How to find... - Friday 25 February 2022

Find complementary market data

In our “how to find information about a business sector” highlight, we explained how to find full market reports on our databases. Unfortunately, not all market reports are available in full text in our subscriptions.

This concerns particularly the market reports form MarketResearch.com, but also some industry profiles, for example those of iCrowdNewswire. Though those resources aren’t so much cited in academic articles as other like Statista for example (more than 200 citations in CAIRN articles and books, versus only 1 for MarketResearch.com, 165 000 vs 36 000 in Google Scholar), the subjects they cover can be of interest for certain research. 

There are ways to counter this lack of data, by using other complementary resources available at the Learning center.

For example, this study from MarketResearch.com about COVID impacts on businesses : “COVID-19 Outbreak-Global”. The study appears many times in Factiva results (more than 100) only because it is fragmented into small parts, one for each industry. An equivalent study can be found in GlobalData Explorer: "Coronavirus (COVID-19): Executive Briefing".

For some market studies about very specific industries, there won’t automatically be an equivalent in GlobalData Explorer or other databases for market studies. This one for example : “Automatic Soap Dispenser Market - Global Outlook & Forecast 2021-2026” from MarketResearch.com or this one : “Geothermal Power Market 2022, Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast to 2028" from iCrowdNewswire. In that case, a useful recommendation could be to consult articles on the same topics and build one’s own market study this way. Open access sources on the web will also be of interest, like professional syndicates, consulting companies, etc. 

20 results can be found on automatic soap dispensers in BSC : 

And thousands of results on geothermal power market in Google Scholar, of which the first ones are in full text and quite pertinent : 

We could complement this presentation with, rather for french speakers, the following case study: there is a market study that is of great interest for one’s project in Xerfi, but the Learning Center doesn’t subscribe to that part of the database. What can learners do in that case ?

For example, this study on freelance platforms : "Les stratégies des plateformes de freelances, de jobbing et de crowdworking".

Books and articles from professionals or academics on this subject will help you identify important sources as they often refer to them in their endnotes. 

First, a search on Discovery will point to books that could be a good synthesis on the subject : 

This book for example contains more qualitative analysis, but it will help you identify sources for quantitative data as it refers to a lot of sources in its endnotes.

Extract from p.254. Notes 

Discovery also enables learners to perform a first level search on academic and professional articles at the same time.

But this should be completed with specific searches on Factiva in english (applying the “and” operators between words) Europresse in french, and for academic or industry studies : CAIRN in french, Google Scholar in english.

And, as market data are the most valuable in this context, Statista will usefully complement your search : 

Any question? Contact the K-lab librarians, we are here to help!