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'Empirical' Industry or Business Sector Profiles
'Empirical' Industry or Business Sector Profiles are based on 'soft' data such as expert opinion from within
industry and industrial surveys. The
profiles differ in nature from 'Factual'
Profiles (a comparison can be found here).
Many reports on industry and commerce are
produced by market research organisations. The reports are typically based on qualitative 'soft' data
resulting from expert industry views and, might therefore be termed 'empirical' in
nature. Sometimes available in hard-copy from the authors, the reports are
more usually published via the major on-line database hosts. Here, the reports are 'salami-sliced' into searchable, downloadable,
charged-for paragraphs. Alongside these reports, the hosts also
offer millions of data items in 'extract' format relating to every imaginable
aspect of industry and commerce contained in hundreds of other databases.
Many of these extracts are expert opinions culled from professional, technical
and trade journals and newswires.
A key issue with respect to using these
data is that, while the researcher can retrieve just the relevant paragraphs
required, training and skill are needed to avoid downloading much irrelevant
material at considerable cost. The researcher also needs to have a means
of access to the data and to be subscribed to one or more
of the database hosts.
While existing reports published in
hard-copy or on line may meet the needs of some industries, it is much more
likely that:
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a
business will require a more in-depth analysis of some aspect of its
sector, or;
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a
Trade Association will require a broader analysis combining a number of industries, or;
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a
new venture will need an analysis of some little-reported sector or
sub-sector of industry
or commerce.
In these instances, searches must be
made across many databases to locate relevant reports and journal
extracts. The task then, is to read and analyse the retrieved data and
extract and compile data to complete a sector profile.
Key Benefits of 'Empirical' Sector Profiles
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Company data.
Empirical profiles provide a good deal of 'insider'
knowledge and opinion regarding 'key players' in markets, their ownership,
strengths and weaknesses etc.
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Market
information. Although
empirical profiles are not likely to describe markets and sectors in terms
that tally with international classifications, descriptions of markets in
terms of trends, drivers and product/service issues are likely to be of
interest to businesses operating in the sector.
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Related
information.
Particularly when multiple databases are researched, a good deal of
sector-related information can be obtained. For example, information
relating to research, technology or production issues, legal, employment and
health and safely issues, who-owns-whom etc.
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'Instant'
information. The use of on-line databases to
generate empirical profiles allows millions of up-to-date documents to
be interrogated within minutes.
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Reduced costs.
Although database access time and 'citation' (data) costs can be high and
data retrieval and processing costs also need to be added-in, this route to
generating empirical sector profiles can make huge savings compared to the
cost of obtaining one or more original proprietary sector reports.
NBS Capabilities
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NBS has fifteen
years experience of gathering data via on-line databases to generate
empirical sector reports for manufacturing and service businesses of all
types. This included, for example, research into potential new markets
for start-up businesses.
-
Robert Beasley of
NBS has received training in the use of on-line database search techniques
and has had much practical experience in designing data searches capable of
eliciting relevant data at least cost.
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