Foster Business Library


Electronic Commerce Resources


Foster Business Library research guides are aimed at University of Washington students, faculty, and staff, highlighting resources available to them; users not currently affiliated with the university may be unable to access some of these resources.
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Foster Business Library Databases:

The Foster Business Library offers an extensive collection of over fifty databases on its homepage; see under Databases. For a complete list of Foster databases, see the List of All Business Databases. Access to these databases from off campus requires that you first go to the Off-Campus Access button, in the upper right of all library webpages. These resources may not be accessed from off campus except by those with a valid UW Net ID and password. For more information on Foster business databases, click Databases, A-Z. For information on which Foster business databases to use, see the Database Index. For information on accessing Foster databases from off campus, see Database Access. For guidelines on responsible database usage, see Database Usage.

  • Forrester Research:   On the Foster Business Library homepage, listed under Business Databases.   Forrester is an independent research firm that concentrates on the effects of technology change on businesses, consumers, and society, and analyzes such technology areas as new media, computing, software, networking, telecommunications, and the Internet.

  • Gale Virtual Reference Library:   On the Foster Business Library homepage, listed under List of All Business Databases.   The Gale Virtual Reference Library is a database of encyclopedias, almanacs, and specialized reference sources for multidisciplinary research; go to Business for three major business sources:   the Encyclopedia of American Industries (4th ed., 2005), the Encyclopedia of Business and Finance (2001), and the Encyclopedia of Small Business (2nd ed., 2002). See Electronic Commerce, in the Encyclopedia of Business and Finance.

  • Gartner Research:   Under Business Databases on the Foster Business Library homepage. The Gartner Research database provides in-depth analysis and market intelligence for the information technology industry. It covers the full range of products and technologies associated with computer hardware, software, communications products, financial services, electronic business, and healthcare application software worldwide. Access to this database, on campus or off, requires a valid UW Net ID.

  • InfoTech Trends:   On the Foster Business Library homepage, listed under Business Databases. InfoTech Trends indexes statistics and forecasts published in computer and telecommunication trade publications.

  • Investext:   Listed under Business Databases on the Foster homepage, Investext Plus contains abstracts and full text reports and forecasts for more than 11,000 U.S. and international companies and for 53 industries, prepared by several hundred top Wall Street and international brokerage firms. Reports vary in length and are in PDF format. To find reports on electronic commerce, key this phrase in the Keyword Search box for a list of over 100 reports.

  • MarketResearch.com Academic:   This database contains comprehensive full-text market research reports covering a broad range of markets, industries, and companies from reputable market intelligence sources such as Packaged Facts, Icon Group, and many others, for U.S. and global markets, covering over 2,000 industries and products.

    As an example, a search for the term Electronic Commerce produced over sixty reports.

    Web Resources:

    Unlike library databases, Web resources are available wherever you have web access; they do not require that you access them via the Off-Campus Access button, in the upper right of all library webpages. When using web resources, be sure to evaluate the credibility of these resources. For a subject index to web resources, see Business Resources on the Web on the Foster Business Library homepage.

    Background Information:

  • Global Technology Forum:   This Economist Intelligence Unit site provides electronic commerce news, best practices in many industries, market trends, business strategies, executive surveys, expert opinions, and how to do electronic commerce in many countries (under Doing EBusiness In).

  • The Information Economy:   The Information Economy homepage, from Hal Varian, of Berkeley, includes online information about "the economics of the internet, information goods, intellectual property and related issues."

  • Wikipedia:   This free online user-created and maintained encyclopedia can be a good starting point for an orientation to a topic. See their entry for Electronic Commerce.

    Governmental Sources:

  • E-Gov:   This site coordinates, monitors and reports on U.S. federal government electronic commerce activities. Full text documents are available in the Library and News sections.

  • Measuring the electronic economy:   This U.S. Census Bureau site provides information on the current status and next steps in the Bureau's programs for measuring the electronic economy, with links to papers on this topic and to data on e-commerce sales.

    News Sources:

  • MagPortal E-Business:   MagPortal is a periodical article aggregator, bringing together many dozens of fulltext articles on electronic commerce from a wide variety of sources (such as Forbes, Computer User, The Industry Standard, eCompany Now, CIO, Red Herring). There are subcategories for B2B and for B2C and a search box.

  • E-Commerce Times:   This free online publication is devoted to news and articles about electronic commerce, with daily news and features aimed at entrepreneurs and companies doing business on the internet. The site includes a search feature so that users can retrieve articles and news.

  • Red Herring:   This monthly technology magazine offers monthly insider news and analysis and maintains an online archive of all its issues since it started in 1993. Searching this site for the term Electronic Commerce retrieved over 2,000 articles; searching on the term Security retrieved nearly 1,000 articles.

    Other Sources:

  • ClickZ Stats:   Formerly called CyberAtlas, this site is devoted to Web marketing data and information, with up-to-date news briefs on subjects such as Traffic Patterns, Advertising, Geographics, Demographics, and Hardware, as well as archived articles on these subjects.

    Statistics:

  • Statistical Resources on the Web:   This University of Michigan Documents Center site offers long lists of links to statistics on the Internet and a shorter list on Electronic Commerce.

    Foster Business Library Reference Collection:

    The Foster Business Library Reference Collection consists of business handbooks, encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other quick reference tools. It is located behind the Reference Desk in Foster, arranged by call number. Reference materials cannot be checked out; they may only be used in the library.

  • Statistical abstract of the United States.
    Information about many industries as well as demographic information; check index for references to tables. The sources for each table are often a valuable source of additional information.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HA202 .U56 (annual)
    Also available online.

    Look for tables on Electronic Commerce in the index, at the end of the volume.

  • World development indicators.
    This World Bank volume contains a large number of tables listing each country and key data about its people, environment, economy, markets, employment, poverty, and many other topics.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HC59.15 W656 (annual)
    Also available, in part, online at http://www.worldbank.org/data/wdi/home.html.

    See section 5.10 for Information Age for data on internet hosts, personal computers, etc., for many countries.

  • Digital planet 2002: the global information economy..
    This pamphlet examines tech segments and global markets, the economics of global information and communications technology, and the high tech society, with many tables on global growth and spending in these areas, with data about online users per country, personal computers, worldwide IT spending by country (hardware, software, services), electronic commerce (B2B, B2C), internet users, home internet users, and much more.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HC79 .I55 .D52 2002.

    See pages 16, 38 to 39, 44, 45, and 49 (among others) for Electronic Commerce.

  • Standard & Poor's industry surveys.
    This three-volume set provides 30-page profiles on 52 industries with a focus on the current economic environment, trends, regulation and outlook for each industry. The arrangement of this set is alphabetically by S&P industry name. Major companies in each industry are profiled, with references to sources of additional industry information.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HC106.6 .S74

    For information about electronic commerce, consult volume one of this set, under Computers: Consumer Services And The Internet.

  • Encyclopedia of global industries.
    Twelve-page descriptions of 125 global industries, with background and development information, current conditions, industry leaders and further reading.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HD2324 .E53 2003.

    See E-Commerce on index page 1208.

  • Encyclopedia of emerging industries.
    Five-page descriptions of over 100 new industries, with an industry snapshot, organization and structure, background and development, pioneers in the field, current conditions, industry leaders and references to further reading.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HD2423 .E527 2001.

    See a series of chapters on various forms of Electronic Commerce on pages 165 to 208.

  • The ultimate small business guide: a resource for startups and growing businesses.
    This paperback covers planning a new business, protecting your idea, setting up or acquiring a business, finding a property, financing a business (with many relevant calculators), marketing your idea, working and communicating with customers, growing your business, setting up a website, selling online, managing yourself and others, and selling or exiting a business.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HD2340.8 .U48 2004.

  • Encyclopedia of business ethics and society.
    This five-volume reference work includes 900 essays by scholars, arranged alphabetically by topic, on all aspects of business ethics.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5387 .E53 2008.

    See Electronic Commerce in volume two, on pages 668 to 673.

  • Market share reporter.
    Annual two-volume compilation of U.S. and world market share data for companies, products and services, arranged by SIC code, and with indexes by product, company and topic.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5410 .M35 (Annual)

    See the index in volume two for Electronic Commerce.

    Foster Business Library Books:

    The Foster Business Library maintains a collection of over 70,000 books on all business topics. To search for materials on all three campuses of the University of Washington, go to the UW Libraries Catalog, in the upper left corner of the Foster Business Library homepage. Search by keyword, title, author, series, etc.

    To limit the results of your search just to materials in the Foster Business Library collection, use the Modify or Limit options at the top of the search results and change the library location to Foster Business Library. Availablity is indicated on the right of each online catalog record. First, note in which collection, within Foster, your materials are in, since the library has ten different Collections, each in a different location and often with differing arrangements. "Available" indicates that the book should be on the shelves under that call number and available for you to check out. "Due" and a date indicates that the book is already checked out to someone and is due back on the date indicated; you can have the "Request/Place Hold" feature to recall the book for your use.

    If the material you want is not in the collections of the University of Washington, you can use the "Search Summit" feature to repeat your search in the combined holdings of over thirty cooperating libraries in Washington and Oregon. Use the "Request This Item" feature in Summit to have books in those library sent here to Foster for you to check out.

    The Foster general stacks collection is located south of the main part of the Foster Business Library, through the two pass-throughs into the basement of Balmer. The arrangement is by call number, from A (at the east end, near the Copy Center) to Z (at the far west end).

    A subject search in the UW Libraries Catalog for Electronic Commerce produced a list of over 870 records throughout the UW libraries, with over 145 records in the Foster Business Library. Examples of such records include:

    See also related subjects, with Foster Business Library holdings, such as:

    Foster Business Library Articles:

    Articles in academic journals, magazines, trade periodicals, and newspapers are one of the best sources for any kind of research. While the Foster Business Library offers a large periodicals print collection, comprising over 800 titles, articles are most easily accessed online, 24/7, in such fulltext article databases as EBSCO Business Source Premier, Factiva, LexisNexis Academic, Newsbank Infoweb, and ProQuest Databases. These article databases are available in the library or from off-campus, and provide access to over 10,000 periodicals and millions of articles.

    Library access to most ProQuest databases will terminate at the end of spring quarter 2008, except for ProQuest NewsStand, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, Historical New York Times, and the Historical Wall Street Journal. For more about this change, see UW Libraries Providing New Databases. After this change, comprehensive article searches should be performed in EBSCO Business Source Premier, Newsbank Infoweb, and ProQuest NewsStand. Also, after this change, links to the articles below will be broken.

    ProQuest Databases:

    This database--actually, a family of over two dozen databases--offers full text articles for over 10,000 publications, including scholarly journals, magazines, trade and industry periodicals, newspapers, and reports on a very wide range of topics. To find articles on specific topics, search by word or phrase by keying your search phrase into the search box--or search for your topic in the Topic Guide.

    Your search terms will be highlighted in red in each article.

    As an example, a search in this database for the subject SUB(Electronic Commerce) retrieved over 77,000 articles. Narrowing this search to SUB(Electronic Commerce) and SUB(Automobile Industry) reduced the number of articles to 670. Limiting this search further, as an example, to SUB(Electronic commerce) and SUB(Automobile Industry) and SUB(Supply Chains), cut the number of articles to about fifty.

    Examples of articles from these searches include:

    Help:

    12 September 2000; updated 8 May 2008.   Peter Stevens, Business Librarian, stevens@u.washington.edu


    E-Biz Program