Researching @ Eller

For fall semester, I am trialing some hours over in the McClelland building. Initially, these will be drop-in times and I hope to be able to continue that.

I will be in McClelland 314 (from the elevators, turn right, head down the hall and it's on your right about halfway to the Accounting offices), twice a week.

Mondays, from 12:00 to 2:00 PM and Wednesdays, from 10:00-12:30, There will be 3 days I won't be available: October 20 & 22 and November 26.

Stop by and see me if I can help you with your research!

SuperBrands - American's Top 2000 Brands from BrandWeek

And

Digital Marketing Expenditures, a Forrester study (registration required)

One of the blogs I regularly read is the Biz Ref Desk - I use a lot of what I find there regularly. This one looks to be something a lot of you might want to use for some brief industry information: The 2008 Industry Outlook from Deloitte & Touche.

16 industry sectors are covered by the report:
Aerospace & Defense
Automotive
Banking & Securities
Consumer Products
Energy & Resources
Health Sciences
Insurance
Media & Entertainment
Private Equity, Hedge Funds & Mutual Funds
Process & Industrial Products
Real Estate
Retail
Technology
Telecommunications
Tourism, Hospitality & Leisure
U.S. Federal & State Government

The report doesn't have detailed information, but will give you a quick look at the trends some industry sectors are facing today. They might be one of several good sources if you're working on a SWOT analysis of a company.

Sometimes I like to scroll through our full list of databases to see what's new that I missed and what might be useful to the students and faculty I work with. Well, that's one of those things that's happened recently.

The Building Green Database says that:

We are an independent company committed to providing accurate, unbiased, and timely information designed to help building-industry professionals and policy makers improve the environmental performance, and reduce the adverse impacts, of buildings.

I've gotten a lot of questions about green construction, and this is helpful - it won't answer the detailed financial questions, but when you're exploring the industry or a specific product, this can be a good place to take a look.

Now, the page itself might not be running the newest tools, but I'm becoming enamored of the Business History Books website. If you're looking for resources about the history of business. In some cases, the books are about specific companies, industries or people, while other books look at business in a broader sense.

This is good site to start with if you just want to browse some potential books online. The links on the site go to Amazon, so if you don't want to purchase a book but still read it, check the UA catalog first to see if we have it here before you buy it.

For those of you in BNAD 314, you're working on the Google case right now. This one has a lot of options, depending on the group that you're in within your class. You may be in one of six groups within the class. No matter which group you're working in, you have specific goals that you're looking at. Rather than go through each specific goal for each group, what I'm going to do here is give you some ideas for places you might look within each group. That doesn't mean that the information one group uses won't be good for another group, so feel free to look at any of the options.

• The Value Line Research Center - this will give you a good history of what the financial performance has been


• Mergent Online: This is another financial database, that has some narrative historical information along with financials. .


• Look in ABI/Inform or Business Source Complete for SWOT analysis - try searching for Google AND SWOT within them. SWOT stands for Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, Threat and can help you see what analysts see as the challenges, regardless of the group you're in.


• Also try searching these databases for reactions to announcements of Google's introduction to China. Since you know the date that Google started filtering searches in China, you can limit your search to dates around that time and get immediate reactions or limit it for any items since that time to see reactions over time. Another really good place to search for this will be Lexis Nexis Academic.



• Search Engine Watch, especially the Ratings & Statistics Archives to see statistics for different search engines for the last few years. Also try searching this site to see what kind of information they have available that might be helpful.


• The Electronic Frontier Foundation, Reporters Without Borders or Human Rights Watch. All of these have made statements about Google's filtering in China and they've worked to get their message out. No matter which group you're working in, but especially if you're in the group focusing on these groups, you want to read what they have to say so you can respond reasonably.


• Government information: Try searching USA.gov and Google UncleSam . If, for example you search Google UncleSam (this searches sites in the top-level domain .gov) for China google, you might find statements like "China Uses Internet as Tool of Repression, says Congressman Smith". Like with Human Rights Watch, you need to know what statements have been made in order to address concerns. You can also try Lexis Nexis Congressional and try searching for Internet AND China, or Internet AND Human Rights or other terms that you can come up with. Another place to search for legislation is Thomas, but remember that in order to search Congresses that earlier than the current one, try going to the Search Multiple, Previous Congresses" link in the Find More Legislation section.

Remember, like with the Tech Trends project, what I've suggested are only starting points. You may very well have other sources that you find incredibly helpful, depending on the direction your group is taking. If you find a great source and want to share, feel free to post it in the comments here, but if you don't want to share with other groups yet, that's ok.

If you're having trouble, especially over the weekend and you need help fairly quickly, contact the Reference Desk in person, phone or chat. If you're still struggling, you can contact me, but I may or may not have email access this weekend, so start with the reference desk for faster help.

Have research questions for me? Topics you'd like to see a post on? Leave a comment on this entry and I'll respond here. If you really want an email response, you can leave your email address in your comment or email me at carscaddonl@u.library.arizona.edu.

Be aware that even if you email me, if I get enough questions on similar topics, I'll likely use the general topic to develop posts on a general theme - I won't share your name or specifics about your project, though.

If you're using Twitter already or if you'd like a way to get updates from me via text message, follow the UABizLib account on Twitter. I'll be using this to send quick updates when there are things going on at the library, with new databases or information that you might find helpful.

If you're not using Twitter or maybe you're not sure what it is, take a look at Twitter in Plain English from Common Craft.

There's a database trial running right now for some sources from Bureau van Dijk. Through March 31, we have access to their Mint Global, Orbis and Zephyr databases.

Both Mint and Orbis contain the same data, but have different search interfaces, while Zephyr covers M&A information. Global and private company information is included in both databases. Access is limited to on campus, but take a look at the resources, and let me know what you think of these resources.

MintGlobal

Orbis

Zephyr

Researching companies and industries are essential parts of your market research. In order to evaluate the marketing and advertising that a company is already doing - or plan future marketing - you need to understand both the company you're working with, it's competitors and the industry forces that surround it.

My focus for these is going to be on resources available through the libraries, primarily online, as we have a number of subscription options.

Company Research

I think of there being two main types of information about companies - financial information (easily found for publicly held companies, more difficult for private companies) and everything else. Financial information is useful because it helps you evaluate how strong a company is - it's certainly not the only indicator of strength in a company or the strength of their marketing campaign, but poor returns are certainly an indicator of a problem somewhere. There are three databases the library subscribes to that you can use to find this information for publicly held companies, Mergent Online, Thomson Research and the Value Line Research Center.

All three of these let you search by the ticker symbol - assuming the company is publicly traded, begin in one of these databases.

For privately held companies, I'd start in the Million Dollar Database. While it only has those businesses with over $9 million in sales or 180 employees, it is a starting point.

Another company information database option is ReferenceUSA - this one is not a database that the university subscribes to, but the Pima County Public Library does, and you have access if you have a public library card. Or, if you live in Pima County and don't have a library card, you can request a database access code through their online form.

Sometimes, it's going to be much more difficult to find information about companies - especially smaller companies. There are ways to find information, though you'll need to dig a little deeper. Go to the trade publications (available through ABI/Inform and Business Source Complete), and see what's being written there. If you know where the company is located, especially if it's in a smaller city or town, try searching the newspapers there. If the company is one that's growing, especially if they're adding more jobs, often that will be noted in the local newspapers.

For industry information, one of my first stops is usually the Standard and Poor's Industry Surveys - these are items that we receive in print. The most recent are kept on the lower level in the Information Commons at HG 4921.S68 - if you need help finding them, ask at the Info Commons Reference Desk. These give a very broad overview of many industries (though not all) and will give you good background information.

You can also take a look at the industry surveys in the Value Line Research Center - click on Standard Edition on the left side of the main page, then on the V to browse the list of industries. These are basic overviews of the industry, with an eye toward investing in them, so they'll be looking at them mainly from a financial point of view.

You can also go to the article databases - try searching for the industry name very broadly - for example, use soda or soft drinks. In the links at the top of your results, you'll often see Industry Analysis as a link or SWOT - both of these are excellent for gathering background information. The SWOT analysis in particular, even if it's not about your specific company but about a competitor - the threats and opportunities will often be similar!