Service Overview

Baker Research Services (BRS) staff provides support for HBS faculty, faculty support staff, and doctoral students across the research spectrum- from advising on best resources for a project to managing research projects from beginning to end.  The group is a mix of librarians, MBAs, statisticians, and economists with deep expertise working with licensed and publicly available data sources.

 

Contact

Alex Caracuzzo, Senior Manager, Baker Research Services

acaracuzzo@hbs.edu

617.495.2492

HBS Faculty

Our services can leverage your time and add value to your research. We provide:

Literature Reviews (for cases, articles, books, teaching prep.)

  • Scholarly journals; popular, business, and trade press; working papers
  • Document delivery – provide copies of articles, working papers, dissertations
  • Citation tools support

 

Database Management and Analysis

  • Methodological and statistical consultations
  • Data retrieval, cleaning, merging, analysis, management
  • Programming and programming support
  • Excel modeling
  • Data storage in a secure, permanently accessible online repository​

 

Database Creation

  • Batch article searching to capture counts of keywords or article citations
  • Pulling historical data from disparate electronic and print sources together in a database (e.g. company founding dates)
  • Screening, merging, subsetting existing data sources

 

Buying and Licensing Data

  • negotiate favorable contract and license terms
  • reach deals for best possible pricing
  • identify cost-share partners

 

Background Information/Data/Fact Checking

  • Teaching prep
  • Media interview prep
  • Case writing prep
  • Finding/creating maps and other images

HBS Doctoral Students

We provide guidance and support for your research, including:

 

Data Consultations

We can help you identify the right data for your project, and help you determine whether we already have access to the data or whether it must be acquired from elsewhere.

 

Help Desk

We provide coaching and training on business and research concepts, and in the use of research tools such as SAS, Stata, Excel, Citation Tools, and other software available in our Computer Lab. Contact BRS to schedule a consultation with a staff member.

The BRS Computer Lab (Baker 130)

We provide access to financial database platforms (such as Datastream, Bloomberg, and others), GIS tools, and other software to assist with data gathering, clean-up, and analysis. Baker 130 is staffed and open 8:30am-5:00pm, Monday-Friday.

HBS Staff

BRS provides research support for Research Associates, Faculty Support Staff, and other HBS staff including coaching and training on business and research concepts, guidance in finding information using Baker Library and Harvard Library resources, and help in the use of research tools such as SAS, Stata, Excel, Citation Tools, and other software available in our Computer Lab.

New Research Associates are encouraged to contact BRS early in their assignments for advice and training.

Contact us to schedule a consultation with a BRS staff member.