Business Research

So what is business research and how does it differ from research I did in high school?

Sometimes it is easier to define what business research is not  
It isn't:

• just information gathering
• restating information
• just moving information from an article to your paper

 
Among other things, business research is a process by which information is gathered, analyzed and discussed in order to increase your understanding of a topic that caught your attention. 

A business research strategy is a plan of action that gives direction to your research. Some of the steps of basic research are:  choosing a topic, background reading, brainstorming for key terms, database searching, retrieving sources including books and articles, evaluating sources and citing sources. 

Topics can be at several different levels:  company, industry, economy, etc.  They can also range from management, financial, marketing or other business areas, from narrow topics such as the advertising campaign for a specific product to broad topics on the impact on the economy of a decision by the Federal Reserve System.  We have many databases that have great information on every level and every topic.  Take advantage of your access while you are in college, since once you are in the workforce, information will no longer be available without a fee. 

While you are a student at VT, you can have access to the databases on campus through the library website and also from off campus through our off-campus access system.  If you are on campus, you will be able to access the databases through the library's web page.  If you are off campus, you start at the library's web page, however you will have to put in your PID and password once they system prompts you to enter them.