List and briefly describe some of the best secondary sources of information

What will be an ideal response?

a. Annual reports – you can comb through the report and find interesting financial information, plant locations, and general strategic thrusts from a corporate perspective.
b. Patent and trademark filings – these are available from on-line companies such as CompuServe and from Micro Patent.
c. General business and trade publications – much information can be obtained from publications that are widely distributed or from those that are targeted towards specific industries.
d. Trade associations – these associations are usually formed for public relations or lobbying purposes, but they often perform market research for the member firms, which may provide industry data on market shares and price levels.
e. Help-wanted ads – a casual examination of the wanted ads in the Wall Street Journal or the Financial Times shows that companies disclose a good deal of information about their new products, areas of emphasis, job qualifications and standards, new plant or facility locations, and other information.
f. Electronic data services – the Web has a number of sites that are of particular interest for analysis.