This guide is designed to support your research for the creation of your business plan assignment.

To the left you will find links to market research databases, public company information, health statistics, patent search tools, and searching the traditional medical literature.

Contact Entrepreneurship Librarian Carey Toane at carey.toane@utoronto.ca if you have any questions about business resources. You can also book a 30-minute virtual research consultation with Carey on Calendly.

For assistance searching the traditional medical literature, please contact Gerstein Science Information Centre at ask.gerstein@utoronto.ca.

Applied business research is "a form of systematic inquiry that aims to solve specific, practical problems encountered by businesses" (Baimyrsaeva, 2018, in McCarthy, 2024), rather than to conduct a research study or academic article. This kind of research is less well defined than traditional academic literature searching.

For those who are used to the latter, it's worth pointing out that the business information sources featured in this guide are: 

• Created for a corporate audience
• Not typically peer reviewed or published in an academic journal
• Built on reputation and trust, rather than empirical method
• Arranged into competing "walled gardens" with unique taxonomies (no MESH headings)
• Behind paywalls and not indexed in Google or the U of T Library catalogue
• Provide information to test assumptions and reduce risk 
• Future predictions based on past behaviour (not a crystal ball!)
• Finding a clear answer is by no means guaranteed 

How is business information organized?

Typically, a report will focus on industry, company, or user/customer information. As shown in the diagram to the right, these categories often overlap. Business resources are typically organized according to these categories.

U of T Libraries aims to select resources of the best quality. However, we recommend that you always assess the information you find before using it to make [business] decisions. The RADAR framework (Mandalios, 2013) is a tool to help guide your critical assessment of information sources. RADAR stands for:

• Relevance: How is the information relevant to your research question or assignment? Why choose this source over others available? What is the scope of the information provided within? 
• Authority: Who is the author? Is there an author listed? Do they have credentials? How are they connected to the topic? How does this information impact your assessment of the accuracy of the information? Have they shared their methodology or approach? 
• Date: When was the source published? When was the data gathered? Note that for fast-changing technology sectors, a maximum age of 2 years is acceptable for market research. 
• Appearance: Does the source look professional and free of errors? Does it include a logo or URL of a publisher or institution you trust? 
• Reason for writing: What is the apparent purpose of the information source? Is it to inform, persuade, educate or sell? Who does the author seem to be addressing? Is it for a general or specialized audience? What is the author's bias?