This web page is intended to help you with your MSE 405W assignment. Also refer to the research guides for Business, Mechatronics, Computing Science and Engineering Science for general information.
Here are the presentation slides & the class handout as well.
Academic research vs. market research
For your assignment you need to write a business plan. The research you will be doing for this assignment could be different from the kind of research you are used to. While you may also be searching academic databases to find peer-reviewed literature on your topic, there are a wide area of other resources to consider. Start by taking a look at the following research guides.
Marketing Research
SFU Library guide: lists resources for market overviews, competitors, business conditions, and demographics - a great starting point for your research.
International Market Research
Country reports, multi-country comparison sources, industry reports, demographics, industry analysis, and more.
Tracking the details of the relevant industry as well as of companies in the field (competitors as well as possible customers) can play an important role in estimating demand. The following SFU Library guides list some key resources in these areas.
Key resources
The guides mentioned above will point you to many resources. Here are some key resources to start with:
IBISWorld : analysis of several global industries providing insight into current and future industry performance, trends, and operating conditions.
Passport GMID : a database with market reports offering strategic analysis of consumer lifestyles, service and retail markets, global industry overviews, and in-depth consumer markets, in addition to data on specific products, companies, and countries.
Factiva & TechNavio : Factiva is a great resource for information from business newspapers, industry publications, company reports, and more, with profiles of companies all over the world. TechNavio contains reports (accessible through the Factiva database - once you click on the TechNavio link, choose the "Modify Search" option to search for reports on specific industry sectors) on all kinds of technological and engineering-related industries.
Business Source Complete : here are a few good subjects areas to start with in BSC -
Industrial marketing
Industrial procurement
New products
Product differentiation
Marketing strategy
Business Plans Handbook : search 29 volumes of actual business plans from a variety of industries to see specific examples. (Note - if the link here doesn't allow you to access these handbooks, you can still get to them via the Gale Virtual Reference Library. Once you log into this resource, scroll down to the 'Business' section and either scroll to the right or click on the 'view all' link. To get into these books, click on the link for the Business Plans Handbook series.)
There are also several useful books in the library on writing business plans, entrepreneurship and the management of new businesses. Here are just a few:
Some other general books on entrepreneurship and business plans have call numbers that in the HD 62.5 range, so you can browse the shelves to look for anything relevant. We have many of these as e-books as well.
Writing & citing
Writing: For assistance with writing for business take a look at the business writing guide.
Citing: For your assignment you will need to use the APA style to cite your sources. Take a look at the general APA guide for general assistance or at the customized guide for citing business sources with APA.