Which of the following is a common tool used in business analytics?

The correct choice highlights a range of widely used tools in the field of business analytics that are designed specifically for data visualization, analysis, and statistical computing. Tableau and Microsoft Power BI are both powerful tools for creating interactive dashboards and visual representations of data, which are essential for making data-driven decisions in a business context. Google Analytics is a robust platform for analyzing web traffic and user behavior, allowing businesses to optimize their online presence. R is a programming language that is particularly well-suited for statistical analysis and graphic representation of data, making it a staple in the analytics toolkit.

The other alternatives either include tools that are not typically associated with analytics or overly restrict the types of tools considered. For instance, spreadsheet programs like Excel are indeed common, but they are not the sole tools for advanced analytics, and suggesting that Excel is not commonly used overlooks its vast applicability in data analysis. Additionally, including Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat mischaracterizes the tools typically employed in the analytics domain, as these are primarily used for document creation and PDF management rather than data analysis. Lastly, while programming languages like Python are critically important in analytics, they should not be viewed in isolation as the only means of conducting business analyses, as business analytics relies on a variety of tools and platforms that