Industry ratios...

Industry ratios are useful when analyzing a company and its financial performance in the context of the competition and the overall industry.

One of the well-known resources in the area is from D&B (Dun and Bradstreet). At USFSP, we have access to the online database version "Key Business Ratios" (Under "Databases by title/subject", select subject=business and economics; sub-category=ratio databases.). We also have copies of the corresponding annual print publication, "Industry Norms and Key Business Ratios" (HF5681.R25 I52) in the reference collection on the first floor.

Other important resources for business ratios include the following:

• "IRS corporate financial resources", Schonfeld & Associates (HF5681.B2I2)
• "Almanac of business and industrial financial ratios", Leo Troy (HF5681.R25 T68)
• "RMA annual statement studies", Robert Morris Associates (HF5681.B2R6)

All of these publications are available on on the first floor of the USFSP Library.

Each of these resources has different strengths or features that may be more suited to your needs for any specific project. For example, some may cover more industries or include more businesses (public-only or public & private companies); define or divide industries differently (i.e. by SIC codes and/or asset sizes); and include more or different financial ratios. You may also need to consider how the data is collected -- from SEC filings or IRS filings, etc. -- and for how many years the data is available.

Harvard Business School - "HBS Working Knowledge"

As another example of the resources available through business schools...

"HBS Working Knowledge" is a forum for business executives, educators, (and students!) to follow the research and work being done by the over 200 Harvard Business School faculty. You can sign-up for a weekly email newsletter or subscribe to the RSS feed to follow new content in your reader.

Content on the site includes articles, working papers, Q&A, case study discussions, and podcasts. The focus is on practical business advice and ideas. You can browse the most recent features or search by topic, industry, geography, date or keywords.

As an example, the feature article on the site today is entitled, "HBS Cases: One Laptop per Child", which discusses a recent HBS case study and the opportunities and challenges behind this initiative addressing global poverty.

Facebook - the good, the bad, the ...

For those of you who use or follow Facebook, you've likely heard about the controversy over "Beacon", a new advertising program introduced by Facebook about a month ago. Users protested when they discovered that by ignoring small pop-up messages, they were opting-in to an advertising feature that monitors and shares their online behaviors. A petition protesting Beacon was signed by over 50,000 Facebook users. Today, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg apologized and announced the feature will be changed to recognize ignoring a message as opting out of the service. The story is reported here in the NY Times.

On a different Facebook note, a recent blog posting by Bill Ives at his "Portals and KM" blog discusses how the software firm Serena has instituted Facebook as the platform for its company intranet. (Serena has 800 employees in 18 countries.) Employees go to specific people on Facebook to get the information they need; company documents are stored by firewalls.

Harvard professor Andrew McAfee discusses this blog posting as "must read" to understand the potential business value of Facebook and other social networking and Web2.0 tools.

Work and Family resource and newsletter...

The Sloan Work and Family Research Network at Boston College (with funding from the Sloan Foundation) is a great resource for students in human resources or general management courses. There is a section on relevant state laws and statutes, searchable by topic or geography, and a "literature database" of journal articles. "Statistics" offers factsheets on topics such as elder care, child care, family leave, etc. "Syllabi" is a collection of work-family syllabi from faculty in a variety of disciplines. There is also an annotated list of links to other relevant organizations and web sites.

At the top right of the home page there is a link to subscribe to their bulletins to stay informed on work-family issues.

http://wfnetwork.bc.edu/index.php

Trendwatching...

For those in marketing and following consumer trends, the folks at Trendwatching.com published their "8 trends to capitalize on in 2008" (http://trendwatching.com/briefing/):
1. status spheres
2. premiumization
3. snack culture
4. online oxygen
5. eco-iconic
6. brand butlers
7. MIY make it yourself
8. crowd mining

While it may be a bit difficult to interpret these catch phrases, the narratives include interesting tidbits on consumer behavior and consumer trends. Many of the examples provided are global. There were several products/services I hadn't heard about -- like Wrangler laundromats at outdoor concerts in the Netherlands ("brand butlers") or Porsche baby strollers (premiumization).

You can also sign up to receive their newsletters (and ads/promotions) via email.

Social Networking and Philanthropy, Nonprofits...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/12/giving/12social.html?ex=1352610000&en=220a611bbfcf88e0&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

A recent article in the NYTimes entitled "My Network, My Cause" discusses the roles of social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace in the world of philanthropy and non-profits. For example, the "Causes on Facebook Project" enables Facebook users to promote their favorite causes and then solicit and track donations. Mycommitment.org, a project of the Clinton Global Initiative, is another example of non-profit causes in the Web2.0 world.

While some in the non-profit world are enthusiastic about the potential of social networking for fund-raising, others point out that the internet still represents only a very small percentage of all giving.

...Some interesting ideas for those that are working on marketing strategies for non-profits...

"OFFSTATS" - Official Statistics on the Web

I recently became aware of a very useful site "OFFSTATS" - Official Statistics on the Web (http://www.library.auckland.ac.nz/subjects/stats/offstats/) - from the University of Auckland Library in New Zealand.

This site organizes free statistics from official sources -- governments and large international organizations such as the United Nations. From the main page you can get a list: 1) by country (A-Z); 2) by Region (e.g., Arab States, Latin America, etc.); or 3) by a list of topics such as banking, climate, or trade. Most (not all) sites are in English; many offer downloadable text or data files. Because the sites are limited to official statistics, there is not a lot of junk to sort through.

Very user-friendly!

Featured Database - ICPSR Data Access and Analysis

Need datasets?
I plan to regularly post about a library database that may be useful for business research. Today's featured database is "ICPSR Data Access and Analysis." I briefly demonstrated this database recently for students in Business Statistics II.

To locate this database from the USF Libraries main page, select "Databases by title/subject" and type in ICPSR. When you click on the link, the database will open in a new window. This is a subscription database to which we have access because USF is a member institution of "ICPSR" - the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research.

To begin, I recommend you read through the brief "Data Use Tutorial". It will explain some important features of the database. For example, you will need to do a quick, one-time registration in order to view or download any data.

You then have two primary options for locating datasets -- search or browse. Scroll down to "Browse", "Data by Subject" for a list of subject categories. Try Education / United States -- and you should receive a set of about 351 datasets. The datasets are sorted by title but you may want to change the sort option to date or relevance. For each dataset title, there is a link to a "description" of the data, a "download" feature, and "related literature". (Some will also offer "online analysis").

"Description" includes the scope of the data, methodology, and subject keywords. "Download" options include SAS, SPSS, or ASCII formats. Most of the files will be zipped. (Be aware that some of these files are huge!). "Related literature" is a nifty little feature that will take you to a few studies or reports that have used the specific dataset.

You can also search by keyword -- try fishing, camping, abortion..... and see what datasets might be available for those subjects.

In addition to ICPSR, a few other resources for locating datasets (and/or statistics) include:
1) From my list of web sites on del.icio.us (selecting the tag "statistics")
http://del.icio.us/marcylibrarian/statistics

2) From the Business Reference portion of the USFSP web site:
for general information on statistics and data sources: http://www.nelson.usf.edu/reference/subject_guides/business/statistics_data.html

3) OR, for the Business Statistics II course guide (handout):
http://web.nelson.usf.edu/reference/documents/BusStatistics.html

trade & industry associations - National Retail Federation, etc.

Just a reminder that trade and industry associations are often a great place for industry statistics and other valuable information. (Some of the information may be for members only; some may be available at no cost.) There are thousands of associations out there on almost every imaginable industry, market, or area of interest. One standard resource for locating these associations is the Encylopedia of Associations -- the most current print edition that we have in the USFSP library reference collection is from 2004 (HS17 .G332). We also have a subscription to the current electronic version -- select "Databases by title/subject," and type in Gale's Ready Reference Shelf. Or, you can also quickly identify trade and industry associations by doing an advanced search in Google.

As an example of a trade association that may be useful to your research, take a look at the National Retail Federation web site: http://www.nrf.com. Select the "industry information" tab and note the types of research conducted by NRF and the resources available. Many of the reports are available for purchase. However, some information is available at no cost. For example, under Research/Retail Industry Research, some of the free reports available include: 2007 Global Powers of Retailing; 2006 Online Retail Holiday Best Practices Report; Retail Horizons; and Retail Industry Indicators. Press releases for many of the other pay-reports are also available.

Tampa Bay Business Journal, etc.....

Just a reminder for those of you whose business research or assignment may be focused on the Tampa Bay area. The Tampa Bay Business Journal is a local business publication that may be of interest. Unfortunately, current articles from this publication are not included in any of our library databases. Instead, you need to go out to the public web site from American City Business Journals, where you can search all of their local business journals here, or just the Tampa Bay Business Journal here. Free registration is required in order to access all of the features. You can narrow your search by keyword, company, industry, date, or geographic market.

Older articles from the Tampa Bay Business Journal (1999-2004) are available in ABI/Inform Dateline, one of our library subscription databases. This database is a great resource, with over 175 local and regional (U.S.) business publications included.

Translation tools

Below are some translation tools and services which were reviewed in a recent "InfoTip" from Mary Ellen Bates' email newsletter, available at www.BatesInfo.com/tip.html

FYI, I also use wordreference.com - it's not quite a full-blown translation tool but very handy for quick phrases and sentences. It's available as a plug-in gadget that I keep on my igoogle page. Another nice feature is that you can link to a forum where there is discussion of proper usage of particular phrases, etc.

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* Omniglot <http://www.omniglot.com> is a portal listing language- and translation-related resources. For translation, you can access online dictionaries as well as online translation and localization tools, many of which offer some free use.

* FreeTranslation <http://www.freetranslation.com>, from SDL International, offers text and web site translation in several European and Asian languages. SDL offers a desktop translation tool for subscription - a good investment if you have an ongoing need for translation.

* PROMT <http://www.online-translator.com/text.asp?lang=en> offers a free translation tool that enables you to translate text, web sites and email from and into English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Russian. The quality of the translation is comparable to that of FreeTranslation.

* WorldLingo <http://digbig.com/4tqjr> provides free translation of up to 150 words for text, Web pages and email covering 15 languages. In addition, you can direct the tool to use specialized online glossaries when generating the translation.

* A very useful website is freelang.net <http://www.freelang.net/>, where you can download or view language dictionaries. The site lists translation resources, including tools for hand-held devices and free online translation software. The site also offers free human translation for smaller amounts of text.

[Many thanks to Barbara Verble, researcher and information developer, who contributed this month's InfoTip.]

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Online video sharing sites

For those of you that like to post, watch, or track online video clips, here's a link to a great comparison chart of what's currently out there:
http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=112147

Beyond YouTube, there are over 100 other sites listed here!

(from a posting by Gary Price at the Resourceshelf.com)

"Readers make good workers"

Our dean recently forwarded this article from the Orlando Sentinel to all of us in the library. I think there's an important message here for those business students preparing for the business world - whether as employee or employer...

--------------------
Readers make good workers
--------------------

Employers find that those who seldom read for pleasure frequently lack essential skills.

Diane Stafford
Mcclatchy Newspapers

September 26 2007

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Do you read for pleasure?

The complete article can be viewed at:
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/classified/jobs/orl-readers2607sep26,0,3372412.story

Visit OrlandoSentinel.com at http://www.orlandosentinel.com

Undergraduate business program at U of MN

There is an interesting article today in InsideHigherEd regarding changes in the undergraduate business program at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota.

Changes include a mandatory travel-abroad component and a new major in non-profit management. Both components are atypical of undergraduate programs. The new curriculum follows considerable research and is said to reflect demand from students, alumni, and the business community.

Nonprofit sector resources...

For those business students working on projects involving non-profit organizations and the non-profit sector, here is a link to a few relevant web sites:

http://del.icio.us/marcylibrarian/nonprofits

Financial information for non-profit organizations is limited. Most non-profit organizations with incomes above $25,000 are required to file a Form 990 with the IRS. One resource for accessing these Form 990s is Guidestar.org, one of the web sites included in the above list. Free registration is required. (Premium subscriptions are also available for $.)

The Foundation Directory, published by the Foundation Center, is a directory of grantmaking foundations by name, subject/issue, and by geography. The web site is included in the above list of links. A print version of the directory is available in the library, first floor reference collection (AS911.A2 F65).

International Business basics and more...

GlobalEdge, the knowledge portal from the International Business Center at Michigan State University, is a great resource for tracking down information on countries and information sources for global business issues. Free registration is required to use much of the site.

The online course modules were recently expanded and updated. Included are modules with basic but essential "doing business in" information for specific parts of the world -- "Doing Business in Africa"; "Doing Business in China"; "Doing Business in Brazil", etc.

These resources would be useful for USFSP students in the Principles of Management course and other marketing and business courses...

If you follow international business, GlobalEdge also offers a monthly email newsletter with country updates and updates on new information services.

Business research web sites...

As my first post on this wobbly "business librarian" blog, I wanted to post the link to my del.icio.us bookmarks:

http://del.icio.us/marcylibrarian

This collection is very heavy on business resource sites, with a few scattered other favorites thrown in for some reason or another. All of the entries are annotated and tagged. The collection is of course continually changing and growing.