Understand the Current Marketplace:

Gain a sense of the current landscape, major players, and future trends within an industry or sector in order to identify failures/opportunities.

Consumer-focused resources:

• Passport
• Mintel

Health/Tech/Life Sciences-focused:

• Frost & Sullivan
• BCC Research
• Marketresearch.com
• Technavio

HBS cases: 

Have any cases been written about the market and/or incumbents? 

• HBS case collection. Search for HBS cases. Write down the name and number of cases you're interested in. Order cases from Baker Library

Reach out to HBS faculty:

• Search HBS faculty profiles based on areas of interest to identify faculty to talk to about your project. 

Search Harvard Business Review:  

• Full text of both print and digital articles is included in Business Source Complete. 
   

Identify Sentiment

These resources will help you "listen" to what is happening in the space:

Refinitiv Workspace, investment bank analyst reports

• What are analysts saying? Use company and industry analyst reports to inform your ideas. Limit to "initiating coverage" for meatier reports. For a multimedia learning module on Refinitiv Workspace check out our Learn with Baker Library Refinitiv Workspace Introduction.

Factiva

• Do a deep dive in news sources on the topic/space (see search tips below)

Twitter advanced search

• Plot mentions over time. Can limit by geography, date, specific user accounts, and more.

Blogs

• Search medium.com for related blog content.

Podcasts

• Listen Notes offers a pretty good search of podcast-only content.

Media Cloud

• Chart coverage in the media of a topic, keyword, or company

Analyze competitors

Who are the incumbents in the space? How do they operate, and how are their products or services failing the market?

Reviews & Roundups:

• Search Yelp, Amazon, Consumer Reports, Wirecutter, etc.  Hubspot has additional suggestions.

Capital IQ

• Financials/ratios and news; includes public and private companies. For a multimedia learning module on Capital IQ check out our Learn with Baker Library Capital IQ Introduction.

Pitchbook and CB Insights

• Focused on startups/early stage companies & investors.  Includes deal info, news, and research/analysis.

Factiva

• Search for news on incumbents.

Advanced search tips for using Factiva:

• Use Boolean operators AND/OR: i.e.,  (betterment or wealthfront or acorns) and fintech
• Use word count command to retrieve longer pieces: wc>750 and  ((betterment or wealthfront or acorns) and fintech)
• Use frequency command: wc>750 and (atleast3 betterment or atleast3 wealthfront or atleast3 acorns) and fintech
• Search for keywords in the headline/lead paragraph only: wc>750 and hlp=(betterment or acorns or wealthfront)

Remember that results in Factiva are grouped in separate tabs (print & online)