The Euromonitor International blog is a veritable feast of contributions, videos and presentations that I find is worthwhile to examine on a regular basis for anyone interested in marketing, investment and strategic management. Today I was interested in luxury goods and was interested to find that an expert analyst, Rob Walker, had written a blog post on luxury spirits. You can find other categories on the right hand side of the blog and identify related posts. Correct me if I’m wrong, but no other database offers this kind of informative blog that is updated so regularly. It also gives me loads of information to blog about!
Month: June 2015
Following liveblogs to watch today’s Greek ‘day of decision’
For anyone studying the financial world there are many ways to keep track of today’s historic developments as they unfold in the Eurozone drama. Follow the Greek ‘day of decision’ crisis on a liveblog such as the Guardian’s minute-by-minute page. A liveblog includes tweets, comments and analysis plus articles written by experts watching perhaps the greatest threat to the European Union since its inception in 1957.
Rally in Athens on Monday against EU austerity and in favour of no vote in referendum. Photograph: NurPhoto/REX Shutterstock/NurPhoto/REX Shutterstock
New library management system
Library News: New Library System: The library is working to replace the current Library Management System for … http://t.co/vc3ubs2gIn
— UOL Library (@GCWLibrary) June 29, 2015
Slow Reading in the Digital Age anyone?
In many areas of society the Slow Movement is making (steady) progress in cooking, travel, and even design. Now I propose Slow Reading in the Digital Age. As I was completing the Teaching and Learning in a Digital Age course at the University a few months ago, I realised the strong benefits of closer reading. This may seem obvious, particularly as I’m an eternal student passionate about studying and I support students in the Library with Academic Writing, but my epiphany happened after reading Michael Peter’s (2005) wonderfully insightful The new prudentialism in education: Actuarial rationality and the entrepreneurial self in the journal Educational Theory. Then it occurred to me that students undertaking a dissertation proposal did not need to collate a mountain of research to hone in on an idea, but rather focus on what a really interesting article is saying and get some ideas for a possible title, before considering a working structure. It is a problem in the Digital Age when 24/7 access to thousands and thousands of articles means that there is a natural tendency to accumulate material that is not going to be read. In other words, amassing journal articles looks good but nothing is actually learned. Blame strategic learning which may encourage superficial reading. Nothing is demonstrated. I found Peter’s article about risk aversion in corporate governance so engaging that everything needed to be slowed down to concentrate effectively. Find yourself away from distractions, away from the laptop, and journey into a closer inspection of one article to let the author’s ideas sink in.
Don’t forget the deadline for Resit Exam Support is 9th July!
Don’t forget the deadline for Resit Exam Support is the 9th July! pic.twitter.com/1RWw5C1jnh
— UOL Social Science (@UL_CSS) June 23, 2015
How to read 20 books in an hour!
Courtesy of Dr. Emma Coonan, Information Skills Librarian at University of East Anglia (via the lively LISLINK forum) the adventurously titled ‘how to read 20 books (or thereabouts) in an hour’ is a gem for those students on a mind-blowingly tight deadline. The technique she uses used was just selective skimming – directing attention at key parts of the text (abstract, introduction, conclusion, headings, figures, first line of each paragraph) and not allowing oneself to get drawn in to reading continuously. She stresses to students that as well as allowing them to understand the work very quickly, it also enables them to check the consistency of the argumentative structure, see if it all hangs together, and make a preliminary evaluation of the work based on its relevance and quality. Students would then be in a position to decide whether they wanted to scan through any sections in greater detail, or even go back and read the whole thing – or whether they had enough information about the purpose of the work and could reassign it to the ‘done’ pile! The presentation slides and the handout are CC licensed and available from https://researchcentral.wordpress.com/2012/04/23/academic-reading-and-writing/.
http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/courses/Documentation/10_books_an_hour.pdf
Following liveblogs to keep up to date with news
What will happen to the Eurozone today? Be the first to find out using liveblogs and Twitter. To continually support students by following the latest trends in the financial world, the Business Librarian Blog is always keen to be aware of the latest business news. Using Twitter (our address is @LINCLibrarian) is great for receiving real-time news and developments. It’s how many journalists keep up to date afterall. But why not follow a blog too? For those studying the dramatic Eurozone crisis following a live blog is one of the best ways to keep up to date in a 24/7 digital culture; especially today when Greece is entering such a critical phase in its history. My favourite is the Guardian’s liveblog which sends minute-by-minute updates.
@LINCLibrarian is launched to promote business blog
The Business Librarian Blog at the Uni of Lincoln joins Twitter. Hello all. Come join us. http://t.co/gzciCJn98L
— BusinessBlog (@LINCLibrarian) June 16, 2015
The Business Librarian Blog joins Twitter
The time has finally come to create a work-related Twitter account to relentlessly publicise the Business Librarian blog and its content. 180+ posts and counting since its inception in 2011. As you know, I blog regularly throughout the working week and would like to (shamelessly some might say) generate more hits. Join me in my quest to promote the University Library to Business School students @LINCLibrarian.
In addition the great joy about setting up a work account is that I am able to link to subject-related journals, magazines, newspapers and organisations that I’ve been familiar with for several years in my role as subject librarian for Accountancy and Finance, Advertising and Marketing, Economics, Events Management, International Business, Modern Languages and Tourism.
Financial Times access
We live in interesting times and the financial markets are the centrifugal force in making history as Greece’s IMF repayment crisis is proving today. One of the ways a student can keep up to date with the financial news is to buy the Financial Times from our subsidised Students’ Union shop in the Main Building. Another is to follow @FT on Twitter.
From the blogs – Leaving Greece to its own devices is not an option http://t.co/jPKQXaJND4 pic.twitter.com/SN7Ge9nd8h
— Financial Times (@FT) June 16, 2015
Why not register on the FT.com website via our Library page (library.lincoln.ac.uk > resources > databases > F > Financial Times (FT.com) to access the latest news, graphs and analysis.
After registering for the first time, FT.com will allow you full access to its content.
What is a MOOC?
MOOCs are all the rage; everyone is talking about them inside and outside of higher education. The best part is that anyone with Internet access can learn about anything on offer for free. It is no exaggeration that they are transforming education. Having recently completed the 30 postgraduate credit Teaching and Learning in a Digital Age (TELEDA) course at the University led by self-proclaimed ‘digital soapbox’ Sue Watling, an activity which made me think a lot deeper about online learning, I am aware that it is still getting me to reflect upon distance education even after the course has finished. Indeed, distance learning enabled me to carry out the course in my spare time and even when I didn’t have any time but managed to pull something together!
First introduced in 2008, a massive open online course (MOOC /muːk/) is an online course aimed at unlimited participation and open access via the web, which can include traditional course materials such as filmed lectures, readings, and problem sets. Some MOOCs provide interactive user forums to support community interactions between students, professors, and teaching assistants. To this end, I have raided Oonagh Monaghan’s EDEU: TELEDA libguide so you can watch an overview of MOOCs.
Euromonitor: Which Wine Producing Region Grows the Fastest?
As part of our summer season promoting databases and ruthlessly plundering Euromonitor’s fabulous blog for all it’s worth, I’d like to present another feature on the Euromonitor database which is the Dashboard map.
Although Italy, France and Spain continue to be among the world’s top five largest wine producers, Europe’s wine production has fallen steadily over the 2009-2014 period as a result of declining wine consumption and the European Union’s regulations to combat over-production (often referred to as the Wine Lake). Meanwhile, Latin America is the fastest-growing wine producing region thanks to favourable farming conditions that enable the region to produce superlative wines at reasonable prices.
http://www.euromonitor.com/medialibrary/PDF/pdf_globalWineProd-v1.0.pdf
Euromonitor video: Trends in Airlines in the Caribbean
In another of our series promoting the delights of the Euromonitor database (library.lincoln.ac.uk > resources > databases > E > Euromonitor) and a Tourism-based theme, I have chosen Trends in Airlines in the Caribbean to highlight that both regional and international airlines boosted overall travel industry performance in the Caribbean. Do you know that last year many airlines added Caribbean destinations? It will be interesting to see how this trend will continue with the opening of Cuba and the lifting of the US embargo on trade after more than fifty years of isolation. Watch the video to find out what the commentator says about this aviation opportunity. An uplifting photo too….
Euromonitor special: Trends in Online Tourism in the Caribbean
Fresh from some apposite Euromonitor training and a subsequent blog post I released last week, the Euromonitor blog is a fertile source of business and marketing information and inspires a worthwhile addition to this blog . This video about Trends in Online Tourism in the Caribbean illustrates how social media and other digital tools are having a large impact on how Caribbean destinations are marketing themselves to tourists. Additionally, online travel retailers and aggregators are expanding services in the region.
Mobile phone sales in Vietnam? Check out the Euromonitor database
Often students struggle on how to start an assignment which asks them about entering a new market with a product of their choice. Which product and what country to invest in? How can they see what the market volume is and whether it is worth entering a country where the market has a healthy forecast? Help is at hand. Fortunately, Euromonitor has the answer to these questions and much more, particularly as I have been exploring the wizardry Dashboard feature (below) on the database which provides the researcher with useful market size and insightful forecast, meaning they can learn if a market has potential or has reached saturation point. The following six-step instructions is a method to easily answer an international business assignment within a few well-spent minutes.
Purely hypothetically if I am interested in selling smartphones in Vietnam via shopping outlets does this idea have any business potential. Simply, is it worth investing in?
1. Firstly, go to library.lincoln.ac.uk > resources > E > Euromonitor.
2. On the homepage go to Choose Industry > Consumer Electronics > Dashboard > GO.
3. Table 1 below shows the market size of consumer electronics (dark blue showing the greatest)
Table 1: Consumer Electronics Dashboard (Market Size)
4. This map can be changed to forecast (on the top left-hand side) to show forecast, to find out whether a growth area like India or far-eastern Asia is worth investing in, and immediately we can see the darker blue areas are worth investigating further.
Table 2: Consumer Electronics (Forecast Growth)
5. If we select Channel View from the tabs we can appreciate that some of far-eastern Asia sells a double-figure growth in consumer electronics using store-based retailing.
Table 3: Store-Based Retailing (Historic Growth)
6. Choose category > Portable Consumer Appliances > Mobile Phones. We can see that from Table 4 the paler blue areas might be worth investigating, like Vietnam. We can hover our mouse over an area and break the data into smaller chunks.
Table 4: Mobile Phones (market size)
Table 5: Mobile Phones (forecast growth)
From Table 5 we can see that consumer electronics are a boom area in Vietnam and selling mobile phones via store-based retailing is worth investing in. Indeed, by hovering the mouse over the country we can see that mobile phones sales are predicted to grow an amazing 13.7%. From these simple steps we can see that it is possible not only to find an idea for an assignment using Euromonitor but we are able to plan the structure too. We can also drill down further into whether we are selling Smartphones, or another mobile phone product. Market wizardry in a snapshot!