Don't Pay Extra For The Harvard Business Review

Reposted from the Library Blog:

Yes you can! Harvard Business Review assigned reading

Save your pennies, students! Alkek Library has just acquired rights for you to use the Harvard Business Review in EBSCO's Business Source Complete for your course assignments and research.

Rest assured that the 'Notice of Use Restrictions' that displays at the end of the articles does NOT APPLY to Texas State University students thanks to those Library Fees collected at the beginning of each semester.

We can't do anything about that notice, but we have posted messages of our own in the Periodical List and in the Database listings to ease your mind.

Happy downloading!

Book Reviews: The Long Tail

For decades, the marketplace revolved around strong demand and limited supply. This dynamic translated into the mass experience and the big hit. The long tail - that part of the graph line after the big hit spike, was uneconomical and difficult to pursue. Due to the realities of production and distribution, keeping niche products around was uneconomical.

Well, those days are gone.

Production is much cheaper and there's more supply. New models of distribution (as in one big national Internet store) mean cheaper warehousing - which means an explosion of niche demand. And the development of mass number of differentiated products means people can buy stuff they actually love - instead of settling for the one big hit that everybody liked OK, but few actually loved.

So- capture niche sales and understand that much of the marketplace will become semi-niche.

Of course, the author Chris Anderson goes into more detail, as in more specific company strategies for distribution, structure and pricing. So read the book.

One criticism of the book is that these lessons are valid but may only apply to certain kinds of consumer goods - most obviously media, book, and music products. Whaddaya think? Drop me a line in the comments.

Fashion and Clothing SWOTs in ABI Inform

ABI Inform does have SWOTs for the fashion industry. Among a galaxy of options, I've seen footwear, athletic clothing, and clothing retail patterns discussed here.

It's a little weird to find.

1. Go to ABI Inform
2. Choose the Browse tab.
3. Choose Just Series Market Research Reports.
4. Choose Just Style.

Wealth in America

Here are some interesting statistics from da gummit.

These are the people with the benjamins, ducats, dough, and dinero.

The statistics measure the form the wealth takes (income or stocks for example), what states have the most wealthy people and how much money that is, and family net worth at the top.

Austin-Round Rock-Hays County Average Wages by Occupation

Find out what the average pay for different professions is in the Austin-Round Rock-Hays County area.

Other Texas areas (including San Antonio) are here.

Income Distribution in America

Here's a Census Report about the last fifty years of income distribution in America. It's called "The Changing Shape of the Nation's Income Distribution, 1947-1998." Good historical overview.

The Statistical Abstract of the United States has some information about the distribution of income by family.

Or you check it out by individual if you like.

Here are some of our books about the topic.

2010 Beige Book Release Calendar

The Federal Reserve published the Beige Book - rather anecdotal accounts of current economic activity that is released a few times a year.

According to the Federal Reserve website:

"Each Federal Reserve Bank gathers anecdotal information on current economic conditions in its District through reports from Bank and Branch directors and interviews with key business contacts, economists, market experts, and other sources."

This is the schedule to the different 2010 Beige Book releases.