Market Research to Buy-Side Financial Analyst?

I was wondering how doable this transition would be? It seems that one key part of equity analysis is industry analysis and what not, which is basically what market research analysts do. To put my question more specifically, how easy would it be for someone to transition from market research analyst to financial analyst by means of passing some of the CFA tests and networking (and potentially earning an MBA)? Would it be better to start off in market research than admin or operations within AM, if one's eventual goal was to be a financial analyst on the buy-side?

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