Please recommend good web-sites where we can ask questions and receive
advice from experts on
international business topics.Also kindly list web- sites which we can
use for research on international business. Thank you .

---

Clarification of Question by collegestudent-ga on 05 Jul 2002 08:43 PDT

We would pay a reasonable fee that a researcher felt was needed to
answer a  difficult question.Kindly give us feedback.Also remember
that students do not have unlimited funds.However,we accept your
constructive criticism.Thank you.

Dear College Student, 

Bad news first, are that many expert sites did not make any profits
and closed (see  http://www.exp.com) , or degraded themselves into the
businesses of supplying "expert advices" from sex therapists and
psychics (see: http://www.liveadvice.com ; http://www.keen.com) . By
the way, this could be a great idea for a research - why these
businesses fail and how to prevent it. From those who stayed on the
market, I must express my agreement with the commentators - google
answers is by far the best right now.

Good news, are that there are many companies that offer market
research and/or expert advice, such as http://cfo.executiveboard.com/
; www.securityadvisors.com/ ; www.just-the-facts.com ;
www.pennconsulting.com

If you don't like these services, there are many more. Google
directory lists so many, they are alphabeticlly ordered:
http://directory.google.com/Top/Business/Consulting/Research_Services/

Finally, I must express my complete agreement with the comments posted
here.

I hope that helped. My search terms, both in google directory and in
the "regular" google were:
strategic market research
expert advice
"expert advice" "market research"

---

Clarification of Answer by politicalguru-ga on 06 Jul 2002 18:16 PDT

Dear College Student, 

I forgot to add an important advice. You (or your parents :-) paid
tuition. The business department faculty works to provide answers to
your questions, and explain to you where to search for information for
assignments. Most professors would be happy to explain assignments or
to assist your questions, but even those who would do that
reluctantly, must do it. Of course, you shouldn't come as if you
expect them to solve your assignment for you, but sometimes they can
point you to the resources that may help you the best (and all of
that, for free).

---

Request for Answer Clarification by collegestudent-ga on 07 Jul 2002 14:39 PDT

Good news, are that there are many companies that offer market
research and/or expert advice, such as http://cfo.executiveboard.com/
; www.securityadvisors.com/ ; www.just-the-facts.com ;
www.pennconsulting.com
 COULD YOU PLEASE TELL US WHAT THESE COMPANIES CHARGE FOR THEIR
SERVICES? THANK YOU .

---

Clarification of Answer by politicalguru-ga on 09 Jul 2002 01:11 PDT

Dear College Student, 

From what I gather so far, these services are not in the habbit of
making their prices open to the interested public (because of
competition). I suggest you'll contact them with your project, and
reject them if they ask for a price, which you deem as too high.

I hope it helped anyway.

---

Request for Answer Clarification by collegestudent-ga on 09 Jul 2002 05:44 PDT

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ANSWER.5 STARS,HOWEVER ,KINDLY ANSWER THE SECOND
PART OF MY QUESTION"

---

Clarification of Answer by politicalguru-ga on 09 Jul 2002 06:06 PDT

Dear College Student, 

Here are some resources (also check out what Voila-ga has
recommended): -
http://www.fita.org/webindex/index.html 
http://infomine.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/search?busecon 
http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/report/bus-econ/2001/be-010322.html 
http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/rr_gateway/research_guides/busi/intbus.shtml
http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/rr_gateway/research_guides/busi/busejour.shtml
http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/rr_gateway/research_guides/busi/busenews.shtml#B
http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/rr_gateway/research_guides/busi/markres.shtml
http://www.trade.gov/ 
http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/rr_gateway/research_guides/busi/company.shtml
(They have a great library, don't they?)
http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/rr_gateway/research_guides/busi/database.shtml

I hope that helped. I am always glad to help students, so don't
hesitate to ask fro more help - good luck in your studies.

---

Request for Answer Clarification by collegestudent-ga on 10 Jul 2002 15:05 PDT

THE SECOND PART OF OUR QUESTION WAS    "Also kindly list web- sites
which we can
use for research on international business"                           
         THANK YOU

---

Request for Answer Clarification by collegestudent-ga on 14 Jul 2002 14:57 PDT

THANK YOU FOR YOUR EXCELLENT ANSWER.Which banks in NEW YORK CITY WOULD
YOU SAY HAVE GOOD INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENTS FOR A NEW BUSINESS? I was
very disappointed with my experience with both CITIBANK AND CHASE
MANHATTAN BANK,THEY SEEM TO CATER TO ONLY FORTUNE 500 COMPANIES.      
                                    I WAS TOLD BY AN ADVISOR THAT BANK
OF AMERICA IS VERY GOOD,BUT UNFORTUNATELY,THIS BANK DOES NOT HAVE A
PRESENCE IN NEW YORK .CAN YOU PLEASE RECOMMEND SOME CHOICES .

---

Clarification of Answer by politicalguru-ga on 15 Jul 2002 08:08 PDT

Dear College Student, 

I'm afraid I cannot answer the second question without making a new
research (with a new question asked by you). However, I suggest you'll
look beyond commerce banks into investment houses - they might give a
better picture (Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan).

As for your other clarification request, I hope I gave you enough
database to work with, but I would also recommend the economist
(www.economist.com), as an excellent source for intl. business.

What's wrong with this one:

https://answers.google.com/answers/main

?

missy-ga

Hello, collegestudent!

I'm not going to answer your question directly, as asked.  However, I
will take the time to make a few points regarding your experience here
at GA, which seems to have been a little disheartening for you.

To date, you have asked six questions, as I found by searching the
site for your username:

https://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=search&q=Collegestudent-ga&qtype=all

In this instance, the Philip Morris question:
https://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=28501

you have requested information which is simply not readily available
to the public.  Although I doubt that the company holds that
information closely because of the suggested organized crime links,
many large companies (especially those in "questionable" industries)
are simply keeping a low profile to avoid protests and boycotts.  It
is no great imaginative leap to suggest that the diversification of
tobacco companies (PM now owns Kraft, for example) is partially to
make boycotts and similar actions more difficult.

In the case of your questions on South American agriculture and
Russian/Saudi oil:
https://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=35285
https://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=35561

the problem is not with the availability of information, but the time
and effort required for its retrieval.  In the oil question, for
example, you begin by asking for six data points each, for 40
companies.  Then, at the end, you tack on a request for similar data
for two countries, for seven products, for an indefinite number of
companies! If we assume, as researchers, that five companies each in
Russia and Saudi Arabia would satisfy you, that is another 840 data
points added to the original 240.

On sober reflection this is quite a lot of work for $30, don't you
think?

Again, in the South American question, you're looking for 4
commodities X 5 companies X 2 countries (40 questions in one, in
effect) plus contact information for up to 40 companies (there may be
some overlap), and then competitive pricing information as well. 
Guillermo has done excellent work for you to this point, but if he is
unable to complete your wish list of information, he's invested a
great deal of time and effort without getting paid (since you have the
right not to pay for an incomplete answer, and he may not be able to
provide complete information).  This is an unpleasant prospect for a
researcher.

Your sugar and fertilizer questions, of the last few days, are simply
not in the ballpark.  Consensus among the researchers I've
corresponded with is that they will only answer a <$5 question if it
interests them, or if they are able to answer it from their personal
knowledge base with minimal research.  Your recent questions are
unlikely to meet those criteria! Some of our more-skilled researchers
have resolved simply not to answer questions in this price range at
all.

This is not to say that you would not receive a professional,
informative answer to a <$5 question, just that your odds are rather
lower.

I do not post this as a criticism, but to serve as a look "under the
hood", so to speak, at how researchers evaluate questions.  We
understand and appreciate that students have limited budgets. 
However, the researchers on this site have to look at each question in
terms of whether it provides a reasonable return for the time we'd
need to invest.

If you take the time to search the other questions in the
business-related categories, I think you will see that the questions
which have gotten the best-researched answers have been those which
asked very specific questions, and which balanced the information
requested with the price offered.  Some $200 questions are underpriced
even at that, and remain unanswered, while other questions at, say,
only $20 or $25 have gotten excellent answers because they were
succinct and asked for more moderate amounts of information.

Your current question leads me to suppose that you are looking for
alternatives to GA.  I doubt that any other information service could
or would provide you with the quality of research GA does, for
anything approaching the pricing structure that's offered here.
Perhaps rethinking your questions a little would help.  Five $20
questions might be answered more quickly than one $100 question, for
example.

From the diversity and depth of your questions, and your frequent use
of "we", I'm guessing that several of you have pooled resources to
test-drive the service.  Why not put your heads together over the
weekend, and consider the points I've raised?

We're here to help, and we don't get paid if we don't answer
questions, so certainly we're all winners if we can find a way to work
together.

I've spent more time on this note than I have on many questions I've
answered, because it's frustrating to see questions begging for
answers, and researchers begging for questions to answer.  Hopefully
this will help!

Respectfully,

-Chromedome (former student, husband of full-time student)

chromedome - excellent advice and diplomatically put. I wonder if
google will publish a league table of some of the GA metrics - i.e.
value of question vs time answered, top researchers, top questioners
etc? My feelings on GA at present is that its a new service, (there is
critism out there : http://www.traffick.com/article.asp?aID=69 on
previous attempts to have interactive answers on the net) and that the
whole system is bedding down and establishing the 'ground rules' - in
time the the right 'value' to the 'right' question will be established
simply by market forces - i.e. poorly worded or undervalued questions
simply won't get answered.

Hi college student,

I couldn't agree more with what's been said already, especially
politicalguru's last comment about resources.  I ran across this
website today that might be of interest so I'm passing it along.  It
contains a wealth of information including a section "researching on
the web" and so much more.
http://www.iss.stthomas.edu/studyguides 
(courtesy of this website)
http://www.louisburgcrossroads.com/greene-vickrey/skillslinks.htm

We're always here to help if you need us ;-)
V

THE SECOND PART OF OUR QUESTION WAS    "Also kindly list web- sites
which we can
use for research on international business"                           
         THANK YOU

Expert services are interesting. When I was actively recruiting top
experts to teach at professional seminars, I asked virtually all to
volunteer. Why? Because I couldn't pay them what they were worth, and
it is better to make the invitation an honor than to devalue it with
inadequate compensation. This is perhaps why AllExperts continues to
have some very qualified experts who work for free.

This service won't be taken over by psychics, and the Internet
curmudgeons at Traffick suggest happened with Keen. However, like Keen
and LiveAdvice, it will suffer from the very real effect of primarily
attracting jacks of all trades, who are masters of none. Why would a
professional check in when any question offering compensation worth
his time has been grabbed by a researcher who liked the offered
compensation?

This service also has an issue of an inadequate volume of questions.
That may be cured in part if Google finds partners, but for now the
volume is low. This suggests that those experts who hover over their
computers and grab top paying questions will reap most of the rewards,
while others scrabble for the leftovers.

What is surprising, at least to me, is how many people are willing to
devote considerable time to $2 questions. Granted, if I were again a
college student, being an expert here might be a nice way to
supplement my lifestyle even at $2/question.