Statistics Summary - Research Paper Example

Statistics summary Definition of statistics Statistics is a branch of science that involves gathering of data, organizing the data, analysis, and interpretation of the data for knowledge development and communication of developed knowledge to involved stakeholders. It also defines numbers as used in measurements (Mann, 2010). Types and levels of statisticsThere are two major categories of statistics, quantitative statistics, and qualitative statistics. Quantitative statistics defines variables with numeric data and is further divided into discrete variables, which can only assume some numeric values, and continuous variables, which can assume any numeric value.

Quantitative statistics however defines categorical measures that only identify data but does not induce a numeric value (Mann, 2010).There also exist four levels of statistics, nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio levels. Nominal level only has identity property. Ordinal level of measurement has both identity and dimension properties, interval level identifies statistics and measures dimension with equal distance between consecutive variables while ratio level of measurement has a true zero besides properties of interval level of statistics (Babbie, 2010).

Role of statistics in business decision makingThe role of statistics in business decision making involve research and evaluation of data on alternatives to a problem with the aim of understanding the alternatives for informed decision (Mann, 2010).Problem situations in which statistics could be usedStatistics could be used to investigate effectiveness of a marketing strategy on an organization’s level of sales. Identification of significant effectiveness in a pilot study, through test of hypothesis, would suggest implementation the strategy while lack of significant effectiveness would mean that the marketing strategy would not promote sales and should not be implemented (Mann, 2010).

ReferencesBabbie, E. The basics of social research. Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning.Mann, P. Introductory statistics. New Jersey, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.