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COPYRIGHT 2005 Information Today, Inc.
When I think business research, I think companies, industries, markets, economic conditions, and the like. I use standard business databases from Dialog, EBSCO, Factiva, LexisNexis, and ProQuest. I search the Web for business-related topics. That said, I know my limitations. I don't do legal or patent searching because my legal qualifications are nil and chemical substructure searching is a complete mystery to me. The extent of my chemical knowledge is that [H.sub.2]O stands for water--and I think NaCl is salt.
I realize, however, that the business world does not exist in a vacuum. Calvin Coolidge famously said, "The business of America is business." However, the business of business could be agriculture, aviation, biochemistry, food, mining, oil and gas, technology, or zoology. In the business world, companies take science and commercialize it. Something that starts out in a laboratory test tube may end up on the shelves of your local store. Therefore, business people have a need to know about scientific research. They look at the potential for a scientific discovery to become a viable, profitable product or to alter an existing product. Competitive intelligence specialists look at the possibilities of a scientific invention being implemented by a competing company to the detriment of their employer. Bankers question the feasibility of scientific breakthroughs as they decide on financing companies.
Although science frequently is the foundation of...
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