B241 - Retail Strategy and Structure

Here is a summary of the research assignment for B241:

Discuss how Sears slipped from the largest retailer in the U.S. to the position they are in today. Detail the retail strategies that caused this slide, and provide recommendations for their go-forward strategy.

For this assignment you will need to locate:

a) Company information about Sears and their decline in the retail industry. For an overview of how to use Gutman Library resources go find company information such as history, articles from business newspapers and magazine, or other data review our Finding Company Information Resource Page.

b) Industry information about the retailing industry that may discuss competitors, trends that impacted on Sears, shifting consumer interests, etc. For guidance on doing industry research view our Industry Information - Doing the Research resource page.

c) Other Tips: what databases may be helpful and what are some search tips that can help to get good information for this research paper: These are suggestions, but Gutman Library has other databases that may help such as Lexis/Nexis, Plunkett Research, and ValueLine Research Center that may help as well.

Business & Company Resource Center

Review their company history of Sears which tracks significant changes and events. Here is a screen shot - make sure you search "Sears Roebuck" and go to the "history" tab.

Proquest ABI/Inform (use the "ABI Combined" option from the drop box on the library's home page)

Here's a recommended search strategy to find articles about problems at Sears. Be sure to change the idexes so that you search sears as a "company" and "business conditions" as subject. The articles will deal with various types of problems Sears has faced over the last several years.

EBSCO Business Source Premier

Here's a similar strategy to use in Business Source Premier. Be sure to search "sears" in the "company entity" field. Make sure the search screen specifies "Business Source Premier" as the database.

Other Search Terms You May Use

In addition to search by the company name, you may also try searches on terms such as "retail industry" "retail trade" and combine them with terms such as "trends" "strategy", etc.

To find articles about Sears strategy for success try searching with words such as "turnaround" or "come back". Searches on "sears" and "strateg*" could also work well . Be sure to truncate with the asterisk (*) for terms like "strateg*" to find strategy, strategic, and so on.