Business Research Sites

Please see the business research sites below organized by topic.  If you know of others websites that be of use,  please click on my name above and send me the links.

Asking yourself the right questions as you begin your business research is really key to beginning down a road on a productive pathway.

There is not one perfect way to carry out strategic planning in your organization. It is important to read different articles, look at how strategy planning is carried out in various organizations, and identify best practices and lessons learned. Above all, understand your culture, your market, your competition, your organization’s strengths and weaknesses, and design an approach that will work best for you.

We have provided various articles on strategic planning that can help you think in your quest to help your organization succeed.

The following sites can help you to organize your research:

• Basic Research Methods
• How to Conduct Research
• How to Conduct Market Analysis 
• How to Conduct Research for Your Business Plan
• Marketing

• Market & Competitive Intelligence:  Competitive & market intelligence exchange. Webinars, conferences, discussion
• Manta: Search for U.S. companies, identify competitors and find customers. Access to data from Dun& Bradstreet.  Search by SIC categories to find specific types of businesses
• Superpagers:  Access to detailed company information for creating competitor and B2B prospect lists
• Xing:  Access to detailed company information for creating competitor and B2B prospect lists. Xing allows one to view a list of up to 50 customers or competitors by name, city and state at no charge

• Accoona:  Access to over 60 million business profiles
• Corporate Information: Company research reports on over 31,000 companies from over 55 countries
• CorpTech:  Search capabilities for businesses. Accoona is published by Masterseek corp
• Edgars:  Complete Federal SEC (EDGAR) filings for all U.S. publicly held companies
• Investors: Analysis and rating of public companies from an investment perspective. Top track record
• KnowX:  Database of business and executive information
• The Thomas Register:  America’s leading directory of Manufacturing Companies
• Yahoo Finances:  Free company profiles. Overview of company, products and financials

• Association for Consumer Research:  Site for “academic researchers of consumer behavior with information regarding aligned organizations with an interest in the study of consumer behavior, academic journals that publish research on consumer behavior, conferences that target academic researchers and funding sources. It is also designed to provide information pertinent to the conduct of academic research”
• ConsumerReports.org:  Reviews of various products
• ConsumerResearch.com:  Reviews of various products

• Economic Intelligence Unit:  Founded in 1946 as an in-house research unit for The Economist. Produce business intelligence and advice to over 1.5 million decision-makers from leading companies, financial institutions, governments and universities
• Market Research World:  Market research resources
• U.S. Census Bureau:  U.S. Census Bureau Economic Census
• World Bank:  Source of financial and technical assistance to developing countries around the world

• Ebsco Publishing:  Produced by the American Economic Association.Research tool in economics.  The database provides bibliographic citations, with selected abstracts,on economics since 1969. Journal articles, books, dissertations, conference proceedings,essay volumes
• Companies and Markets:  Industry reports,trade associations, annual reports, investor presentations for the world’s largest companies, country guides and market insight reports
• Market Research World: One of largest market resource sites providing online resources and research related articles relevant to market research buyers, researchers, newcomers to the industry, students and individuals with an interest in the market research industry
• MarketResearch.com:  Comprehensive full-text market research reports covering a broad range of markets, industries, and companies from reputable market intelligence sources such as Packaged Facts, Icon Group, and many others, for U.S. and global markets, covering over 2,000 industries and products
• Metrics 2.0:  Research, surveys, stats, facts, figures, and forecasts from thousands of authoritative sources providing insights about business trends and markets
• The American Satisfaction Survey Index:  This organization reports on national level and produces indexes for 10 economic sectors, 43 industries (including e-commerce and e-business) and more than 200 companies and federal or local government agencies.
• Valuation Resources:  Industry data, trade associations, industry publications, and research firms

• APQC.org:  Best practices repository. Focused in identifying processes and practices that push organizations from good to great.Leading proponent of process and performance improvement

• Jigsaw:  Online directory of more than 8 million business contacts
• Linkedin:  Business social networking site with over 25 million members.Search professionals across industries
• Xing: Business social networking site like linkedin.Popular in Europe
• ZoonInfo: Search engine that crawls and extracts the latest information about companies and people

• Political.com:  Political.com focuses on an independent view of political issues. Publishes commentary, news, polling data, and links to resources from all points of view

• Gartner Group:  Provides in-depth analysis and market intelligence for the information technology industry.  It covers the full range of products and technologies associated with computer hardware, software, communications products, financial services, electronic business, and healthcare application software worldwide

Business Research Site

By David Willden