Advice: Finding relevant information for your digisoc assessments.
Journal articles/ Company information/ Sector trends/ Market Research…
You can access a wide range of high quality information sources on the Library subject guides to support your studies.
For digisoc1, digisoc2 and digisoc3 assessments you can access relevant journal articles, company information, sector trends or specific industries to help you generate ideas and link to the research to back up your analysis in your work.
This is not a definitive list by any means but these are some of the most useful tools.
Library Search: an excellent resource that allows you to search for and access resources (articles, books, journals, images etc.) held by or subscribed to by The University of Manchester Library. It pulls together many of the Library’s systems and allows you to search across them simultaneously.
Web of Science: a key multidisciplinary database that covers all subjects taught at the University of Manchester
Business Source Premier: This database provides access to SWOT analysis reports. The Opportunities and Threats sections of these should provide some good ideas to get started. There will be both individual company (e.g. “Hilton hotels”) or sector reports available. Simply type the name of the company / sector in one search box, then SWOT in the other.
Mintel: A database of UK market research reports which is heavily consumer focused. You will find lots of sector and demographic information on here and the database is very user friendly.
Passport: This online market research tool monitors industry trends and provides strategic analysis and a market size and market share database covering over 350 markets and 850 cities. Euromonitor also has the world’s most comprehensive research on the luxury goods industry. They monitor and analyse industry trends in personal goods globally, including in-depth data on market share and market size.
We have produced a Market and Sector research podcast for locating relevant information which you will find useful.
Statista: A database of statistical reports covering media, business, finance, politics and general demographics. Try a search for “digital marketing” or “digital advertising” and you should get plenty of relevant results.
World Advertising Research Centre (WARC): This database contains company specific case studies and many of them focus on digital communication strategies. As an example a search for “adidas digital communication” returns 197 results.
Happy researching and good luck with your assessments.
Please email digisoc@manchester.ac.uk with any questions or problems.
