Evaluating Data Quality

As you collect secondary research, carefully evaluate it in terms of data quality. Concern yourself with the following issues:

• Reliability relates to how dependable the data is—how current and representative.
• Relevance of the data relates to how well it applies to your specific business problem.
• Adaptability relates to how well the research can be altered or revised to meet your specific business problem.
• Expertise relates to the skill and background of the researchers to address your business problem.
• Biases are tendencies to see issues from particular perspectives. The possibility of biases does not necessarily imply that secondary research is unreliable; however, when using such research, view the data cautiously and keep in mind the ultimate objectives of the researchers.

Some secondary research reports cost thousands of dollars to purchase, whereas others are free. You have a variety of options to choose from with secondary research, including white papers, industry publications, business periodicals, scholarly journals, external blogs, and business books. Each of these types of secondary data has benefits and drawbacks (see Table 12.8). Thus, you will inevitably face trade-offs as you select secondary data.

White papers are reports or guides that generally describe research about solving a particular issue—perhaps one similar to the one you are encountering. They are issued by governments and organizations. White papers are readily available on many corporate and other organizational websites. However, they are often biased, since white papers are often produced by industry groups with an agenda or companies with specific marketing goals related to the white paper. Thus, when you rely on white papers, you should learn about the agendas of the sponsoring organizations.

Industry publications are written to cater to the specific interests of members in particular industries. These can include periodicals and reports. Industry reports often are highly reliable, relevant, and expert-based. However, industry reports are generally expensive, ranging from several hundred dollars to thousands of dollars. Generally, the more reliable the industry reports are, the more expensive they are. Fortunately, many business libraries carry a variety of expensive industry reports and publications that are free for you to use as long as you are enrolled at your university.

Business periodicals ( magazines, newspapers) provide stories, information, and advice about contemporary business issues. They are often written by well-respected business journalists and experts. However, most articles in magazines and periodicals will have limited value in applying to your specific business problems and your organization. Furthermore, these articles often rely on anecdotal evidence rather than carefully controlled experiments and survey research. Periodicals that are industry publications are often far more relevant than general business magazines and articles.

Scholarly journals contain business research that is extremely reliable. The information comes from carefully controlled scientific research processes and has been reviewed by experts in the field. However, scholarly business articles rarely provide useful information for business problems that you will focus on in the workplace. Rather, scholarly articles focus on more theoretical and abstract issues. Furthermore, they are generally written with a level of statistical analysis and/or theoretical background that is difficult to understand.

External blogs and other online resources provide a plethora of information. Since most blogs are not formally edited or reviewed, the range in reliability is enormous. As you progress in your career, you will find those blogs that are reliable and relevant to the types of business problems you face. If you rely on blogs, make sure you carefully determine the expertise of the blog writer/s.

Business and management books range greatly in terms of their overall usefulness. Fortunately, you can usually better assess the usefulness of business and management books than other secondary sources because of the many online reviews available and the ability to preview sections of the books (online and in person at bookstores or libraries). Online reviews can help you gauge how useful various books can be for your particular business problems.

Conducting Library Research

Most university libraries have rich stores of information on business. Aside from a significant collection of books across a wide range of disciplines and topics, your library likely contains a wealth of digital resources. You likely also have access to thousands of company and industry reports (each of which cost hundreds and thousands of dollars to consumers); articles from hundreds of business periodicals, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Bloomberg Businessweek, and many others; industry-specific periodicals and reports; scholarly journals; and many, many more avenues for research.

 

LO12.6. Conduct secondary research to address a business problem.

Most university libraries subscribe to dozens of online databases. Popular and useful ones with business research and articles include EBSCO Business Source Complete, Pro-Quest, IBISWorld, Hoover’s, Global Financial Database, Conference Board, eMarketer, Mint Global, NetAdvantage by Standard & Poor’s, Thomson One, and others. In Figure 12.9, you’ll see a few examples of these databases and how they present information for your research. In the EBSCO Host window, you’ll notice the many search options available. In the ProQuest window, you can see links to specialized reports, on such topics as trends and forecasts, market research, or SWOT analyses. In the IBISWorld window, you can see the categories of information in a particular industry report. Working from this screen, Jeff can access reliable information about key success factors, cost structure benchmarks, technology, and many other topics about hotels in the United States.

Navigating the many resources in these databases and identifying the ones that will be most useful to you take time. You might consider spending several weeks browsing these various databases simply to become familiar with what’s available. You should also seek a business librarian to help you identify those databases that best match your interests and needs.

Each of the databases contains search features, and several basic strategies will help you make the most of them. When you manually search, you can use Boolean operators (and, or) to widen your search. For example, when Jeff wants to find more information about “green meetings,” his initial search of this phrase yields 33 results. By looking for both words separately (using and), his search yields over 2,000 results.

By looking for either phrase (using or), he finds over 33,000 results (see Table 12.9). Also, consider using alternative keywords and closely related ideas. Finding the right sources requires persistence. You might spend hours looking for useful information and then rapidly find dozens of relevant and useful sources.

Once you enter your terms, most online business databases provide a list of suggested topics based on commonly indexed terms. These can be very helpful. Notice, for example, Figure 12.10. You will see the many combinations of indexed terms that result from a manual search for eco-friendly hotels in ProQuest. By clicking on these various suggested searches, you can rapidly find which combinations of search terms yield the best results.