How to do business research on the web

Example Questions That Can Be Answered Using This FARQ

• How do I do research on the web for my business class?
• I need information on (sales, marketing, quality, management, etc.) Where can I find articles on that topic?

Business research can be tricky on the Web. Part of the problem is that people who need to do business research are either affiliated with a school of some kind or a private company, so the people who put business information on the web assume that people do business research can afford to pay for it. Further, the Web does not yet have a lot of full-text journals or trade magazines.

There are, however, sites that do try to put together the best of business research.

Rutgers University Library has a section of their website devoted to doing business research online.

Most states in the United States have online digital libraries with business links. Some of the links listed in these digital libraries may only be accessible to residents of those states, but others are freely accessible. You can find each state's digital library by visiting the IPL's State Digital Library subject collection and looking for the business section of each state's digital library. For example, the Michigan Electronic Library has a section of recommended websites for people doing business research.

There are also non-academic sources for business information. Home Business Research is a commercial that is made for people who are interested in starting their own business and are beginning to do the research from home or their current job. The Small Business Portal is the English equivalent of Home Business Research. Both of these sites with the more practical side of business research, concentrating on topics like finance, accounting, management and marketing.

The last group of sites are from a service called About.com. About is an expert service that uses experts in a diverse range of fields to create sites on their area of expertise. These sites have a large amount of information, organized by subject. You may also contact the guide directly and ask them a question if you do not find our answer on the web site. Two that pertain to business research are Guide to Marketing and Guide to Management.

From the IPL’s own collections, we can offer you a collection of free, online business serials, a list of business associations and good reference sites - all personally reviewed by a member of our staff.

Finally, there is also a relatively new site for accessing an extensive collection of free, full-text articles from business-related trade magazines and academic research journals. It’s called FindArticles.com. In particular, you may want to browse or search through its subsection for Business and Finance publications.

Without the Internet (or, the free Internet anyway) A good place to start business research is at your local library. Very often a public library will have business reference books, directories and subscription-only databases. Among these databases are titles like General Business File and ABI Inform, which are good for general research with some specifics. If you are looking for company or personal information you might want to try Global Access and Hoover’s Online. Some libraries will also have access to Lexis-Nexis, a large news and information database with both general and topic-specific material. Most of these databases have print counterparts with similar information, so be sure to ask for both if you go to the library, and don’t be discouraged if you can’t find what you are looking for in one place.