Market Research & Entrepreneurship: Start Here

Your guide for entrepreneurship & market research resources for Lab-to-Market classes & other activities using UC San Diego Library resources.

Start Here

Welcome!

This guide will walk you through the most useful UC San Diego resources for market research. Guide content is arranged by tasks shown in the left nav bar.

NEW LOOK - this layout is new and easier-to-navigate. If you are a returning user, you will be able to find the same trusted contents with tabs oriented on the side now. There are updated listings for e-books, audiobooks, interwoven throughout.

Below are the top three popular resources that serve a number of research needs.

Gale Business Insights
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GBI is a great first-stop for business and management information. It includes information on companies and industries from business and trade journals, academic journals, industry reports, newspapers, newsletters, and classic business reference sources. Search on a company name. In the search results, click on individual companies to open well-organized company profiles.
Business Source Complete
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Dates of coverage vary, some journals back to early 20th century. Abstracts and full text in virtually all subject areas related to Business, Management and Finance. Journal and magazine articles; also books, industry reports, company profiles, SWOT analysis, much more
IBISWorld Industry Intelligence
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IBISWorld contains U.S. and global industry market research reports, including a specialized collection of China Industry Reports. It also provides U.S. business risk ratings, and selected economic and demographic data. Contents are downloadable as full reports or selected elements, such as SWOT analyses, statistical tables and graphs.

Quick Links

Harvard Business Review
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This link goes to the online, fulltext access to HBR in Business Source Complete database.
The Economist
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Offers authoritative insight and opinion on international news, politics, business, finance, science and technology.
FT.com (Financial Times online)
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There is a one-time sign up; get your link here.
WSJ.com
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The Wall Street Journal now available from their website for all UCSD students and employees with single sign-on authentication.
Read today's New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post via Factiva
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Barron's (Factiva)
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Barron’s is a long-standing business news publication focused on financial markets and investing. Content is international in scope, through a "Wall Street" lens. This link searches across all Barron’s content via our Factiva platform, covering the print editions (1987-present) plus the Barron’s Online content (starts 2008), blogs and podcasts (starts 2022). Alternative access points:
- Newsstand format provides the four latest editions arranged section-by-section, and browseable like the original newspaper. From the main Barron’s link, navigate to Home on Factiva’s menu, and scroll to the US Newsstand section. Barron’s is on the fourth dot of the carousel.
- Individual Factiva articles offer translate-on-demand into multiple languages, or text-to-audio for English content.
- There are direct links to Barron’s China (simplified) and Barron’s China (traditional) editions (starts 2021).
- Barron’s Archive is available on ProQuest platform (1921-2010).
- Online access also occurs via ProQuest’s Accounting, Tax and Banking Collection (1988-present). This version allows email alerts for new issues or topics.
- Current print editions are in Geisel Library’s Current Journals area, call number HG1 B3.
UC Library Search
The Library catalog, a one-stop link where you may search for books, articles & more.
Library Hours
Ask a Librarian
Library building floor plans & maps to campus library locations

Background on the Market Research Process

Below are materials from class presentations on market research using UCSD's tools.

StartBlue Handout, April 2024
Quick guide to market research resources for StartBlue incubator.

L2M Slide Deck (Winter 2024)

GPIM 472 Class Guide, Fall 2023
Market research and other useful Library resources
2023 MBA Orientation Slide Deck
Overview of business information sources, and the information infrastructure available to Rady MBA students. Also information and links to Library services and locations of special interest..
2023-24 Fall IGE Handout

Full Grad Students Guide
Here's the general guide. It also has the info about Libby and other public library sources in our region. Ideal for finding access to San Diego Business Journal in our collections, too!
Campus Calendars: Academic & Administrative

Market Research Workshheet
This handout that prompts you to consider many types of intelligence sources. 10/13/20 update: this is the page Adele mentioned in the GPIM 472 presentation
Decision Tree Handout
This document provides a visualization for the types of the market research resources you have available to you.
Business Model Canvas
This widely-used tool for creating your business model. Original source: Strategyzer. See also the e-book Business Model Canvas: Let Your Business Thrive with this Simple Model
Value Propsition Canvas
Another tool from Strategyzer, this one helps you define your market by prompting you to think through your customers in a methodical way.

Getting Started Guides
This is the online version of the handouts I brought to orientation. They are broader introductions to resources that highlight specific, broad disciplinary resources:
- Arts and Humanities
- Biological, Health and Marine Sciences
- Physical Sciences and Engineering
- Social Sciences.

Previous Guides

Tsukuba Workshop Slide Deck, Winter 2023

Winter 2023 Basement Guide to Market Research Resources This guide can be used by anyone in a campus Design Lab program who needs to understand what resources are available for understanding markets and their competition.
Spring 2023 Translational Science Handout Guide for the current capstone cohort in the TS certificate program.

Market Research & Entrepreneurship: Start Here

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