Final answer:
A business owner including previous financial statements in his market research is in the step of collecting data within the market research process.
Step-by-step explanation:
When a business owner includes previous financial statements in his market research, he is engaging in the step of collecting data. Financial statements are a part of the quantitative data that businesses often collect as they are specific figures and metrics that reflect the business's performance. Following this, the business owner would move on to the step of analyzing the data, which involves looking deeper into the collected data to garner insights, make interpretative claims and draw conclusions that will inform their business strategy.