Finding Business Resources

In Business Administration there's a need for a variety of types of resources:

• scholarly journals cover research, studies, and information about the discipline;
• newspapers tell us what's happening in the news;
• trade journals provide information about trends and news within industries;
• statistics provide data for local, national, or international markets;
• company profiles give us information about competitors and partners;
• country profiles help us understand the benefits and challenges of working with other nations.

EBSCO's Business Source Complete is an excellent starting point for much of this information, but we can't expect to find everything we need in one place. If we think about our topic from alternate points of view we'll find a greater variety of information. Some sources will be available online, either by subscription at the Trent Library or freely available through a search engine like Google. Some information is found in books on our Library shelves - not everything is online.

Research usually follows a plan.

• We start with understanding our concepts by reading textbooks, Reserve items, and Reference books.
• We move from the "known" into the unknown by:
  • searching for more resources by an authoritative author,
  • keyword searching concepts in databases, or
  • using the references from one source to find more sources.
• We must be sure to document our sources at every stage, so that we can return to them and site them in our final paper.
  • We can use RefWorks to help with this and to keep track of our research materials as we find them.

Searching TOPCAT for Books

Use TOPCAT to find books in the Library on your topic.

The LC Call Number range for Business is in the HD-HJ section (3rd Floor). Rather than browsing that entire section, however, it's best to search TOPCAT by keyword for specific call numbers relevant to your topic and then see what's near them on the stacks. Not all items will be in one place, because many books cover more than one topic. See our online tutorials for Searching TOPCAT and Keyword Searching, for tips on getting good results.

Subjects given to Business resources are often very simple: Management, Leadership, Business, Entrepreneurship, Accounting, etc. There are over 250 items in the library under the general subject heading of "Management" and 200 for the term "Leadership". "Business" finds 5400, but "Business Administration" finds only 6. Start with a broad, general search and then look for ways to narrow it down.

Here are some more specific sample subjects:

Social responsibility of business; Business ethics; Leadership in business; Decision making;
Personnel management; Human capital; Corporate governance; Organizational change; Corporations;
Finance; Financial statememts; Cash management.

Be sure to try many different keyword searches and look at your results to help you think of other keywords to use.

Background Reading

It's difficult to research something when you don't understand the topic. Before looking for specific items like journal articles, make sure you have a good understanding of your topic. A subject encyclopedia or dictionary might help, but also be sure you've read any relevant sections of your course textbook or Reserve readings.

To find a business dictionary or encyclopedia, search TOPCAT using "encyclopedia$" or "dictionar$" along with your search term. Also see the list of Reference books in our Library below.
 

Finding Articles, Company Profiles, Reports, Analyses, Etc.

Once you have a good understanding of your topic, look at the available indexes and databases listed below to help you find more specific information.

• EBSCO's Business Source Complete provides a wide variety of information.
• ProQuest has several indexes for finding scholarly articles and news items.
• The Canadian Business Resource is an online resource providing company and Executive profiles.

Once you find some good citations, check for links to the full text or follow to find out if Trent has access to the material either online or in print.

For help with the process of finding articles, see the Finding Articles Tutorial.

Large companies provide a good deal of information about themselves online, so look for a company website. Sometimes the site is designed primarily as a sales tool and you may need to hunt for information about the company - look for an "About Us" link. Annual Reports, news releases, and background information about the company are often available this way. Remember that this information is prepared by the company itself and consider possible bias. Opposing views and controversies might be found in industry reports, trade news, and general news reports.

Some of the websites listed below may also be of help.

Key Indexes
	Business Source Complete (from EBSCOhost) Find scholarly journal articles, trade publications, news, country profiles, industry reports, company profiles, book chapters, market research reports, SWOT Analyses, etc. on a topic.
	ProQuest Business Databases ProQuest provides several useful indexes for Business Administration, and they are pre-selected with this link: Canadian Newsstand - daily newspapers CBCA (Canadian Business & Current Affairs) Complete - newspapers and journals ProQuest Political Science - scholarly journals in politics PsycINFO - scholarly journals in psychology Sociological Abstracts - scholarly journals in sociology Worldwide Political Science Abstracts - scholarly journals in politics ProQuest News Databases Only: CBCA, Canadian Newsstand, Alt-PressWatch, GenderWatch. Depending upon your topic, you may wish to include other databases in your search; the blue bar at the top allows you to change the database selection. Note that Canada's Heritage from 1844: The Globe and Mail can only be searched on its own by selecting it from the opening screen. These databases were previously available through Scholars Portal Search, which was retired in Summer 2011.
	EBSCO Business Databases (Business Source Complete and Regional Business News) Searches Business Source Complete using the basic EBSCO interface instead of the Business interface, but this allows you to include the Regional Business News database in your search. (Regional Business News covers only American news sources.)
	Scholars Portal Journals The majority of Trent's scholarly e-journals are loaded on this site. This group of e-journals covers scholarly information on all subjects. Includes over 20 million articles from over 8,000 full-text journals. The SAGE management journals are included in this group.
	SAGE Journals Online This set includes 36 full text scholarly journals in Management and Organization. If you create a personal account for yourself, you can select a group of "favourite journals" to search or request Alert messages when new content is available. To limit your search to the Management journals, on the Advanced Screen, select "Select from a List of Disciplines", click the + beside "Social Science and Humanities" to open the file, and select "Management and Organization Studies".
	General Business File ASAP Analyzes company performance and activity, industry events and trends as well as the latest in management, economics and politics. There is access to a combination of broker research reports, trade publications, newspapers, journals and company directory listings with full text and images available. (from the website)
				Legend
Potentially Useful Indexes			Access	Coverage
Academic OneFile - a general index with many full text articles.			Trent	C & FT
Academic Search Elite (EBSCOhost) - a general index with many full-text articles.			Trent	C & FT
Canada's Heritage from 1844: The Globe and Mail - full text of the Globe and Mail newspaper.			Trent	Primary, News
Canadian Newsstand - ProQuest			Trent	Primary, News
CBCA Complete (Canadian Business & Current Affairs) - ProQuest			Trent	Primary, News
CPI.Q (Canadian Periodical Index) - Canadian index with some full text articles.			Trent	C & FT
JSTOR (online journal storage for 1100+ journals in a variety of subjects)			Trent	FT
LegalTrac - a legal database from Knowledge Ontario.			Trent	some FT
SourceOECD - reports, books, periodicals, statistics			Trent	FT
SpringerLink - Business and Economics - access all online Business content from Springer (e-books and e-journals)			Trent	FT
Statistical Resources			Access	Coverage
Canadian Business Resource - Canadian company and executive profiles. (Formerly the Blue Book of Canadian Business.)			Trent
Economist Intelligence Unit			Trent	Stats & Ref
SourceOECD - reports, books, periodicals, statistics			Trent	FT
World Bank E-Atlas of Global Development - maps and graphs for more than 175 thematically organized indicators in over 200 countries			Public	Stats, Maps, Ref
World Development Indicators			Public	Stats
Canadian Statistical Databases available through the Trent Library 's MaDGIC Unit			Trent
Most links already have the proxy connection built into them. Click on the red button if you experience a connection problem. It will route you through the proxy server and back to this page.

Annual Report Resource Center

From IRIN (Investor Relations Information Network). Over 3,000 current annual reports online. These are mostly American companies.

Business Gateway.ca

A single access point to all the government services and information needed to start, run and grow a business.

Canadian Business Magazine

Published by Rogers Media, includes research links, searchable archives, special issues, etc.

Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business

Organization dedicated to promoting full participation of aboriginal communities in the Canadian economy.

Canadian Industry Statistics (from Industry Canada)

Information on industry structure, international trade, sector level performance, with an online Benchmarking tool for company comparisons.

C.D.Howe Institute

Canadian independent, nonprofit, economic and social policy research institution.

Conference Board of Canada

Independent, not-for-profit applied research organization in Canada focusing on economic trends, public policy issues, and organizational performance.

Department of Finance Canada

An offical Canadian government website. Includes some reports.

Everything International

Everything International (Ev-In) is intended as an electronic library of resources for faculty, students, and practitioners in the field of international business. Maintained by Business faculty at Philadelphia University.

Federation of International Trade Organizations

The Federation of International Trade Associations (FITA), founded in 1984, fosters international trade by strengthening the role of local, regional, and national associations throughout the United States, Mexico and Canada that have an international mission.

Google Finance

Google's financial search engine (Canada). U.S site .

Hoovers (from Dun & Bradstreet)

This site claims to provide "the most complete business intelligence on companies, industries, and the people who lead them". Unfortunately, much of it is only available at a cost or by subscription.

Industry Canada

Canadian government website.

International Economics and Business

Information is provided under such headings as trade, finance, development, business, institutions, etc.

Marketing & International Business Links

Comprehensive collection of link under such headings as benchmarking, e-business, e-commerce, international finance, international/multilateral organizations, research methods/statistics, and much more.

Search the SEDAR database

A Canadian site, SEDAR is the System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval, the electronic filing system for the disclosure documents of public companies and mutual funds across Canada.

Strategis: Canada's Business Information Site

The Industry Canada website: "Canada's most comprehensive Internet site for Canadian businesses and consumers". Includes company directories; trade, investment, and business information; economic statistics; and consumer information.

United Nations Common Database

The largest and most authoritative compilation of United Nations and agency statistics ever compiled, covering economic, social, financial and development topics.

Virtual International Business and Economic Sources (VIBES)

VIBES provides over 2,000 links to sources of international business and economic information on the Internet. Links connect to comprehensive, regional, and national websites that include full-text files (in English), statistical tables and graphs, and metapages. Click here for Canadian sources.

WWW Virtual Library: International Business and Economics

Comprehensive and well-maintained site. Links are organized within such categories as Business and Commercial Sources, International Organization Sources, U.S. and Canadian Government Sources.

Yahoo! Finance Canada

Yahoo! site for Canadian financial information. U.S. site.