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Industry Research: Business Articles - Core Sources

Guide for directing users to key, accepted business resources at Billington Library for researching industries in terms of trends, competition, challenges, opportunities, or performance.

Buzz Words

A challenge to formulating a focused, searchable topic is also that of vocabulary and finding helpful words to convey what you wish to find in business literature writings.  Here are some keyword suggestions which might be paired with finding industry information and to get you thinking.

  • market share
  • size
  • growth
  • trends
  • innovations
  • forecast
  • analysis
  • development (s, ing)
  • outlook
  • emerging
  • productivity or production
  • demand
  • market(s)
  • decline
  • SWOT [any words, Strenghts, Weakness, Opportunity,Threat)
  • regulation (or regulatory)
  • competition
  • peer(s)
  • employment

 

More ideas ???  Do some reading of the literature, have a martini, and your creative thinking for new ideas will emerge.

Selected Business Databases for Industry Information


Finding current business articles should be fairly easy given e-resources cited below; the key is your identifying key concepts you are hoping an article addresses and in formulating your search strategy.

For example, one key concept for an industry might be:  dairy industry logically paired with either: analysis or trends or forecasts.  Use quotation marks to capture searching "dairy industry" as a word phrase in document records.  Remember, that exact phrase must appear as is in any retrieved snippets of text wording.

"dairy industry" and (analysis or trends or forecasts)   (Example)

Your new, electronic "Best Friend".  Effective searching requires a firm understanding/grasp of what Boolean logic operators - - and, or, not - - do behind the scenes and how they drive results outcome.  Get cozy in your understanding with them.  Read a database's Help module for many other tips & tricks on effective electronic searching and more. You might be surprised at what you learn!

 

ABI Inform

Massive coverage (7,200+ titles) of business periodicals literature, national & international.  Covers company activities, industry information, corporate strategies, business trends, current news, product development, labor issues, etc. It indexes, abstracts and provides selected article text from magazines, newspaper/wire services, academic journals and trade publications.  Wall Street Journal (Eastern ed.) coverage from 1984 to date.

 

Business Insights:  Essentials

 Many business, company & management topics covered.  Includes investment reports on companies, periodical articles, industry overviews, market share, SWOT reports, financial data, and company rankings, etc.  Many articles are full text.

 

Lexis Nexis Academic  

News/newswire services, legal & business information in full text format.  Find varying company information from sources national/international such as Hoovers and Standard & Poor's among many diverse sources and based on various criteria.  Read various SEC filings and reports here.

 

Business Source Premier

 Access to more than 2,300 journals, including 1,100+ peer-reviewed titles back to 1986.  Coverage in all business areas, including company profiles (including SWOT analysis), marketing, management, MIS, accounting, finance, and economics.

 

NetAdvantage

Standard & Poor's NetAdvantage includes ready access to popular S&P research tools including:  Industry Surveys, Stock Reports, Mutual Fund Reports, Bond Reports, Corporation Records, The Register of Corporations, Directors & Executives, and The OutLook, a timely investment advisory report.

 

NewsBank

Full text coverage of many national state-wide news papers, including the Kansas City Star (1991-present).  Other state papers of interest: Emporia, Lawrence, Manhattan, Topeka, and Wichita.

 

Value Line

An independent research company, VL collects data and analyzes performance of New York Stock Exchange and American Stock Exchange treaded securities, along with major NASDAQ stocks and other securities.  Each weekly includes "Ratings & Report" (analyses of about 120 stocks and 4-10 respective industry groupings, "Selection & Opinion" (independent advice on investment risk, safety, volatility, etc), and Summary & Index.

 

Kansas City Business Journal

Key resource covering business news for the KC metro area.  Also covered are job openings, commercial real estate listings, small business information, new business starts, legal filings & liens, people on the move, and the various topic/theme focused  'List of the Top 25...', covering various business, manufacturers, services, public institutions, non-profit agencies, and schools.  The Book of Lists is compiled, issued annually, and available online.