Web Resources:

Unlike library databases, these Web resources are available wherever you have web access; they do not require that you access them via the UW Connectivity Kit or the UW Libraries Proxy Server for authentication. 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.
• BMW International:   Company websites can be a rich source of information on corporate history, financials, marketing, news, and product information--or they can provide very little information about the company while furnishing a very large amount of product information. This site falls in the latter category. For corporate rather than product and marketing information, go to the homepage for the BMW Group. See also the link to Investor Relations for their Annual Reports. See the News section for information about recent sales figures. Click here for the hard-to-find investor information. The BMW USA homepage provides consumers with an ability to compare its models with those of its competitors and to build their own BMW to their specifications, with pricing and lease rates, with that information forwarded to their local BMW retailer. BMW USA also supports the BMW Car Club of America, with over 50,000 member/customers; purchasers of new or preowned BMWs are eligible for rebates of from $500 to $1500 through the club. In addition, see the Production section of the BMW Group site for information about how their driving machines are produced, including the technology employed in the process.

• Automotive Intelligence:   This site provides information about automobile companies from around the world. Manufacturers are its main focus, but it has suppliers too. Revenues, production, employees, income, profits, and historical revenues are available in addition to information about the companies and about the automotobile industry. The site includes a search feature. See the company profile for BMW AG, with links to extensive information about sales by model and by region, as well as much other information. A site search for BMW at this site produced a list of over 1,000 articles, with the most recent dated last summer. See also the data for worldwide sales by manufacturer for 1997, 1998 and 1999 as well as a list of companies ranked by market capitalization in December 2000.

• Just-Auto.Com:   Just-Auto is an online portal for automotive industry professionals, with news, articles, reports, and industry resources. Some of the reports on this website are available only for a fee. A search for BMW at this site produced a list of over 500 articles; a search for BMW and Marketing produced 172 articles, some of them restricted to members.

• Business Full Coverage (Yahoo! Daily News):   Yahoo! Daily News for business includes Business Full Coverage webpages for four dozen important business topics of high interest, including many industries. These full coverage reports collect articles, webpages, and links to relevant organizations, audio, video, and recent news stories. See their Business Full Coverage for the Automotive Industry.

• U.S. Office of Automotive Affairs:   The mission of the U.S. Office of Automotive Affairs is to facilitate and expand global business opportunities for U.S. automotive vehicle and parts manufacturers. OAA's client companies range from General Motors - the world's largest corporation - to large, medium and small automotive parts and accessory suppliers. The Office maintains close relationships with a wide variety of individual U.S. and foreign-based companies and their representative trade associations. This office is part of the International Trade Administration in the U.S. Department of Commerce. There is no search box at this site. See their Automobile Industry Data, Quick Facts on the U.S. motor vehicle market, Market Research, Import Requirementsand Industry Links.

• National Automobile Dealers Association:   "The National Automobile Dealers Association, founded in 1917, represents more than 19,400 new car and truck dealers, both import and domestic, with more than 49,300 separate franchises. NADA membership is open to any new-automobile or new-truck dealership holding a new automobile or truck sales and service franchise." The Association "provides counsel on legal and regulatory matters, represents dealers on Capitol Hill, develops research data on the automobile industry, and operates training and service programs to improve dealership business operations, sales and service practices. See their Research and Industry Data. This site also offers a search engine. A search for BMW produced a list of 12 articles.

• Automobile Magazine:   This U.S. enthusiasts' magazine covers a wide range of world automobiles from a performance standpoint. Their site offers an archive search feature as well as a site search. A site search for BMW retrieved over 100 results.

• Car and Driver Magazine:   This American enthusiasts' automobile magazine covers a wide range of world automobiles, again from a performance standpoint. Their site does not offer an archive search feature but there is a search engine for the site. A site search for BMW retrieved a long list of articles reviewing or comparing BMW models.

• Road and Track Magazine:   Another enthusiast magazine, this site now offers a search feature. A site search for BMW retrieved over 20 articles.

• TheCarConnection.com:   "Launched in January 1997, TCC has won more awards than any other automotive source online." "TheCarConnection.com … is the Web's Automotive Authority, offering a complete editorial source for news and reviews, spy shots and shopping guides, tips and expert advice." A site search for BMW produced nearly 1,000 references.

• AutoIndex World Car Catalogue:   This site provides an extensive alphabetical index to car companies worldwide, grouped by Europe, North America, Asia, Australia, South America, and Africa. Click on the company name for a page of information, often including contact information, a company description, photos of the current models, photos of previous models, links to news, links to assembly plant information, and a list of variations. See BMW.

• Insurance Institute for Highway Safety:   "For over 30 years the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has been a leader in finding out what works and doesn't work to prevent motor vehicle crashes in the first place and reduce injuries in the crashes that still occur. The Institute's research focuses on countermeasures aimed at all three factors in motor vehicle crashes (human, vehicular, and environmental) and on interventions that can occur before, during, and after crashes to reduce losses." This site is an excellent source for information on a wide variety of topics and for motor vehicle ratings. For example, see the BMW 3-series.

• J.D. Power and Associates:   This worldwide marketing information firm has, since 1969, provided a variety of rankings of products in the automotive, boat, finance, travel, telecom, healthcare, and housing industries, specializing in customer satisfaction measurement. Their automotive section is set up to allow consumers to compare J.D. Power ratings for various makes and models of automobiles, and to do comparisons. This section also offers a Search feature. See their Automotive rating section and their search results for BMW.

• Business Updates:   According to Robert Berkman, "This portal collects timely headlines from online news sites and a selection of blogs via the use of RSS feed technology. Business Updates currently provides news headlines on more than a dozen popular, narrowly defined business topics as well as news about and from 15 large corporations." Among the fifteen companies covered is BMW.

The Foster Reference Collection is located behind the Reference Desk in Foster.
• International marketing data and statistics.
  Demographic trends and forecasts, economic indicators, labor force, trade, energy, environment, consumer expenditures and market size, and retailing information for the Americas, Asia, Africa and Oceania; companion volume to European marketing data and statistics.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HA42 .I56. 2002.

  See Automotives on pages 573 to 578.

• 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 2001.
  Also available online.

  See index pages 966 and 967 for many tables on Motor Vehicles.

• European marketing data and statistics.
  Demographic trends and forecasts, economic indicators, labor force, trade, energy, environment, consumer expenditures and market size, and retailing information for European countries.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HA1107 .E87 2002.

  See Automotives on pages 379 to 393.

• World consumer income & expenditure patterns.
  The first half of this volume covers socio-economic patterns, personal income, and consumer expenditures in the domestic market by commodity and by function for 52 major countries, with data from 1990 to 1998; the second half consists of individual five-page profiles for each country.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HB522 .W67 1999.

  See Consumer Expenditure on Purchase of Cars, Motorcycles and Other Vehicles, 1990-1998 on pages 137 and 138.

• 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, etc.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HC59.15 .W656 2001.
  Also available, in part, online at http://www.worldbank.org/data/wdi/home.html.

  See Motor Vehicles on page 3.12 and Information Age on page 5.10.

• 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. Major companies in each industry are profiled, with references to sources of additional industry information.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HC106.6 .S74 March 2002.

  See Autos and Auto Parts in volume one.

• Industry surveys.
  This excellent reference provides 25 essays, mostly by professors of economics, about 13 significant industries.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HC106.8 .I53 1998.

  See the industry survey for Automobiles on pages 3 to 27.

• Consumer dimensions 2000.
  Trend data on U.S. population, marital and housing status, education, employment, income, residence location, race and ethnicity, food and beverage, shopping, personal care, health and health care expenditures, internet usage, sports and fitness, leisure time, travel, automotive, financial and alcohol and tobacco.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HC110.C6 C562 2000

  See chapter nine for Automotive, starting on page 475, with consumption information.

• Business: the ultimate resource.
  This 2,200-page single volume is "designed to offer a wide range of insights, information, and practical guidance on every aspect of management" via 2.5 million words of text from 200 contributors, with 700 illustrations and 150 maps, in seven major sections including best practice, a management library, business thinkers and management giants, a business dictionary, a world business almanac, and a guide to business sources.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HD38.15 .B878 2002.

  See the industry profile for Automotives on pages 1825 to 1827.

• 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 1999.

  See Motor Vehicles, starting on page 1011.

• International directory of company histories.
  This set of over 30 volumes offers histories of more than 4,000 companies, worldwide, with each history running just two to four pages; check the company index in the most recently published volume to locate a specific company history or update as well as any other references to that company in other company histories.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HD2721 .I57

  See Bayerische Motoren Werke in volume one, pages 138 to 140, with an update in volume 11, pages 31 to 33.

• Notable corporate chronologies.
  This two-volume work covers 1,500 major companies worldwide, with one- or two-page timelines marking major events in each company's history.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HD2721 .N67 1999.

  See Bayerische Motoren Werke in volume one, pages 206 to 207, for the company's chronology to 1997; see updates in volume 11, pages 31 to 33, and in volume 38, pages 83 to 87.

• Ward's motor vehicle facts & figures.
  This slim annual volume covers a multitude of facts about the U.S. auto industry with an emphasis on the U.S., Canadian and Mexican markets. There is an index but without any references to specific manufacturers.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HD9710 .U5 .M63a 2002.

  See World Production on pages 12 and 13; U.S. Retail Sales, starting on page 15; World Registrations, on pages 50 and 53; World Trade in Motor Vehicles, page 59.

• A2C: the second automotive century.
  This 74-page pamphlet, from PriceWaterhouseCoopers, in three sections, examines the challenges and opportunities, new boundaries, strategic scenarios facing automobile companies worldwide, and forecasts for the industry and its key players into 2006. Unfortunately there is no index to the sections or to the report as a whole.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HD9710 .A2 .A19 2000a.
  Also available online, in PDF format.

  See four references to BMW in section one.

• Ward's automotive yearbook.
  The primary sourcebook for current information about all aspects of the automotive industry.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HD9710 .U5 .W3 2002.

  See World Wrapup on pages 13; Global Auto Industry on pages 14 to 34; Focus: Asia/Pacific, pages 66 to 90; Focus: Europe, pages 92 to 113; Focus: United States, pages 119 to 123. See also index page 10 for many references to BMW.

• Demographics USA. County edition.
  1,500 pages of maps, demographic and economic information, covering population, race and ethnicity, age and sex, income, retail sales, business establishments, consumer expenditures and employment data for states, counties, metro areas and cities.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF3007 .S96 2002.

  See Consumer Expenditures for total U.S., section 12, for expenditures on transportation.

• Market share reporter.
  Annual compilation of U.S., Canadian, and Mexican 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 2003.

  See BMW in table #1026 on page 228 and in table #1874 on page 412.

• World market share reporter.
  An annual compilation of market share information for worldwide companies culled from thousands of periodical articles; use the company, product or brand indexes in the back of the volume to identify the company that you are researching.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5410 .W67 2001-2002.

  See BMW in ten tables in the company index on page 489 and in table #980 on page 264.

• The Advertising Age encyclopedia of advertising.
  In three volumes, this heavily-illustrated encyclopedia includes profiles of more than 120 ad agencies worldwide, essays on 80 leading agencies, detailed articles on 40 U.S. agencies, biographies of 47 major advertising figures, as well as 160 significant corporate advertisers, brands, and campaigns, 20 essays on market research methods, and 52 essays on advertising tools and operations.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5803 .A28 2003.

  In volume one, see Automobiles, pages 108 to 115. For BMW, see index page 1749 in volume three.

• Standard directory of advertisers.
  This annual two-volume publication, also known as the Advertiser Red Book, is the most comprehensive source for information on the advertising practices of 24,000 U.S. and Canadian companies spending a minimum of $200,000 on national and regional advertising. See the company index on pages A-1 to A-49.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5805 .S7 2003.
  

  See BMW of America on page 195.

• Company/brand$.
  This two-volume work reports and itemizes all paid advertising space and expenditures in ten major media categories for companies and brands in America, in several hundred consumer and Sunday magazines, in newspapers, outdoor advertising, television, and radio.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5813 .U6 .C68 2001.
  

  See BMW in book I, pages 117 to 120.

• Encyclopedia of major marketing campaigns.
  This massive 2,000-page reference profiles 500 of the most notable advertising and marketing campaigns of the twentieth century, from Adolph Coor's Zima to Zenith Electronics' The Quality Goes in Before The Name Goes On. Arrangement is by company name and, if the company name is that of a person, by their first name. For each campaign, there is a four-page chapter with an overview, historical content, target market, competition, market strategy and outcome, as well as a few suggestions for further reading.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5837 .E53 2000

  See 15 references to BMW on index page 1998 as well as a feature essay on Bayerische Motoren Werke on pages 148 to 151.

• LexisNexis corporate affiliations: who owns whom.
  This set of eight volumes covers over fifty thousand U.S. and international companies and their subsidiaries, with a master index in volumes one and two; U.S. public companies in volumes three and four; U.S. private companies in volumes five and six; and international public and private companies in volumes seven and eight.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HG4057 .A219 2005.

  See Bayerisches Motoren Werke in volume seven, on pages 327 to 329.

The Foster Business Library maintains a collection of over 70,000 books on all business topics, including many books useful for country research. To identify relevant books, go to the UW Libraries Catalog on the Foster Business Library homepage (under Business Databases). Try searching by keyword. Use the Limit/Sort feature to create a list of books in the Foster Business Library and in order from newest book to oldest. To do so, use the pulldown menu under WHERE item is located to specify Foster Business Library and click on the box near the bottom Sort results by year. Then click on Limit/sort items retrieved using above data. Clicking on the titles in the resulting list will bring up the full catalog record, indicating which Foster area has the book (general stacks, reference, reserve, etc.), the call number and the circulation status.

Circulation status is indicated in the box in the middle of each online catalog record, on the right. Check Shelf 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.

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 keyword search for BMW retrieved eight records in the UW Libraries' collections; one record was in the Foster Business Library. A subject search for Bayerische Motoren Werke retrieved five records, with three records in the Foster Business Library, including the recent:

• Premium power: the secret of success of Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Porsche and Audi   (2006)
• Driven: inside BMW, the most admired car company in the world   (2004)

A subject search for Automobile Industry and Trade found over 1,000 books. Limiting this list to the Foster Business Library cut the number to over 270 records.

See also these books with chapters on BMW and Marketing or BMW:

• Branding in Asia: the creation, development, and management of Asian brands for the global market.   (See Chapter 3)
• The bottom line of green is black: strategies for creating profitable and environmentally sound businesses.   (See BMW example)
• Germany and the transnational building blocks for post-national community.   (See Chapter 11)
• Car wars: fifty years of greed, treachery, and skulduggery in the global marketplace.   (See Chapter 10)

Foster Business Library Corporate Annual Reports:

The Foster Business Library maintains a collection of several thousand annual reports for hundreds of U.S. and foreign companies. These reports are filed in lateral filing cabinets near the Foster Reference desk under the sign Corporate Annual Reports. Annual reports for companies in an industry can be a valuable source of information about the industry itself. For a list of all the companies in the Corporate Annual Reports collection, click here. For an index to corporate annual reports in the collection by industry sector, click here. For an index to companies in the collection with headquarters outside the U.S., click here.

See the extensive annual report file for BMW (from 1978). See also other companies in the Automotive & Transport Equipment industry.

Foster Business Library Articles:

In addition to the 800 journals in the Foster Business Library Periodicals Collection, the Foster Business Library offers access to 11,000 full text periodical articles through its full text article databases such as: ABI/Inform Global, Factiva, and Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe. These article databases may be found on the Foster Business Library homepage, listed alphabetically under Business Databases.

Of these three main sources, all but Factiva are available from any computer on the campus network (as well as from home) via the UW Connectivity Kit or via the Libraries' proxy server. The easiest of these databases to use is ABI/Inform Global. For more information about accessing Foster Business Library databases from off campus, click here. For more information about business databases, click here.

• ABI/Inform Global:

  This database offers full text articles for over 800 journals. To find articles on specific topics, search by word or phrase by keying your search phrase into the search box. ABI/Inform Global includes journals but not national or Washington state newspapers (though the Wall Street Journal is included). It also does not include valuable trade and industry and other periodicals. Your searches will span the widest possible array of publications by expanding your search to all databases in ABI/Inform. To expand your search to include all collections in this database, click on Select Multiple Databases, to the right of the search box. Click then on Select All Databases.

  Your search terms will be highlighted in red in each article. For tips on searching this database, click here.

  As an example, a search for BMW marketing strategy, in all collections, produced a list of 33 articles, published since 1999, searching in citations and abstracts; Expanding this search from citations and abstracts to the full text of all articles produced a list of 55 articles, published since 1999.

  As another example, a search for BMW and electronic commerce produced a list of 32 articles, searching in citations and abstracts; expanding this search from citations and abstracts to the full text of all articles produced a list of 13 articles. A search for BMW and information technology produced a list of 13 articles, published since 1999, searching in citations and abstracts; expanding this search from citations and abstracts to the full text of all articles produced 43 articles. A search for BMW and global marketing produced a list of eight articles, searching in citations and abstracts; expanding this search from citations and abstracts to the full text of all articles produced 16 articles.

  A search for BMW and target markets produced a list of 33 articles, searching in citations and abstracts; expanding this search from citations and abstracts to the full text of all articles produced 18 articles. A search for BMW and demographics produced a list of 10 articles, searching in citations and abstracts; expanding this search from citations and abstracts to the full text of all articles produced 27 articles.

  A search for BMW and web produced a list of 203 articles, searching in citations and abstracts; expanding this search from citations and abstracts to the full text of all articles produced 496 articles.

  A search for BMW and B2B produced three articles, searching in citations and abstracts; expanding this search from citations and abstracts to the full text of all articles produced six articles.

  A search for BMW and dealers produced over 1,300 articles, searching in citations and abstracts; expanding this search from citations and abstracts to the full text of all articles produced almost 3,000 articles; for BMW and dealers and internet, 30 articles, searching in citations and abstracts and 49 articles, searching through full text.

  A search for BMW and supply chain produced ten articles, searching in citations and abstracts; expanding this search from citations and abstracts to the full text of all articles produced 53 articles.

The Foster Business Library Reference Desk is staffed nearly all of the hours that the library is open. The staff at the desk will be happy to help you find business research tools and resources, exploit business databases to the fullest or advise on research strategies. For e-mail questions, direct your query to balib@u.washington.edu. For assistance by telephone, dial (206) 543-8012 during library hours.

For research guides on a wide variety of industries, products, companies, issues and topics, see the Team Librarian Consultation archives.

• Team Consultation Course/Program Index      (MKTG Assignments)
• Team Consultation Industry Index      (Automotive & Transport Industry)
• Team Consultation Quarter Index
• Team Consultation Title Index
• Team Consultation and Research Guide Index

Need help with writing or revising the written part of your assignment? The Business Writing Center, in Lewis Hall 304, provides consultations on business class writing assignments (as well as cover letters, and resumes) with an advanced business student trained in critiquing drafts and coaching writers. Need help citing sources? Try our guide to Citing Sources.