We now have this fine 4 volume set!!!

Michael Porter : critical evaluations in business and management

Wood, John C.; Wood, Michael C.

London ; New York : Routledge 2010

Available at UM Duluth Library Book (HD30.28 .M4955 2010 )

Title: Michael Porter : critical evaluations in business and management
Contributor: Wood, John C. ; Wood, Michael C.
Subjects: Porter, Michael E., 1947- ; Strategic planning ; Management ; Competition, International
Publisher: London ; New York : Routledge
Related Titles: Series: Critical evaluations in business and management
Language: English

Date: 2010
Format: 4 v. : ill. ; 24 cm.

"Michael Porter (b. 1947) has been described by The Economist as 'the doyen of living management gurus'. Boldly introducing the language and concepts of economics into management theory, his work has focused on how a firm (or a region) can build a competitive advantage and develop a competitive strategy.

Supplemented with the editors' introduction, which places the gathered work in its historical and intellectual context, this new four-volume collection from Routledge brings together the best and most influential critical writing on Porter."

Format: Hardcover, 1752 pages
Published In: United Kingdom, 25 September 2009

Thanks !!!

We have some new enhancements to our ReferenceUSA database... and some are kinda cool.

They have a lot more companies in the database now, and they can do consumer mapping.... of great interest is the new section they have added in many of the records about job openings... you cannot search directly for that content at this time, but there are tricks to help to focus in on it. Right now only the IE and Chrome databases seem to work for that Job openings section.

I am hoping I can convince their company rep to come and visit us in the Fall and give a presentation on this amazing source... a lot of people forget all the various ways it can be used.

Also, for now, this list of videos may be helpful to those of you who want to learn more right now:
http://referenceusa-resourcecenter.com/learning-center/sample-video/

And you may want to watch this video too:
http://www.referenceusa.com/Static/VideoTutorials

If you have questions, please email or call me.

Thanks !!!

Greetings!

Our SRDS Database has changed and greatly improved its interface, and it has improved its content. SRDS is important to anyone putting together an advertising plan... you may want to go to the database and play with it:

http://www.d.umn.edu/lib/lurl/LibGo.php?TiPrimaryID=1482

and you may want the study the email below with its several links. In particular, you may want to view this short video:
http://next.srds.com/resources/reports

If you have questions, please email or call me.

Thanks !!!

you can watch this recorded Webinar below by following these instructions.

Here is a recording of our "Passport Dashboards: Innovative Visual Presentations" webinar that took place on Wednesday, June 6.

https://euromonitorintl.webex.com/euromonitorintl/ldr.php?AT=pb&SP=MC&rID=65607932&rKey=5fd887e5090c963b

Password: Euromonitor1

It is about 35 minutes long, and you can skim it if you like. I would like you to get some idea what this new dashboard can provide. As you know our GMID provides great detailed reports about industries, products, and companies. It also provides an array of demographic and economic data. These new dashboards, however, add a new dimension to this data. I highly recommend you watch this to better understand what the GMID can do. Also, as you will see in this recorded webinar, some of these dashboard searches can provide information of interest to health, social sciences, social work and such.

I recommend it.

After you watch this presentation, you may want to try out the dashboard in our GMID. It is located on our Launch Pad, or directly, here:

http://www.d.umn.edu/lib/lurl/LibGo.php?TiPrimaryID=659

Greetings!

In a recent issue of Business Week there is a most interesting article about a very very successful Minnesota-based company, Fastenal:

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-02-23/fastenals-runaway-stock-success#p1

This is an excellent example of a small start-up doing well. Very well! This is entrepreneurship at its best!!

The Fastenal article brought my attention to a company I had not thought about before. So I did what I always do:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fastenal

The Wikipedia is usually a great starting point for basics, definitions, links, clues and context, although we do have to be wary of its informal origins.

If you want to know a lot more about a company, particularly in established and recognized sources, you will need to search for information on our UMD Library business databases:
http://www.d.umn.edu/~jvileta/lsbeessential.html

The first step is to look for company reports and overviews. I have become aware that some reports are better known than others, so I encourage you to look at each and understand what they can do for you.

Our major reports & overviews sources are:

Datamonitor via our Business Source Premier database with its famous SWOT Analysis.

Analyst Reports via our MorningStar database with unique focused insight.

Standard & Poor's Reports via our NetAdvantage database

Mergent Pre-Defined Reports via our Mergent Online database

Hoover's In-Dept Reports via our Lexis-Nexis Academic database

Company Histories via our Business & Company Resource Center database

Annual Reports via our Mergent Online database

Investment Reports, like "Valu Engine" via our Business & Company Resource Center database

Moody's Mergent Manuals, with annual summaries back to 1909, via our Mergent/Moody's database.

Value Line, provides long respected analysis, but is not yet online at UMD, access it at: Value Line

Fastenal, like many other B2B companies, does not show up on some of our consumer/marketing databases like GMID PassPort or Mintel. But many B2C company reports are on these databases..

For future reference, please also consult our Company Overview Reports FAQ page.

I hope that you will become more aware of our useful company overview reports by taking time to look at each one.. If you have any questions or comments, please email or call.

Most appreciated!

Thanks !!!

We have complied two new FAQ's of interest to all LSBE students:

Can I access the databases after graduation?

Job Search with UMD Library Databases

Thanks !!!

I have good news! Here at UMD we now have access to a new database called SBRnet.

We have new capability here. SBRnet covers a gap in our searching resources. This database should be particularly valuable for our new Sports Marketing course, however, the information in this database could be useful to anyone doing research on sports business topics, or sports products, or even business economics.

SBRnet provides resources related to the business of sports including industry-developed market research, government statistics, facility reports and news, international market publications, customized research, and directories.

SBRnet's site combines market research from the largest single research supplier to the industry, the National Sporting Goods Association; the U.S. Department of Commerce; various sports governing bodies; and full-text articles from 14 magazines and newsletters published by VNU, the world's largest sporting goods trade publisher, and newsletters provided by leading independent industry experts.

SBRnet can be accessed from our UMD Library Homepage Database section and it is linked in numerous spots on our Business Research Launch Pad.

You may want to access it from this page with its related links:

or, directly, here.

If you have any questions or comments, please give me a call.

Thanks !!!

I have good news! Here at UMD we now have access to a new database called BizMiner.

We have new capability here. This database will help people in business start-ups, industry analysis, economic analysis, ratio analysis, and benchmarking. This database should be valuable for all our LSBE Departments.

BizMiner offers industry financial analysis benchmarks for over 5,000 lines of business and industry market trends on thousands more. Their market analysis reports are available at the national and local levels down to the zip code. BizMiner is a great resource to use when developing business plans, or for any sort of entrepreneurship initiatives where you need to measure peer performance in an industry. Types of reports:
Industry Financial Profiles
U.S. & Local Market Research Reports (includes business failure rates)
Area Demographic Profiles
Sole Proprietor/Startup Profit & Loss
Local Market Vitality Profile

BizMiner can be accessed from our UMD Library Homepage Database section and it is linked in numerous spots on our Business Research Launch Pad. You may want to access it from this page with its related links:

or, directly, here:

If you have any questions or comments, please give me a call.

Thanks !!!

I would like to point out three important developments in our ability to search for and access book information.

Get-It

First: We now have our "Get-It" Service:
http://www.d.umn.edu/lib/circ/get-it.htm

What does this mean? It means that you can now use this catalog:

http://umnlib.oit.umn.edu/F?func=find-b-0&local_base=umn01pub

and search all U of MN campuses just as you would our campus. You can mark "Get-It" for any circulating book held at any campus, including UMD, and it will be pulled and held for you at our Circulation desk. UMD requests are filled within one day and requests from other campuses can take 2 to 4 working days. This is faster than Inter Library Loan as there is no intermediary processing your request. This is available for faculty, staff and students. FREE! All University of Minnesota book resources are now at your finger tips!!

And we still have our Inter Library Loan Service for sources not in our University system:

http://www.d.umn.edu/lib/ill/index.htm

WorldCat

How do you find books not owned by the University of Minnesota? Use our WorldCat database, which is directly linked to our UMD Inter Library Loan system.

In the past two years, the WorldCat database has grown 100% and now contains over 200 million records (including books, media and archival records):

http://www.oclc.org/news/releases/2010/201047.htm

You can access the WorldCat on my Launch Pad or directly here:
http://www.d.umn.edu/lib/lurl/LibGo.php?TiPrimaryID=195

Google Books:

Located here:
http://books.google.com/bkshp?hl=en&tab=wp

While the WorldCat is currently a much larger database, Google Books allows all scanned words in every book to be searched. You can find the needle in the haystack, and often you view some scanned pages for context.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_books

And, Google Books plans on growing!

June 2010:Google passes 12 million books scanned.

August 2010: It was announced that Google intends to scan all known existing 129,864,880 books by the end of the decade, accounting to over 4 billion digital pages and two trillion words in total.

If you have questions or comments, please call or email.

Thanks!!!

Library Offers New Get It! Service

Did you know that the library will now pull your books for you? A new service called "Get It!" will provide system-wide paging and direct lending of library materials, starting with the UMD and Twin Cities University Libraries.

Besides the benefit of having materials pulled and held for you at the Circulation desk, Get It! offers the ability to manage renewals through "Your Account" on the UMD Library Web site, enjoy longer loan periods, and renew multiple times as long as items are not recalled by others. Users can choose the most convenient pickup or return campus location for each request. UMD and all of the larger campus libraries on the Twin Cities campus are current options.

You can search the MNCAT all-campus catalog, check the availability of holdings throughout the UM system, and then click "Get It / Recall" to order an available copy or recall one that is checked out. The item will be shipped via courier if coming from another campus location.

For more information, go to http://www.d.umn.edu/lib/circ/get-it.htm, stop at the Circulation desk, or contact Paul Hanson in the UMD Get It!/Recall office, (phanson@d.umn.edu, 218-726-6566).

Is Interlibrary Loan Still Available?

Yes! You will still need to use ILLiad to request articles and materials that aren't available at UMD or elsewhere in the University of Minnesota system. However, if the item you need is owned by one of the participating UM Libraries, you will find that Get It! is the better service to use.

Greetings!

As you know, we lost our STAT-USA database on October 1st, as the Department of Commerce ceased its operations. Most, but not all, of that content is available on various federal web pages for free, but it is scattered. STAT-USA brought all that together in one place.

Now a librarian at the University of Central Florida has created a LibGuide to act as a substitute. It is located here:

http://libguides.lib.ucf.edu/statusa
(Note this is a complex Guide with many tabs and options.)

The information and data linked on this LibGuide are very important for people doing research in economics and international business.

Two of the most requested data sources (at UMD) are:

Country Commercial Guides
http://www.buyusainfo.net/adsearch.cfm?search_type=int&loadnav=no

and

International Market Research
http://www.buyusainfo.net/adsearch.cfm?search_type=int&loadnav=no

(These are GREAT sources for international business research! If you are unfamiliar with them, please take a look.)

I will be linking the LibGuide, and the two above sources, on my "Business Research Launch Pad".

If you have questions or comments, please email, or call.

Thanks!!!

As many of you know, I recently "launched" my new Launch Pad.

It is still located at:

http://www.d.umn.edu/~jvileta/

There is much work to be done on it.... editing, revisions, meta tags, jump-downs, images and etc, and that will be finished in the months to come. The site is mostly here and mostly functional.

We tried to make the site easier to maintain and more intuitive for the user. The main page now has:

* How This Site Works

* Starting Points "Which source should I use?"

* FAQs for Business Research

* Course Guides for LSBE Assignments

* Your Library at a Glance -- Locations, Policies, Services

And on the left navigational bar, we have grouped the Launch Pad pages by topic or department and not alphabetically as they were before. Marketing related links, for example, are under the Marketing Department option.

I believe the "FAQ for Business Research" is a very significant improvement. This section will be edited and expanded in the months to come, and I welcome any ideas you may have for this or any other part of the Launch Pad.

If you like the old home page for its links, it is still available at:

http://www.d.umn.edu/~jvileta/viletahome.html

I am very thankful to LSBE for the technology grant that made this website upgrade possible. My special thanks to Nik Hassan and his people for their advice, expertise and encouragement. I thank my student assistant, Paul Gearring, for his excellent work and eye for detail. And I very much appreciate Doreen Hansen's work on graphics and last minute advice.

Again, I hope LSBE faculty, staff, and students will find this new "Business Resarch Launch Pad" to be useful.

Thanks!!!

Greetings!

Weeks ago we lost our EconLit database, as our vendor stopped providing it. Today, we have turned on a new version provided by EBSCO, the same company that provides our "Business Source Premier" database.

It is located here:

http://www.d.umn.edu/lib/lurl/LibGo.php?TiPrimaryID=73

and on the Library List of Databases and on my Launch Pad.

EconLit, the American Economic Association's electronic database, is the
world's foremost source of references to economic literature. The database
contains more than 1,010,900 records from 1969-present. Abstracts and Indexing only. Citations are linked to our "FindIt" service.

We are paying more for this source now, so I hope EconLit will be heavily used.

If you have questions or comments, please call or email.

Thanks!!!

I am sad to say that our Federal Government will cease offering its database "STAT-USA" on October 1st.

Currently, and until then, STAT-USA is available here:

http://www.d.umn.edu/lib/lurl/LibGo.php?TiPrimaryID=179

STAT-USA contains many sources of information, including the famous "NTDB," and important reports like the "Country Commercial Guides."
If you need this sort of international marketing information, I encourage you to work with this database now while we have it.

I understand that many of the reports and data elements currently available in one place at STAT-USA will continue to exist, but will be scattered throughout various agencies. Some maybe available for free, and some may require payment. I also understand, at some point, the Department of Commerce may put together a web page that will point to these various sources. When that becomes available, I will inform you and post the link on my Web Site.

If you have questions, please call or email me.

Thanks!!!

Good News!!

We have managed to convert our paper subscription and CD-ROM subscription of "International Financial Statistics" to their Online version.

It is now called "IFS Online," and it can be accessed here:

http://www.d.umn.edu/lib/lurl/LibGo.php?TiPrimaryID=1499

It is also linked on the UMD Library database page, and it will be linked on my Launch Pad.

This database is produced by the International Monetary Fund, and will be of interest to Economists and international business.

"International financial statistics (IFS) is the International Monetary Fund's principal statistical publication and has been published in printed form since 1948. Our Online version has a complete backfile, and contains data sets for most Fund members, as well as for Aruba, the Netherlands Antilles, and Switzerland. It provides time series data covering approximately 26,000 economic concepts which show major economic aggregates used in the analysis of economic developments and includes data on the following topics: balance of payments, banking and financial systems, employment, exchange rates, Fund position, government finance, interest rates, international liquidity and banking, national accounts, population, prices, production, and trade."

You can search this at your office or home 24/7.

If you have questions or comments, please call or email.

Thanks!!!