BUSINESS RESEARCH

METHODS
Prof.Radhika Kiran Kumar
Indira Institute of Business Management
 2

Descriptive Statistics
 3

Analysis of data
» Critical examination of the data for studying the
characteristics of the object under study and for
determining the patterns of relationship among
the variables relating to it’s data using both
quantitative and qualitative methods.
Data can be analysed either manually or with the
help of a computer
 4

Types of Analysis
» Manual Data Analysis: This can be done if the
number of respondents is reasonably small, and
there are not many variables to analyse.
» Data Analysis Using a Computer:-If you want to
analyse data using computer, you should be familiar
with the appropriate program. In this area,
knowledge of computer and statistics plays an
important role. The most common software is SPSS
for windows.
 5

Steps in Analysis
» Construction of statistical distribution-The first step involves
construction of statistical distributions and calculation of simple measures
like averages, percentages, etc.
» Compare two or more distribution-The second step is to compare two or
more distributions or two or more subgroups within a distribution.
» Study the nature of relationship of variable-Third step is to study the
nature of relationships among variables.
» Find the factor affect the variable-Next step is to find out the factors
which affect the relationship between a set of variables
» Inferences-Testing the validity of inferences drawn from sample survey by
using parametric tests of significance.
 6

Types of Analysis
» Statistical analysis may broadly classified as:

» Descriptive Analysis

» Inferential Analysis
 7

Descriptive Analysis

» Descriptive Analysis- quantitatively describing the main features of a

collection of data. They provide simple summaries about the sample
and the measures.
 8

Descriptive Analysis
» Univariate analysis: Describing the distribution of a single variable by using
statistical method /tools e.g. Central tendency (mean, median, and mode) dispersion
(range and quartiles, standard deviation and skewness and kurtosis). Characteristics of
a variable's distribution may also be depicted in graphical or tabular format,
histograms.
» Bivariate analysis-the analysis of two variables (often denoted as X, Y), for the
purpose of determining the empirical relationship between them. E.g. ratios,
percentage table or a scatter plot graph and simple correlation coefficient.
» Multivariate analysis- involves observation and analysis of more than one statistical
outcome variable at a time. I.e. Multiple relations between multiple variables are
examined simultaneously
 9

Inferential Analysis
Inferential analysis-is concerned with making predictions or
inferences or judgement about a population from
observations and analyses of a sample. That is, we can take
the results of an analysis using a sample and can generalize it
to the larger population that the sample represents.
» There are two areas of statistical inferences
i. Statistical estimation and
ii. Testing of hypothesis.
 10

Descriptive Statistics
 Measures of position (also referred to as
central tendency or location measures).
 Measures of spread (also referred to as variability
or dispersion measures).

 Measures of shape.
 11

Measures of Position
 Position Statistics measure the data central tendency.
 Central tendency refers to where the data is centered.
 Despite the common use of average, there are different statistics by
which we can describe the average of a data set:
• Mean.
• Median.
• Mode.
 12

Measures of Central
tendency(Mean)
» Data Set:3,4,3,1,2,3,9,6,5,7,4,8

» Mean(X): x1+x2+x3+…..+xn = Σ Xi
» n n
Median

» Data Set:3,4,3,1,2,3,9,6,5,7,4,8

 A useful statistic due to its robustness.

 Ensure that the values are ordered before calculation.

 With an even number of values, the median is the mean of the two
middle values.
Mode
» Data Set:3,4,3,1,2,3,9,6,5,7,4,8
» Answer?

 The value that occurs the most often in a data set.

 It is rarely used as a central tendency measure
 It is more useful to distinguish between unimodal and multimodal
distributions
 15

Measures of Dispersion
 The Spread refers to how the data
deviates from the position measure.
 It gives an indication of the amount of
variation in the process.
 An important indicator of quality.
 16

Example
» What is the mean and median of the following
data sets:
» 5,5,5,5,5
» 3,4,5,6,7
» 1,3,5,7,9
 17

Measures of Dispersion
» There are different statistics by which we can
describe the spread of a data set:
» Range
» Interquartile range
» Standard deviation
 18

Range
 The difference between the highest and the lowest
values.
 The simplest measure of variability.
 Often denoted by ‘R’.
 It is good enough in many practical cases.
 It does not make full use of the available data.
 Data Set:3,4,3,1,2,3,9,6,5,7,4,8
 19

Inter Quartile Range

» 3rd quartile – 1st quartile(75th percentile – 25th percentile)

 Standard deviation
» Most widely used measure of dispersion.
» The average distance of the data points from their own mean.
» A low standard deviation indicates that the data points are clustered
around the mean.
» A large standard deviation indicates that they are widely scattered
around the mean.
» The standard deviation of a population is
denoted by “ϭ” ∑ ( x – x )2
=
n-1
 21

Exercise
 Find the mean, median, range and standard
deviation for the following set of data:

 2.8, 8.7, 0.7, 4.9, 3.4, 2.1

 22

Measures of shape
 Data can be plotted into a histogram to have a
general idea of its shape, or distribution.
 The shape can reveal a lot of information about
the data.
 23

Measures of shape
 Two common statistics that measure the shape of the
data:
⋄ Skewness.
⋄ Kurtosis.
 24

Skewness
 Describes whether the data is distributed symmetrically around
the mean.
 A skewness value of zero indicates perfect symmetry.
 A negative value implies left-skewed data.
 A positive value implies right-skewed data.

Normal distribution:
symmetrical Bell-shaped curve
 25

»Positively skewed:
»tail on the right

Negatively skewed:
tail on the left
 26

Kurtosis
 Measures the degree of flatness (or peakness) of the
shape.
 When the data values are clustered around the middle,
then the distribution is more peaked.
• A greater kurtosis value.
 When the data values are spread around more evenly,
then the distribution is more flatted.
• A smaller kurtosis values.
Kurtosis

Platykurtic Mesokurtic Leptokurtic

 28

THANKS!
Any questions?