Sources and Tools

Sources

As a whole, your research should consist of a range of sources. It is not recommended that you heavily rely on a singe source, as it decreases the validity of your arguments and severely limits your ability to develop in-depth analyses.

Secondary sources

This should be where the bulk of your data comes from. (You might notice that this approach is most similar to the Business SL internal assessment, as compared to the primary-research-focused approach to the HL internal assessment.)

The best way to obtain data is to consult a wide range of sources, such as the following:

• business management textbooks

• scholarly journals and general business books

• industry analyses

• company reports and data

• government documents

Primary research

Although it is not the main focus of the EE, you may use primary research to support your secondary sources. For this to be effective, it must provide additional and significant insight that cannot be found from secondary sources.

A question that you can ask yourself when doing primary research is "Are the data obtained necessary and directly related to the research question?"

Analytical tools & numerical data

EEs that do well typically incorporate business management concepts and tools taught in class when conducting an analysis. Additionally, you must have quantitative data to provide concrete support for these tools.

Some examples of analytical tools you may use are:

• Ansoff Matrix

• BCG Matrix

• Break-even analysis

• Decision trees

• Financial statements

• Ratio analysis

• Fishbone Diagram

• Force field analysis

• Stakeholders analysis

• STEEPLE

• SWOT