Pardee Management Library

MBA Integrated Course Project:
Research via Pardee Library

Always start at the Pardee Home page!

Jump to:

 

A. Major Links

1. Instructions for Off Campus Connection:
Whether on or off campus, all you need to do is authenticate yourself when prompted for your BU Username and Kerberos password. (For off campus connections, you, of course, must have an ISP installed.)

2. Ask a Librarian:
Send an email reference question to us.

3. Find Business Articles & Data
Use these pages to naviagate to a useful database for the type of information you need.

4. Browse Databases A-Z:
You know the name of the database you want to use and want to go directly to it.

5. eJournals Locator:
You have the the title and year of the journal or the volume and issue number and want to read it online via BU.      

6. Online Catalog:
You are looking for books in Pardee Library. Select the "keyword" option.

7. Guides & Tutorials:
You are looking for more information on topics.
SM323 New Product Development
Marketing and Advertising Guide
Citing Your Sources: Business

B. Sources for Company, Industry & Strategy

1. Factiva Works best with Firefox.

        Demos:
        1) Keywords - searching how to 2) Advanced - refining searches
        3) Options

 

2. Mergent Online (BU Online) Works best with Internet Explorer.

Put in your company name or ticker. When the company page opens you'll find:
company highlights, history, joint ventures, business, property, subsidiaries, long term debt, executives, capital stock.

For Ratios - go to Company Financials up to 15 years.  
Ratios: Tutorials - Find Company Ratios Using Mergent Online.

For Segments - go to Company Financials to find Business Analysis by revenues and operating income and Geographic Analysis.

For Overview Reports - select CREATE REPORTS on the toolbar, then select PRE-DEFINED REPORTS.  

For Company Comparisons - select CREATE REPORTS on the toolbar and then COMPARE COMPANY AGAINST INDUSTRY or COMPARE COMPANY AGAINST CUSTOM GROUP.     

For Edgar Reports-Select EDGAR tab for latest 25 filings. For more than these you must do a mergent "Edgar Search".

Tip:
See the company's 10K for a Business Description - Item 1 and Management Discussion - Item 7. This is where the company discusses its operations and its management.

3. Mintel (BU Online) Remember to log out after using.
          Description and uses of this database. 

Mintel Reports contain the following information:
Contents
Executive Summary
Market Drivers
Market Size & Trends
Market Segmentation
Supply Structure (brand and market share)
Advertising & Promotion
Retail Distribution
Consumer (demographic information)
Future & Forecast
Tip: You'll need to create an account to use Mintel for academic use only, and accept a user agreement. Must use BU e-mail address to sign in. You can download batches of reports, sections and individual graphs.

4. Industry Survey Locator

Get an overview of how an industry operates, the trends, and more. Locate the links to  industry surveys on all industries in our databases. The most notable industry surveys are the S&P Industry Surveys, which are available at the Reference desk, 3rd floor of Pardee Library.

Many Online Databases are included in the Locator:
Datamonitor Industry Surveys   
Encyclopedia of American Industries 
Hoover's Industry Snapshots 
Mergent Online (Industry Reports tab)    Works best with Internet Explorer.
Mintel Reports
S & P Industry Survey (covers 52 industries) available at the Pardee Reference Desk
Value Line available at the Pardee Reference Desk

5. Tablebase      

Tip: Retrieves tables. Good for ranking, market share, advertising, some distribution.

6. Investext for Analysts' Reports  

Tip:
Put in company name and "initiating coverage" in the keyword box to limit to the longer reports. If you get too few reports, remove the term "initiating coverage".
For industry information you can select your industry from the drop down and put "primer" in the keyword box. Or you might try: Choose an industry and put "primer" in the keyword box or choose an industry & put "sector" in the keyword box.

7. Associations Unlimited       

Trade associations are an excellent source of industry information. This database provides association names on the national, regional, state and local levels.

 

C. Sources for Industry & Market

1. Industry Ratios -

Ratios: Tutorial- Find Industry Ratios Using Ratio books:

a. Financial Studies of the Small Business (Available at Reference Desk)
b. Industry Norms and Key Business Ratios (Available at Reference Desk)
c. IRS Corporate Financial Ratios (Available at Reference Desk)
d. Almanac of Business and Financial Ratios (Available at Reference Desk)
e. R.M.A Annual Statement Studies (Available at Reference Desk)

f. Factiva (Works best with Firefox): Ratios for Company, Segment, Index

Factiva Demos:
1) Keywords - searching how to 2) Advanced - refining searches
3) Options

2. MRI+ Mediamark Internet Reporter Works best with Internet Explorer.

A market research survey which provides the advertising industry with detailed demographic and marketing segment data on media audiences.
Tip: You'll need to create an account to use Mergent Online for academic use only, and accept a user agreement. Must use BU e-mail address to sign in. You can download reports to Excel.

Take at look at our Business Tutorials: MRI+ Mediamark Internet Reporter for information on how to:
1.  To register and access MRI database.
2.  Explanation of Media Report Types
3.  How to Create and Read MRI+Mediamark Reports
others:
4. Sample MediaMark Usage Report (.PDF)
5. Sample MediaMark Report (.PDF)
6. How to read an Internet Reporter Report (.PDF)

3. DMA Response Rate Report, Available at Reference Desk
Broken down alphabetically by industry - reports on effectiveness of past marketing campaigns.
Section II- Top line findings- compares averages for the 25 industries studied.

4. DMA Statistical Fact Book, Available at Reference Desk
Buying trends of different population segments broken down by type of advertising.
Specific breakdowns of advertising costs, broken down by type of advertising.

5. Market Share Reporter, Reference Room, Industry Table, 1A
An annual compilation of reported market share data on companies, products, and services. Organized by SIC code.

6. Business Rankings Annual in Reference Room, Industry Table, 1A

7. Class/Brand (CD for 2005 - can check out at Access Desk)
Lists by a product classification scheme dollars spent by companies on advertising in ten media. Look to the end of each classification code to find totals for that class.

8. Company/ Brand, in Reference Room, Marketing Table, 1B.
Annual. Lists, by company and brand name, dollars spent on advertising in total and broken down into ten media categories.

9. Ad Summary in Reference Room, Marketing Table, 1B.
Annual. Ranks the top 100 companies by advertising expenditures across ten different media types. Ranks the top 1000 companies by total advertising expenditure. Also lists advertising expenditures by an industry classification scheme, in total and across ten different media types.

10. ClickZStats - Stats Toolbox

11. Advertising Age Supplements:
like:
Digital marketing & media:fact pack 2007 (hard to find information)

12. Marketing Book Collection
Pardee Reference - Marketing Section
These books offer detailed breakdowns on various consumer segments within the United States. They are all grouped in the Reference Room on the 3rd floor of Pardee, Table 1 Side B. These are the groupings by data:
American Spending (Books in this category supplement MRI+ MediaMark Reporter for segmentation)
Demographics/ Psychographics
Demographics/Market Segments (Generation)
Demographics/Market Segments (Income, Region, Groups)
Demographics/Market Segments (Gender)

Lifestyle Market Analyst
Pardee Reference - Reference Desk Section
X HF 5415.33 U6 L54 Annual.
Section 1 - data for geographic markets, both on general demographics (age, income, etc.) and on lifestyles (proportion of households with people interested in gardening, etc.).
Section 2 - demographic data on those identified with a particular lifestyle group.
Section 3 - demographic and lifestyle data on individual consumer market segments (e.g., 35-44 year-olds with $50,000-$74,999 income.)

13. Consumer Expenditure Survey - Bureau of Labor Statistics
The original source for some of the statistics in above texts.

 

D. Top databases for articles in business and trade journals.

Frequently used journals linked via eJournal Locator.         

Boston Globe| Business Week | Economist |Financial Times| Fortune | Forbes | Harvard Business Review | MIT Sloan Management Review| New York Times | Wall Street Journal

Top Marketing Journals are:
1. Trade Journals such as:
Advertising Age | Adweek |American Demographics| Brandweek |Mediaweek |
2. Scholarly Journals such as:
Journal of Brand Management| Journal of Advertising Research | Journal of Marketing Research | Marketing Research| Sales & Marketing Management |

1. Factiva Works best with Firefox.

Demos:
1) Keywords - searching how to 2) Advanced - refining searches
3) Options

 

2. Business Source Complete

Tip:
When searching for company information in BSP, put in company name (and in the box on the right side, from the drop down menu, select "Company Entity") and then put your terms in the remaining boxes.
Tip:
When searching for industry information in BSP, put in industry name (and in the box on the right side, from the drop down menu, select "Subject" or "Abstract") to get fewer hits and then put your other terms in the remaining boxes.
Tip:
To narrow down a search in BSP, try doing a very broad search first, then when you get your first hits, select the type of publications you want to look at from the following:

academic journals - trade publications -magazines - swot analyses - industry profiles - market research - product reviews

Then put in another term into the search box. These terms will be connected by the Boolean "AND".

Reports in BSP to also point out:
Company Datamonitor Reports for SWOT Analyses  
Company Spotlight Reports in MarketWatch
New Product Reviews in MarketWatch

 

3. ABI Inform/Global   User's Guide

Tip:
When searching for company information in ABI: put in company name (and in the box on the right side, from the drop down menu, select "Company/Org") and then put your search terms in the remaining boxes.
Tip:
When searching for industry information in ABI: put in industry name (and in the box on the right side, from the drop down menu, select "Subject" or "Abstract" to get fewer hits) and then put your other terms in the remaining boxes.

4. General Business File ASAP

Global company and industry news in trade journals. Select SIC to search by SIC code to obtain broad industry information information. Includes Analyst Reports but the most up-to-date are in Investext Plus.

5. LexisNexis Academic

Tip:
Try searching from the top screen first.
Tip:
For law suits and legal issues, select "Legal Research" then "Legal News."

6. Conference Board Research Online Collection

Best Practices - Branding, Customer Management, Corporate Organization, Marketing & Sales, Strategic Management & Planning, Performance Measurement.

7. Google Scholar

8. Business Databases of the Boston Public Library - (BPL Online)

Who can get a library card?
Online form to get a Boston Library eCard - good for 6 months

The following online database via the BPL- not at Pardee - are recommended:
Business & Industry- a lot of articles, covers a lot of brands
Business and Management Practices  - some company specific information

 

 

Weighted Average Cost of Captial (WACC)

To obtain a company's current WACC use the Bloomberg terminal located in Pardee Library.

The input shortcut code is:  Ticker <F8 Equity> WACC <GO>
Type in your company's ticker hit the yellow F8 Equity function key, type in WACC then hit the green GO or return key.