Business researchers are often asked to find an overview of a particular industry. Many familiar fee-based databases provide value-added features, such as indexed fields, subject descriptors, and Boolean search syntax that help pinpoint an industry overview article. But what about the Internet? I have found excellent industry overviews on the Web, but the process I use to find them is not as clean-cut as the one I use with fee-based databases. Although the Net is unstructured, un-indexed, and doesn't effectively support sophisticated Boolean searching, I wondered if I could apply some of the strategies I use with fee-based services on the Web. INDUSTRY OVERVIEWS ANSWER MULTIPLE QUESTIONS I am asked to research a different industry every day. My clients typically want to know the current state of the industry, and what events and trends may affect is future growth and profitability. Some of the questions for which I need answers include: What is forecasted for the industry? Is the industry fragmented or does it consist of just a few major players? Is the industry impacted by new technology? What regulations affect it? Is a lot of consolidation occurring? Do barriers to entry exist? Naturally, instead of trying to answer each of these questions individually, I hope to find a published overview that discusses as many aspects of the industry as possible. Database providers have developed indexed fields to help researchers find industry overviews quickly. (For a detailed article on finding overviews in fee-based databases, check out Marydee Ojala's "Industry Overviews: Turning Industry Question Marks Into Answers" in Online User, July/August 1996, pp. 14-19.) For example, researchers can add the document type Industry overview to their search when searching Responsive Database Services' Business and Industry, or the article type Industry overview in IAC's Trade and Industry Database for a more precise search.
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