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Teaching Entrepreneurship Research Skills to
Students:Best Practices from Three
Entrepreneurship LibrariansMary G. Scanlon, Wake Forest UniversitySteve Cramer, UNC-GreensboroDiane K. Campbell, Rider University
Agenda1. Designing the most effective research
assignments: Mary2. Requiring students to use the best and
most authoritative research sources: Steve
3. The limits of secondary research and when primary research is necessary: Steve
4. Inviting your business librarian to provide active learning research workshops at the point of need, plus research consultations with students as follow-up: Diane
1. Designing Effective Assignments
Start with the end in mind
What are your learning objectives for the research project?
Establish Learning ObjectivesLearning objectives
ObservableMeasurable
Learning Objectives If something isn’t a learning objective,
don’t expect it of students.
Example: if the objective is for students to analyze
financial statements, provide them. If the objective is to have students find
and analyze financial statements, then teach them where and how to locate and download them.
Learning Objectives
Consider the following:Skills ProcessKnowledge
Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning
CreatingEvaluatingAnalyzingApplyingUnderstanding
Remembering
Project Design
Incorporate your librarian into the development phase
Instructional Activities Who will teach or demonstrate all of the
skills required for the assignment? In what format? How will you provide support to students
while they’re working on the project?
Assessment Determine levels within each
learning objective category and develop your grading rubric as you design the assignment
For instance: Must have… Good to have… Above and beyond…
Congruency is the Key
2. Requiring Students to Use the Best Sources
Requiring students to use the best and most authoritative research sources
A. Examples of “best sources” by topicB. Selling their value to studentsC. Working best sources into a grading
rubric
Defining “best sources”
Currency Level of detail (examples: levels of
geography; industry & market segmentations)
Authoritative Customizable (ex. statistical data) Mappable
Examples of “best sources” by topic
Industry analysis (reports and/or statistics): IBIS World First Research Plunkett BizMiner Census (Economic Census; County Business Patterns)
Industry ratios & financial benchmarking RMA eStatement Studies Duns Key Business Ratios BizMiner Census (Economic Census; County Business Patterns) PrivCo
Competitive intelligence ReferenceUSA Hoovers PrivCo Annual reports to shareholders & 10-K’s
Market reports Mintel Euromonitor
Market data & mapping (demographics, psychographics, consumer spending) SimplyMap DemographicsNow Business Decision Census (American Community Survey) BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey (CEX)
Two multi-purpose databases:Business Source (Ebsco)ABI-INFORM (ProQuest)Both provide: A huge collection of popular, trade, and
academic journals covering all business topics, industries, corporate trends, etc.
Collections of industry and company reports
Selling their value to students
“Using these sources will save you time”
Why? They are designed for projects/research like
this They collect relevant analysis, trends, and
statistical data into one place You can usually download the information
as PFDs, Word documents, or spreadsheets
Emphasize customization.
Examples: “You are required to define your local
industry size, local market size, local competitors, etc.”
Mapped data can be more illustrative, interesting, and convincing than data in a paragraph or a table.
Use professional terminology.
Not “library research” but:“Big data analysis tools”“Competitive intelligence”“Proprietary subscription tools”
And Business Librarian = “research consultant”
Show the high cost of individual reports from business databases (free to students) to corporate users:
One IBIS report: $1,020One Mintel report: $3,995One Euromonitor report: $2,650
Prices from http://www.marketresearch.com/
Show examples of database content (your librarian can help with this).
IBIS and SimplyMap
Working best sources into a grading rubricExample from my ENT 530 capstone description:
Using a variety of relevant, high-quality sources, including data: 22 points.Maximum points awarded for covering all the relevant topics listed above using most of the core sources highlighted throughout the semester, including Economic Census data and/or other Census business and industry data. All your sources need to make sense for your proposed business idea – don’t include off-topic information or sources.
3. The Limits of Secondary Research
The limits of secondary research and when primary research is necessary:
“Steve, where can I look up the market size or sales demand of rugby cleats in the Greensboro/Winston-Salem urban area?”
4. Partner with your Librarian
Partnering with the business librarian to: Adapt business research sessions
to course needs Consult at the time of syllabus
creation Collaborate on assignment design Assess information literacy in
business research And more…
Integrated Research Sessions in an Entrepreneurship Intro Course
Add to course learning management system (ex: Canvas)
Active learning with hands-on practice in all sessions
First session on industry resources Second session on demographics Third session on competition
Personal consultation with each team by the librarian
Integrated Research Session in an Entrepreneurship Capstone
Weekly team meetings in the library for the first half of the course
Review of market research from intro course
Addition of sessions on pricing & promotion, real estate & purchasing, and wages
Two to three additional sessions of hands-on work for the teams with the librarian as consultant
Benefits for all Students can research in greater depth,
and will spend time on analysis rather than searching--leading to higher quality work
Students experience the process of information gathering and learn a model appropriate for entrepreneurs
Feedback from the class/faculty member means evidence for acquisition of better resources
Questions?
Contacts
Mary Scanlon: scanlomg@wfu.edu Diane Campbell:
dcampbell@rider.edu Steve Cramer: smcramer@uncg.edu
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