary, it specifically prepares you in terms of expectation, impact on personal roles, and responsibilities. It focuses on the specific impact on key industries (retail, financial services, utilities and media) and also on key professions (such as accounting, operational management, supply chain and risk management). Shows you how users interact with the system in natural language Explains how cognitive analysis/AI can source ‘big data’ Provides a roadmap for implementation Gets you up to speed now before you get left behind If you’re a decision maker or budget holder within the corporate context, this invaluable book helps you gain an advantage from the deployment of cognitive analytics tools.

The past decade has seen a dramatic increase in the use of Bayesian methods in marketing due, in part, to computational and modelling breakthroughs, making its implementation ideal for many marketing problems. Bayesian analyses can now be conducted over a wide range of marketing problems, from new product introduction to pricing, and with a wide variety of different data sources. Bayesian Statistics and Marketing describes the basic advantages of the Bayesian approach, detailing the nature of the computational revolution. Examples contained include household and consumer panel data on product purchases and survey data, demand models based on micro-economic theory and random effect models used to pool data among respondents. The book also discusses the theory and practical use of MCMC methods. Written by the leading experts in the field, this unique book: Presents a unified treatment of Bayesian methods in marketing, with common notation and algorithms for estimating the models. Provides a self-contained introduction to Bayesian methods. Includes case studies drawn from the authors’ recent research to illustrate how Bayesian methods can be extended to apply to many important marketing problems. Is accompanied by an R package, bayesm, which implements all of the models and methods in the book and includes many datasets. In addition the book’s website hosts datasets and R code for the case studies. Bayesian Statistics and Marketing provides a platform for researchers in marketing to analyse their data with state-of-the-art methods and develop new models of consumer behaviour. It provides a unified reference for cutting-edge marketing researchers, as well as an invaluable guide to this growing area for both graduate students and professors, alike.

An accessible and engaging introduction to the study of probability and statistics Utilizing entertaining real-world examples, A Probability and Statistics Companion provides aunique, interesting, and accessible introduction to probability and statistics. This one-of-a-kind book delves into practical topics that are crucial in the analysis of sample surveys and experimentation. This handy book contains introductory explanations of the major topics in probability and statistics, including hypothesis testing and regression, while also delving into more advanced topics such as the analysis of sample surveys, analysis of experimental data, and statistical process control. The book recognizes that there are many sampling techniques that can actually improve on simple random sampling, and in addition, an introduction to the design of experiments is provided to reflect recent advances in conducting scientific experiments. This blend of coverage results in the development of a deeper understanding and solid foundation for the study of probability and statistics. Additional topical coverage includes: Probability and sample spaces Choosing the best candidate Acceptance sampling Conditional probability Random variables and discrete probability distributions Waiting time problems Continuous probability distributions Statistical inference Nonparametric methods Least squares and medians Recursions and probability Each chapter contains exercises and explorations for readers who wish to conduct independent projects or investigations. The discussion of most methods is complemented with applications to engaging, real-world scenarios such as winning speeds at the Indianapolis 500 and predicting winners of the World Series. In addition, the book enhances the visual nature of the subject with numerous multidimensional graphical representations of the presented examples. A Probability and Statistics Companion is an excellent book for introductory probability and statistics courses at the undergraduate level. It is also a valuable reference for professionals who use statistical concepts to make informed decisions in their day-to-day work.

A comprehensive look at how probability and statistics is applied to the investment process Finance has become increasingly more quantitative, drawing on techniques in probability and statistics that many finance practitioners have not had exposure to before. In order to keep up, you need a firm understanding of this discipline. Probability and Statistics for Finance addresses this issue by showing you how to apply quantitative methods to portfolios, and in all matter of your practices, in a clear, concise manner. Informative and accessible, this guide starts off with the basics and builds to an intermediate level of mastery. • Outlines an array of topics in probability and statistics and how to apply them in the world of finance • Includes detailed discussions of descriptive statistics, basic probability theory, inductive statistics, and multivariate analysis • Offers real-world illustrations of the issues addressed throughout the text The authors cover a wide range of topics in this book, which can be used by all finance professionals as well as students aspiring to enter the field of finance.

Harness the power of social media to predict customer behavior and improve sales Social media is the biggest source of Big Data. Because of this, 90% of Fortune 500 companies are investing in Big Data initiatives that will help them predict consumer behavior to produce better sales results. Written by Dr. Gabor Szabo, a Senior Data Scientist at Twitter, and Dr. Oscar Boykin, a Software Engineer at Twitter, Social Media Data Mining and Analytics shows analysts how to use sophisticated techniques to mine social media data, obtaining the information they need to generate amazing results for their businesses. Social Media Data Mining and Analytics isn't just another book on the business case for social media. Rather, this book provides hands-on examples for applying state-of-the-art tools and technologies to mine social media – examples include Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Wikipedia, Reddit, Flickr, Web hyperlinks, and other rich data sources. In it, you will learn: The four key characteristics of online services-users, social networks, actions, and content The full data discovery lifecycle-data extraction, storage, analysis, and visualization How to work with code and extract data to create solutions How to use Big Data to make accurate customer predictions Szabo and Boykin wrote this book to provide businesses with the competitive advantage they need to harness the rich data that is available from social media platforms.

A comprehensive guide to learning technologies that unlock the value in big data Cognitive Computing provides detailed guidance toward building a new class of systems that learn from experience and derive insights to unlock the value of big data. This book helps technologists understand cognitive computing's underlying technologies, from knowledge representation techniques and natural language processing algorithms to dynamic learning approaches based on accumulated evidence, rather than reprogramming. Detailed case examples from the financial, healthcare, and manufacturing walk readers step-by-step through the design and testing of cognitive systems, and expert perspectives from organizations such as Cleveland Clinic, Memorial Sloan-Kettering, as well as commercial vendors that are creating solutions. These organizations provide insight into the real-world implementation of cognitive computing systems. The IBM Watson cognitive computing platform is described in a detailed chapter because of its significance in helping to define this emerging market. In addition, the book includes implementations of emerging projects from Qualcomm, Hitachi, Google and Amazon. Today's cognitive computing solutions build on established concepts from artificial intelligence, natural language processing, ontologies, and leverage advances in big data management and analytics. They foreshadow an intelligent infrastructure that enables a new generation of customer and context-aware smart applications in all industries. Cognitive Computing is a comprehensive guide to the subject, providing both the theoretical and practical guidance technologists need. Discover how cognitive computing evolved from promise to reality Learn the elements that make up a cognitive computing system Understand the groundbreaking hardware and software technologies behind cognitive computing Learn to evaluate your own application portfolio to find the best candidates for pilot projects Leverage cognitive computing capabilities to transform the organization Cognitive systems are rightly being hailed as the new era of computing. Learn how these technologies enable emerging firms to compete with entrenched giants, and forward-thinking established firms to disrupt their industries. Professionals who currently work with big data and analytics will see how cognitive computing builds on their foundation, and creates new opportunities. Cognitive Computing provides complete guidance to this new level of human-machine interaction.