JMP® Means Business: Statistical Models for Management

Chapter 1. About Data

• 1.1 Introduction 2

• 1.2 Why Data Are Needed 4

• 1.3 Sources of Data 5

  • 1.3.1 Existing Data versus New Data 5

  • 1.3.2 Existing Data 6

  • 1.3.3 New Data 7

• 1.4 Data Scales 11

  • 1.4.1 Ratio Scale 13

  • 1.4.2 Interval Scale 13

  • 1.4.3 Ordinal Scale 13

  • 1.4.4 Nominal Scale 13

  • 1.4.5 Likert Scale 14

• 1.5 Summary 15

• 1.6 Problems 16

• 1.7 Case Study: Green's Gym—Part 1 17

1.1 Introduction

Data are an essential ingredient in learning about the business world and solving business problems. The list that follows gives you a flavor of the numerous business situations requiring data:

• In monitoring the delinquency rate of credit card accounts, a bank needs data on delinquencies and the demographic factors that might have contributed to them.

• In evaluating the performance of ...