BUS 491 (Business Intelligence Resources)

List 3 limitations to Google as a research tool.

-Results are tailored based on previous searches -Algorithm changes often without notice -"Organic" results pushed to bottom of page

Trade publications:

-are not usually peer-reviewed. -can use a lot of jargon. -are usually published by trade associations or professional organizations. -are good sources for identifying experts in a specific industry.

External sources of company information include

-investment banks -newspapers

A trade publication

-is a magazine or journal that caters to a specific industry or trade/profession such as architecture, food&beverages or retailing -is often the best source of news and insider information on any given industry or sector -can be a great way to identify experts in a niche market

T or F: Students can cut and paste graphs and data tables from reports in business databases as long as they cite them properly. Failure to do so is plagiarism

True

T or F: While most U.S. businesses are sole proprietorships, they only generate a very small percentage of all business revenues.

True

T or F: Using a reference title like an encyclopedia or handbook as a starting point for research will provide good general overviews of a topic as well as list the most important works in a field.

True

When searching for articles in ABI/Inform or Business Source Complete, using subject headings (as opposed to key words) will yield a smaller, more focused set of results.

True

Create a search string using two Boolean operators and at least one search modifier for the following research question: How is online shopping affecting retail businesses' profitability?

"online shopping" or e-commerce and profit

List the two databases covered in class that contain scholarly business articles in them. Of the two, which contains the Harvard Business Review

-ABI/INFORM -Business Source Complete (contains HBR)

In the white paper, 'It Takes More than a Major..." employers listed several skills as essential for success in the workplace. List three

-Ability to conduct research and use evidence based analysis -In-depth knowledge in a major -Apply learning in a real-world setting.

Sources for international business news include all of the following

-Factiva -Press Reader -Global Edge

What are financial ratios and how can they be helpful in conducting a company analysis? List a library resource that provides financial ratio data

-Financial ratios are accounting ratios that measure a company's operating performance as well as financial stability. They can be used to compare a company against a competitors in it's industry as well as how it compares to the industry over a period of time. -eStatement Studies is a source that provides financial ratio data

Good sources for information about corporate culture include:

-Glassdoor.com -Lists like Forbes' "Best Places to Work in 2015"

Free websites with comprehensive information about countries and their economies include

-Global Edge -CIA World Factbook

List three differences between Google, Google Scholar and library databases like ABI/Inform and Business Source Complete.

-Google excludes parts of deep web beyond what is indexed -Anyone can be an author on google -Library databases provide full text access unlike Google Scholar where access has more hoops to jump through.

Sources for industry analysis include all of the following

-Marketline Advantage -Mergent First Research -IBISWorld

Library databases that contain country analyses and political risk assessments include all of the following

-Political Risk Yearbook -Business Monitor International -Economist Intelligent Unit (EIU) - Country Profiles

Sources for private company information include all of the following

-PrivCo -Articles in journals and newspapers ...especially local business news in the area where the company maintains its headquarters. -the company's website

The following website characteristics are generally reassuring and should inspire some level of confidence in the information provided:

-Provides full citations to sources used -Methodologies outlined and explained

List 3 ways that data differs from statistics

-Raw Data v Summary of it -Machine v human-readable -Software/formatting required: SPSS/STATA v Word, Excel, Etc.

Market research

-is the process of assessing the viability of a new product or service through techniques such as surveys, product testing and focus groups. -allows a company to discover who their target market is and what these consumers think about a product or service before it becomes available to the public. -may be conducted by the company itself or by a third-party company that specializes in market research. -should be less expensive and time consuming than fully developing and bringing to market a new product or service that will generate little or no interest from potential customers

Quality business information can be hard to find on the web, because...

-reliable and timely business information is costly to produce and is usually sold rather than posted for free on the web. -sometimes information is presented as neutral when in fact it is being presented to sell something to you -a lot of business information is proprietary - meaning that it is about a company's internal processes or procedures and is owned by the company itself. Therefore, the information is not readily available to anyone outside the company

List 4 characteristics or features of an article that indicate it is scholarly in nature.

1) Article written by a researcher, professor, or other academic typically for other scholars 2) Rarely have ads but do have other illustrations, charts, or graphs 3) Reviewed by other scholars and experts before they are published 4) Contains original research and studies unlike other types of articles.

List three questionable research practices and how they could potentially undermine the value of scholarly works.

1) PLAYING WITH THE NUMBERS is a questionable research practice. It sometimes includes leaving out the outliers of an experiment which essentially is lying about the actual results of data. The line of what is reasonable and unreasonable is clearly indisguishable so that definitely undermines the validity of the work. 2) PLAYING WITH THE MODEL is another questionable research practice. Often time many variables go into the model of measuring a construct. Researchers can often play with these models to produce results that are favorable for authors in terms of producing a publication. Placing selling value over integrity undermines work once again. 3) Final questionable research practice is PLAYING WITH THE HYPOTHESIS. People sometimes HARK (hypothesizing after results known) which is somewhat decepting the reader into thinking the author already knew what was going to happen before he or she tested it.

Different elements of an environmental scan

1) Political 2) Economic 3) Social 4) Technology 5) Legal 6) Environmental

Ineffective web searching on the part of its employees costs companies millions of dollars every year. Therefore, enhancing your research and web searching skills will not only set you apart from your colleagues, but could also save money for the company you work for. List three potential negative outcomes of employees not finding reputable information.

1) Poor decisions based on faulty informations 2) Wasted money due to multiple business units working on the same thing 3) Lost productivitity because an employee doesn't know find information due to lack of central index.

The industry reports in Marketline Advantage contain a five forces analysis. These five forces include all of the following

1) Threat of substitutes 2) Buyer Power 3) Degree of rivalry 4) Supplier Power 5) New entrants

List the 9 building blocks of the business model canvas.

1) Value Propositions 2) Customer Segments 3) Channels 4) Customer Relationships 5) Key Activities 6) Key Resources 7) Key Partners 8) Revenue Streams 9) Cost Structure

List five typical uses of business information in a corporate setting.

1)Compiling lists for mailing 2) searching for a business partner 3) selecting a new site location 4) market analysis 5) research and development

Quality business information can be difficult to find on the web, because

1)Reliable and timely business information is costly to produce and is usually sold rather than posted for free on the web. 2)There is often an advertising angle to business information. Information is presented as neutral or factual when it is in fact being presented to sell you something 3)A lot of business information is proprietary...meaning that it is about a company's internal processes or procedures and is "owned." It is therefore not readily available to anyone outside the company 4)Some business information is designed to entertain, rather than inform, an audience.

Indeed.com

A good website to use to determine if a particular company is currently hiring in your field, is

What is a lagging economic indicator and how are they used to determine the direction of an economy? Provide one example of a commonly referenced statistic that is a lagging indicator

A lagging economic indicator is a factor that changes after the economy has started to follow a pattern or trend. An example of a lagging indicator is the unemployment rate. This makes sense because it could show the economy is experiencing increased unemployment but it won't indicate it until the trend of people losing jobs has started

20-F

Annual report for foreign companies operating in the United States.

10-K

Annual report. Includes audited annual financial statements.

The following citation is for a journal article: Kotter, J. (1996) Leading change. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of publication). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume number, page range. doi:0000000/000000000000 or http://doi.org/10.0000/0000

This resource has analysis of specific industries within foreign countries as well as SWOT analyses for countries

BMI Research

Financial ratios for small businesses can be found in the following resource

BizMiner

Which source is the best to use to help you determine which company owns a particular brand?

Brands and Their Companies

The best library resource to determine corporate hierarchy and who owns whom is

Corporate Affiliations

8-K

Current report. Must include information about major events that could impact value of the stock.

T or F: If you paraphrase someone else's ideas or thoughts with your own words, you do not need to cite them in the text of your paper or in a list of references.

False

DEF 14A

Definitive proxy statement. Sent to all shareholders annually ...includes executive compensation information.

What's the difference between demographics and psychographics?

Demographics are the research of markets based on variables such as age, race, or sex. Psychographics are ways that look at how people live, what interests them, and what they like.

Statista contains detailed statistics on a wide range of topics. Longer, more in-depth reports are also available in Statista and they are called:

Dossiers

T or F: Factiva contains the full-text of Harvard Business Review articles.

False. The full-text of Harvard Business Review articles is only available in Business Source Complete. This includes the full run of the HBR back to 1922

T or F: Private companies, because they are smaller, are easier to research than public companies

False. The size of a company has nothing to do with its status as a public or private company. Private companies can be quite large and public companies can be smaller. Furthermore, private companies are generally harder to research because they are not required to divulge as much information to the government and other entities as are public companies

T or F: The industry analyses in Marketline, IBISWorld and Mergent First Research are all the exactly same because they rely on the same sources of information

False. They may be similar but they are ultimately different in many ways because they rely on different sources and/or employ different methodologies

What is the open access movement and why is it important?

Free immediate online availability of research articles. Recently, journals have become digitalized and prices have risen rapidly. The people who actually do the research have to pay outlandish prices to keep providing us with higher quality research. To become educated, we need access to everything that is out there. We don't know which articles are relevant until we read them. We need access to information to keep progressing in research

List three types of organizations that create external information about companies.

Government Agencies, News Organizations, Other Companies

Forms 3, 4 and 5

Insider transactions.

A good source for 1) explanations about general business concepts and 2) definitions of business terms, is:

Investopedia

What is the best resource for information about business etiquette and cultural norms in different countries

Kiss Bow or Shake Hands

The best and most comprehensive source for detailed financial information about a public company is:

Mergent Online

The Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system has been updated and generally replaced by this newer classification system

NAICS

List two characteristics of each of the following: popular business magazines, trade journals and scholarly articles. Which of the three types are most appropriate for college-level papers and why?

Popular Business Magazines 1) Typically lack full citations 2) Written to a general Trade Journals 1) Articles about industry or company and tailored to people within those industries 2) Purpose is to share discuss news, trends, and products Scholarly Articles 1) Written by and for those within academia 2) Narrow in search and contain original research Scholarly articles tend to be most appropriate for college-level papers because the material has been reviewed by those qualified within the field. Using heavily cited context increases the validity of one's work.

10-Q

Quarterly report. Includes unaudited quarterly financial statements.

S-1

Registration statement filed by a company before an Initial Public Offering (IPO)...often referred to as a "Prospectus."

Public companies must file annual and quarterly financial reports with this U.S. government agency

Securities and Exchange Commission

A public company

Sells stock to the general public. Also, there is still information considered "proprietary" that even public companies do not have to divulge publicly. This includes things like trade secrets and organizational charts.

The SWOT framework is one way to analyze a company. SWOT stands for

Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats

T or F: Individual companies are generally classified into industries based on their largest sources of revenue

True

T or F: Investors monitor when a company's insiders buy or sell large amounts of their stock as it can be a signal of (good or bad) things to come.

True

T or F: Market research reports focus on customers while industry reports focus on the providers/manufacturers/suppliers

True

Snopes.com

a fact-checking site that can be used to spot "fake news"

Equities Research Analyst

a financial professional who researches stocks and makes recommendations to shareholders on whether to buy, sell or hold their shares

THOMASNET.com

a free online directory of manufacturing companies that can be used to source products and identify possible suppliers for a small business

Trade Association

a group of individuals and /or companies in a specific industry organized to promote common interests.

web browser

a software program installed on your computer locally that is used to access websites. Examples include Firefox, Safari and Chrome

The L.A.M.P. method

a way to develop a prioritized list of target companies that you may want to work for in the future

Most of the databases and information resources covered in class.

are only available to MSU faculty, staff and students, can be accessed off-campus, are not freely available to anyone on the internet, and are used by researchers and analysts in the corporate world

Peer review

designed to assess the validity, quality and often the originality of articles for publication. Its ultimate purpose is to maintain the integrity of research by filtering out invalid or poor quality articles

The business model canvas

is a tool that can be used by anyone seeking to launch a new product or company to describe and plan their business. provides a framework for researching the assumptions entrepreneurs often make when designing their businesses. should be revisited frequently and modified based on changes in any aspect of the business or market. is designed to be less comprehensive and less taxing to complete than a traditional business plan

Organizational charts

proprietary company information that will generally not be available to people outside the company.

The "invisible web"

refers to resources not found by general purpose search engines because the websites are too dynamic, too private or behind a pay-wall. It represents the vast majority of information available on the web about any given topic and includes the information contained in library databases.

The "knowledge-based economy"

refers to the recent trend towards greater dependence on knowledge, information and high level skills in the economy at large, and the need for ready access to all of these by businesses

If a company you are researching is a subsidiary of another company, you should concentrate your research efforts on ________

the Parent Company

Environmental scanning

the careful monitoring of an organization's external environments to detect opportunities and threats that may influence its current and future plans