* Entrepreneurship / TEAM Resources Guide: Home

Best Databases for Industry Research (in all areas except consumer goods - for that, see further down)

The first group of databases are keyword searchable:

Next: multi-industry resources, but you must pick-from-a-set-list (not keyword searchable).

Best databases for consumer-oriented Market/Industry research:

If you can't find a nice pre-packaged report... then it's off to the article databases for you! Seriously, the article databases are your best bet for picking up anything that's been mentioned in trade publications, news, etc. about [your topic]. Go to the resources listed under the tab "Business News & Articles."

Company Directories of particular interest to Entrepreneurs: 

The big guys - who your company might be when you grow up!

Of particular interest to international students, or US students wanting to work abroad:

Databases that provide News - newspaper articles, press releases, and similar:

Databases that provide Articles - arranged by the amount of popular vs. scholarly content they offer.

(i.e. ABI/Inform offers the greatest mix of contents: news wires, popular magazines, trade journals, reports, and some scholarly journals. ScienceDirect and the  Web of Science contain only articles from scholarly, highly-researched, peer-reviewed journals. Strangely enough, they still fall in alphabetical order. )

Databases that provide Working Papers (and other different kinds of documents):

"Hot Topics" data/stats:

US Business and industry stats:
 

US Demographic (consumer/market research) data:

International Data and Statistics, including Import/Export data

Local funding sources:

Venture Capital information sources

(Both how you might find it, and how other people have found and used it)

Should you need this information: SEC filings, including 10-Ks

The USPTP provides a pretty understandable explanation of the Patent Application process.

Once you have:

•  Done all your idea generation and screening
•  Checked Company Directories to see if anyone is already working in the area of your idea
•  Done the Industry & Market Research for your idea
•  Scoured the Articles & News Databases for bits of information if you didn't find an industry or market research report
•  Checked for Patent/Intellectual Property (IP) information, if appropriate...

Then you're ready to write a business plan. Here are some sources for Sample Business Plans:

You'll need to create a budget and financial projections for your plan, so it might help to look at the financials for other, similar companies (that might represent "what you want to be when you grow up"), find out what the typical ratios are for your line of business, and then explore which Angel Investors or Venture Capital firms might be appropriate to approach with your plan:

Financial Ratios

Who is funding the current start-ups and private companies?
 

All Purpose Search Tips for Simon Students

This is a quick handout of research and search strategies for databases, suitable for all situations. Take a moment to review it!

Some resources to get you started:   

(Note: if you are taking a social entrepreneurship course, check the Library Resources page for that course in Blackboard for additional and more specific resources)

"Navigation" videos:

Tip sheets for various databases:

1. Cite your sources!
2. Special notes regarding use of resources during summer internships

If you use any data or text from any of the databases in a report or project - Cite The Source, that is, indicate where the information came from. In the text of your report, or if you use an image or graph from a report, something as simple as:

IBISWorld Industry Report OD4302

is fine. In your list of "Sources" at the end of the paper/PPT/whatever, the full citation might look like this:

Petrillo, Nick. "Craft Beer Production in the US." IBISWorld Industry Report OD4302, September 2014.

Why is this important?

1. It's the right (honest, legal, appropriate) thing to do, but also
2. It makes your work more credible: it makes you look smart.

If you want a formal set of guidelines, consult the Harvard Business School Citation Guide. But anything is better than nothing (just be consistent).

Use of Licensed Databases While on Paid Summer Internships

Vendors sell the University of Rochester Libraries access to their databases at rates that reflect a deep discount compared to what a commercial enterprise would pay. Information providers sell us this content on our contractual guarantee that we will use the data strictly for academic or research purposes. If you are working on as a paid intern over the summer, we are sorry, but you are not supposed to use any of the library databases to conduct research on behalf of the company for which you are working.

During the academic terms, please keep the following guidelines in mind:

• In your written communication with colleagues outside of the University, you may excerpt only insignificant portions of reports, articles, and other documents for distribution to company employees or anyone else (i.e., do not email data, entire documents, or reports to anyone outside the University of Rochester).
• Never allow others direct access to Rush Rhees Library resources (i.e., do not share your NetID credentials with anyone).
• Always attribute accurately and completely all data and excerpts you include in your reports (see notes above).

Capital IQ is an exception to the above guidelines. Capital IQ does not allow its database to be used at all with outside organizations, and cuts off MBA access to the database in the summer.