個案資料

Company and Industry Research: Strategies and Resources is a five-chapter book published by Business Expert Press in 2016 and written by Hiromi Kubo, business and economics librarian at California State University, and Thomas J. Ottaviano, business and economics librarian at Cornell University's Mann Library. The focus of the book is to provide practical guidance for conducting effective business research. The authors describe important characteristics of research and emphasize the need for evaluating information gathered. They review several sources of business, industry, and general research. They also offer practical insight into the elements of a business plan. Chapter 1, Introduction to Company and Industry Research (6 pages), reviews the current environment of technology-enabled access to information. The authors emphasize the need to evaluate information gathered in a business setting because it is used strategically. They warn that the abundance of information available adds to the difficulty of determining the quality of the information. They identify the characteristics of business research as focused on problem-solving, time-sensitive in nature, and the need to be cost-effective. They also differentiate between primary research, which is original data directly from the source, and secondary research, which is data gathered from published sources. They also provide a brief explanation of five strategies for effective research: determining what information to gather, developing a plan, locating reliable information, asking experts, and analyzing information before acting.

• Market analysis
• Business plans