PREFACE
The Business Research Solution Series is intended to make online business and legal research
easier to understand and practice. Taken together, all of the volumes will serve both as a training
tool and reference resource for entry-level corporate personnel, undergraduate and graduate
students of business and law, corporate and academic librarians, and market researchers.
Because each volume in the series addresses a specific vertical market or corporate research
process, anyone interested in business legal issues, or accounting research, or company and
industry research, will find one or more of these volumes very useful as a keyboard companion.
The organization of each volume is similar in purpose if not in content and is composed of four
standard parts or chapters:
(1) RESEARCH STRATEGIES: This chapter introduces the reader to business research
strategies and procedures on the subject of each volume (accounting, legal, industry, etc.).
It also provides a plethora of practical advice and recommendations on better research
techniques, dependable data sources, and industry best-practices;
(2) RESEARCH CASE STUDY: A second chapter takes an involved, multi-level research
project and traces the solution from initial strategy to final data analysis and reporting,
thus providing real insight to the reader on professional research methodology and
practices;
(3) RESEARCH PROBLEMS & SOLUTIONS: The third chapter presents a large number
of worked-out research problems and solutions that apply to the subject of the volume
and provide practical advice on data source selection and content;
(4) RESEARCH DATA SOURCE EVALUATIONS: Two types of online business research
data sources and services are critically reviewed in depth in this last chapter, general
sources or portals that provide massive amounts of information such as Factiva, Dialog,
and LexisNexis, and special sources that apply only to the subject of each volume.
A very large number of highly competent, motivated research professionals banded together to
produce this series. Their names appear either as members of the Editorial Advisory Board or as
Contributors in the front matter. The managers of this project are most grateful for their advice
and assistance, both of which were always delivered with good humor and kind spirit. Detailed
biographies of these experts appear in the Appendix of each volume.
A word about the selection of online sources to be reviewed is in order. Each editor provided a
listing of key online data sources and the publishers were then contacted to ask for temporary
passwords to assign to a specific reviewer and editor. While most of the publishers responded,
we were surprised at the lack of interest on the part of several important business data sources,
and hence there are some unavoidable omissions that the editors regret.
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In the near future, all of the content for all of the books in the series will appear online as well as
in print with the fervent hope that more and more useful material (as well as revisions) will be
made available on a continual basis. There are also a number of additional volumes planned for
inclusion in this Series so as to eventually cover all special aspects (and vertical applications) of
business research that cover international as well as domestic practices.
The Benjamin Group of Santa Barbara, California, developed the concept of this series with
considerable help from the volume editors and the Advisory Board. We will appreciate any and
all suggestions for improvement in future editions and, of course, regret any shortcomings in the
present content for which we are responsible.
William A. Benjamin
Helene Segal
Managing Editors
March 30, 2003
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