The world is in a constant state of flux, and business operates right at the edge of all that change. The curated-for-clicks content of most social media won't catch the niches and nuances needed to plan and execute business strategies, so including quality news sources in your daily routine is imperative.
One of our best news sources here at SFU is Factiva — a database of over 33,000 news publications. Factiva is always expanding to ensure good coverage of emerging trends in all countries and industries. In fact, during the last year Factiva added more than 1,800+ new sources from 84 countries & territories in 23 languages! Here are just a few examples of the new content available to you...
One of our BUS 345 sections (hi, D100!) will be doing some primary market research focused on meal kits this term.
The students have a huge amount of flexibility when it comes to choosing the research questions they want to explore, so it would be difficult to suggest specific resources and search strategies for them. Instead, I thought I'd try a different approach:
I'll highlight just a few of the possible research questions to give you a sense of the range of research that goes into marketing (section A below). I'll aim to highlight the amount of lateral/creative thinking that a market researcher has to do, but my list won't be anywhere near as detailed as that of a real marketer.
Then I'll list the guides and blog posts that cover the sorts of resources I'd normally use to answer such questions (sectionB).
Finally, I'll return to the target product and talk about research resources that are specifically about meal kits (section C).
One of our marketing classes (BUS 345 E100) is going to be doing some primary research on alternative protein products& consumers again this semester.
In support of that class, I've listed some key resources, but students in other classes may also want to use this post as a case study to learn about some of the powerful market research tools available to SFU researchers. Bon appetite!
Another video on business research skills & resources!
As you can probably figure out from the title, this one is about using news sources to gather information about what a company has been doing so that you can infer the company's strategy, rather than relying solely on the company's explicit statements or third-party analysis. That is, focusing on actions vs. words.
And it includes a brief demonstration of one of our main news article databases here at SFU: Factiva.
Frequent readers of the BUEC Buzz -- and most students in the classes I visit -- will know that I consider the use of good news sources to be imperative for business research.
You really can't deal with strategies, marketing plans, investments, etc. without being on top of all that is changing in our world... and that means exploring beyond the curated-for-clicks content of most social media.
And frequent readers will also know that one of our best news sources here at SFU is Factiva which covers over 33,000 news publications from around the world, including the Wall Street Journal.
To be frank, what was interesting for me about this article wasn't the content -- as much as I like streaming Netflix shows while I fold the laundry, I don't really need an ongoing blow-by-blow of its subscriber numbers. No, what caught my attention was that this would be a good chance to highlight a couple of my favourite SFU Library resources: Factiva and Statista.
A couple of our marketing classes are going to be doing some primary research on alternative protein products& consumers this semester.
In support of those classes, I've listed some key resources, but students in other classes may also want to use this post as a case study to learn about the powerful market research tools available to SFU researchers. Bon appetite!
With both the Olympics and our newest database (Factiva) on my mind, it seemed a natural next step to check out what Factiva might have to offer if I was researching the Olympics...
a. Russian News
Wouldn't it be interesting to see how the Olympics is discussed within their host country? Are there complaints about costs? Does nationalism override objectivity? Do issues that are reported outside of the country get coverage internally?
