The Marketing Innovators: Tapping University Knowledge, Part 1
You’re going to want to bookmark this article! It is chock full of very useful references to marketing knowledge and has many handy web links to connect you to these resources! As you read this article, please give us feedback on resources we may have missed, by emailing the AMA at { newsletters@ama.org]
I asked Greg Thomas, Director of Research at the Emory Marketing Institute, to write an article about the resources that universities offer to marketers and marketing researchers. Greg did such a thorough job that I have decided to split his article into two pieces! The first part appears in this issue, and covers the topics of “Research News” on the web, “Managerial Journals” and “Resource Portals”. Next issue, Greg will explore “Institutes”, “Scholars”, “Academic Events”, “Executive Development”, “Open Education”, “Technology Licensing”, “Student Projects” and “in-residence” programs.
Background: Need for Constant Renewal
It is often said that knowledge assets and intellectual capital are the most important assets of a business. To best compete firms should seek knowledge both internally and externally, tapping into the vast knowledge that exists, and is often accessible, outside the firm. By combining the best of internal ideas with external ideas the company is best poised to win.
Of the sources of knowledge outside of the firm, universities are in most respects optimal resources with which to work. This stems from the fact that universities are more than solely houses for educators, they are filled with scientists that develop new knowledge. The relevant question for managers then is how does one tap into this vast resource of knowledge?
In this newsletter edition I’ll detail Research News, Managerial Journals, and Resource Portals. Tune into our next issue where I’ll discuss Institutes, Scholars, Academic Events, Open Education, Technology Licensing, Student Projects, Scholars-in-Residence, and Executives-in-Residence programs.
Research News
Many top business schools now provide research updates via online news. These sites typically contain analysis of business trends, articles on recent business research, interviews with faculty and industry leaders, and links to additional resources. These sites often let you filter by discipline so you can easily find the articles that are of most interest. Below is a list of some of the best research news sites. They generally require registration to sign up but are free to subscribe:
Knowledge@Emory,
Knowledge@Wharton,
Capital Ideas (University of Chicago),
Stanford Knowledgebase,
Harvard Working Knowledge,
MIT’s Center for Innovation in Product Development,
http://web.mit.edu/cipd/
IESE Insight, and
INSEAD Knowledge.
The Emory Marketing Institute also provides research updates on its website.
Managerial Journals
Managerial journals are scholarly journals that aim at providing practical knowledge for managers. Compared with typical scholarly journals, they are much easier to read and contain a lot fewer Greek symbols and squiggly lines found in advanced mathematics. Many managers are familiar with Harvard Business Review. It is the prototypical managerial journal. Other journals that are of interest to marketing professionals include Sloan Management Review, California Management Review, and Business Horizons.
Resource Portals
Some universities have done the difficult work for you in organizing links on topics of interest to marketing professionals. The most notable is Advertising World, which is hosted by the University of Texas at Austin. For anyone needing to size markets or perform segmentation the University of Michigan’s Statistical Resources on the Web site is indispensable. If you are looking for international data resources then GlobalEdge at Michigan State University is the edge for which you are looking. Some of the resource portals are managed by the university libraries for their students. As such they usually have a mix of links, some of which point to subscription based resources and others to freely available resources. Although you will not have access to the subscription resources for free, these sites are good at helping identify which are worth investigating. Arizona State University’s library has a good portal for Marketing Resources. And the Stanford Jackson Library is a good one too. The Emory Marketing Institute website has a list of Marketing Resources which is currently being updated.
End of Part 1 of Tapping University Knowledge. Part 2 will appear in our next online newsletter, scheduled for August 2008.