Global Trade and Economics - Manufacturing Medical Instruments

Premise

You work for a multinational manufacturer of medical instruments and have been tasked with identifying a location to construct a new factory. You first task is to narrow your search to one or two nations with healthy economies and welcoming business environments.

Preliminary Discussion

The librarian should initiate a discussion where students brainstorm the kinds of information that would be helpful in addressing this scenario. Such a discussion will likely result in factors like economic growth and stability, political stability, trade relations, regulatory environments, a skilled workforce, etc. The librarian can lead the students in identifying the kinds of data that would indicate such factors, such as GDP for an indicator of economic growth and stability.

Economic, demographic, and other indicators can be found in both free and fee-based sources. The librarian can describe the differences in the information available and the fact that many sources provide some information freely but charge for full data sets. When new resources are introduced it should be made clear which are freely available and which will no longer be accessible to students after graduation.

It should be emphasized that the librarian is not teaching students how to best address the scenario, but how to use information sources that would be useful in addressing such a scenario. Assumptions and shortcuts may be necessary in order to more efficiently explore the resources, but students must understand that they would likely be inappropriate in an actual analysis.

First Resource

Students may voice a need to obtain both data and analysis or commentary. The librarian can first demonstrate a source for raw data, such as the World Bank's World Development Indicators database, the freely available data at the UNdata website (http://data.un.org/), or the globalEDGE site hosted by Michigan State University (http://globaledge.msu.edu/). Students can be given several minutes to explore the resource on their own, with the objective of identifying nations that exhibit desirable characteristics, such as a stable economy or an educated workforce. One or two students should be invited to share their selections and their reasoning with the group.

Second Resource

To better inform their own analysis students should consider work already published by others. In-depth reports and profiles of countries that examine a nation's economy, politics, and business climate are a good place to start. There are a number of publishers of such content. The librarian can list several and describe the differences in the kinds of topics they cover, their methodologies, and other relative strengths and weaknesses. Publishers of general reports, like the Economist Intelligence Unit, can be distinguished from publishers of more narrow reports, like the PRS Group's Political Risk Yearbook. Such reports can be obtained direct from publishers, but they are also aggregated in databases like EBSCO's Business Source Premier and LexisNexis Academic. The U.S. Commercial Service Market Research Library includes the Department of Commerce's popular and freely available Country Commercial Guides (http://www.buyusainfo.net/adsearch.cfm?search_type=int&loadnav=no).

The librarian may mention several of these sources but should select one for demonstration. Students can be given several minutes to further explore it on their own, after which one or two can share the information they have found and believe to be relevant to the case.

Third Resource

Students may have discussed the importance of a business-friendly regulatory environment. The librarian can demonstrate free resources like the World Bank's Doing Business website (http://www.doingbusiness.org/)

Wrap Up

It is always beneficial to review the issues raised during the preliminary discussion, the principles of information literacy revealed through that discussion, and the ways that specific resources introduced during the discussion met the information needs voiced by students. The librarian should emphasize to students that there are probably additional information needs inherent in the case, and there are many other resources available. Distributing a handout that describes these additional resources helps the librarian remain focused on effectively introducing a limited set of resources.

The librarian should remind students that the objective of the session was not to teach them how to conduct a country screening, but to demonstrate information-seeking strategies and resources that would be useful in conducting a country screening.

Submitted By

Andy Spackman, MBA, MLS
Business and Economics Librarian

1522 Harold B. Lee Library
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84602

(801) 422-3924
andy_spackman@byu.edu
http://www.lib.byu.edu/business/

Originally Submitted: March 2, 2009

• A copy of the handout created to accompany this case as conducted at Brigham Young University in January 2009 can be downloaded here.