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