Hi all! My last post was intended to help a class that will be focusing on digital nomads for their research. This time I'm here to help the other half of the same class — students who are working on a marketing strategy project involving a Portuguese not-for-profit/NGO that operates a cafe, a catering business, and a restaurant.
As with my last post, this one is meant to highlight a few search tricks & strategies, as well as some key resources. There's no way I could cover all possible resources in a single post, even if I knew your specific research questions, so it's the search strategies and tips that are the most important in what follows, starting with a short discussion about how to think about your research goals...
Some of the students in one of Beedie's courses are focusing on digital nomads this term. I thought I'd have some fun and do a fast scan of a few of our many databases to see what I might dig up.
Even if this isn't your current research topic, the sources and perspectives I discuss here may get you thinking about different ways to approach your own research topic and about the wide range of library resources available to support you.
I've mentioned in past posts that you can't really do much in business without paying attention to the news. The world is changing constantly, so in addition to researching what is already known, it's important to also seek answers to such forward-looking questions as...
"What's changing today that might affect industry X, market Y, and consumer-type Z?"
&
"Can I draw inferences about the effects of those changes on my organization, so I can prepare ahead of time (and perhaps ahead of others)?"
I truly believe there is no substitute for regularly reading general, business, and industry news to spot any clues that might help answer such questions. There are, however, shortcuts that can highlight "big picture" changes happening across society and help you understand their potential implications...
Our intrepid BUS 345 students are embarking on a primary market research project focused on meal kits this term, so I thought I'd repost (with updates) a mini-guide I created to support a similar assignment a couple years ago. Even if you aren't in BUS 345, this post might give you a sense of the secondary resources available to establish the context for efficient & effective primary market research.
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 demonstrate 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).
So much of the research done today focuses on resources that can be accessed online, digital information that can be found and analyzed quickly... often from home on a snowy day while wearing pajamas.
As convenient as it is, relying solely on online information introduces a dangerous bias in research. It's true that an increasing amount of older information is being digitized every day, but that is still just a tiny sample of all the information that has been produced. Limiting your research to only online sources introduces a shortsightedness that can affect your conclusions and your decisions.
Paradoxically, I say all that as preamble to a post about yet another online resource, but the database I'm highlighting exists in part to help correct the myopia: GFDatabase.
Our list of data sources here at the SFU Library is constantly growing. Paradoxically, the sheer number of sources can actually make it harder to find the exact source you need!
I thought I'd highlight some of my favourite Business & Economics data sources in a single (long!) post. I'm doing this with a specific class in mind (BUS 430 - Cross-Cultural Management) as I know those students are currently seeking international data to test some hypotheses, but I suspect these sources will be of much wider...
I'm very pleased to announce that SFU instructors, students, and alumni now have unlimited access to over 4200 case studies in the Sage Business Cases database!
Sage Business Cases is a global and diverse collection of case studies designed to help students see theoretical business concepts put into practice. Sage has ensured broad coverage by partnering with well-known business case producers from around the world such as...
A couple years ago I collaborated with our Interactive Arts & Technology Librarian on a series of posts about one of the "wicked problems" of our modern world: sustainability in the textile & fashion industries.
That series was published to support an interdisciplinary cohort of students in our Business of Design program, all of whom were working on projects to change the way fashion and its materials are designed, produced, purchased, and discarded... change of the sort that our world so desperately needs.
The word "change" is key here. The Business of Design program has changed to Make Change Studio, but the students involved are still trying to change the world, and they've returned to the topic of fixing fast fashion.
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!
