Researching Markets by Industry Sectors: A Guide to Sources and Services 1999 Free

In Researching Markets by Industry Sectors: A Guide to Sources and Services 1999, David Mort gives a detailed guide to sources of information about key UK industry sectors. Entries are grouped into 15 broad industry sectors, such as mining, energy, and utilities; metals; agriculture, food, and drink; and financial services. There is also a chapter on general business information sources, and other services (leisure, local government, and property services). Some of the larger industries have been broken down into sub‐sectors, for example, financial services is grouped into banks and building societies; insurance and pensions; and other financial sectors, which seems to be primarily financial activities and investment. Within a sector or sub‐sector, entries are grouped into company information and industry directories; trade press; market data and statistics; Internet; and associations and information sources. There is a brief description of each source (including frequency and price for print publications) plus contact information, including e‐mail addresses and URLs where appropriate. The primary emphasis is on UK sources, though relevant European and international sources have also been included, particularly for global industries such as chemicals and mining. The majority of the sources included are available in print, something unusual in the Internet age. This may say something about the rate at which UK industry and market research organisations are moving to electronic publishing. Though the introduction says that Mort does not intend to be comprehensive, he has included a wide range of sources that will be useful to business information specialists who need to locate information about specific industries in the UK. A companion volume, Market Research Sourcebook 1999, also published by Headland, covers more general sources of market research. While the range of sources covered is impressive, the book would be improved by better design – the font size used for the sub‐sectors is smaller than that used for the subsequent headings, making it difficult to spot them quickly on the page. I would like to have seen the sub‐sectors listed on the table of contents to improve access, since there is a title index but no subject index. There was an apparent lack of attention to detail at the proofing stage as well – there are enough orphaned headings at the bottom of columns to be irritating to the reader, and there is at least one incorrect URL (Health on the Net is www.hon.ch, not www.hom.ch). Recommended for experienced researchers who need to identify specific sources of market research on a range of UK industries, or for those new to the field of business information who want to familiarise themselves with the types of sources available.