Information searching

Finding country, industry and company information –

needed for coursework 1 and coursework 2 assignments

6010SSL – Principles of Strategy

Sue Marshall
Subject librarian
 What will I learn?
Where to find good sources of academic
information
•Journal articles
•Company information
•Industry reports
•Country information
How do I search for journal articles?
 How do I search for journal articles
Identify Keywords
• Keywords are NOT
– Descriptive/relational, e.g.
advantages/disadvantages, political, historical
– Action words, e.g. compare, contrast, analyse
etc.
• Keywords ARE
– The main topic words that will be the focus of
your essay/project
More about keywords…

• May be a phrase, e.g. “emerging markets”

• Be aware of synonyms e.g. global,
international
• Abbreviations, e.g. Corporate social
responsibility, CSR
• Spelling variations, e.g. organisational
behaviour, organizational behavior
 Some useful searching techniques

• Phrase searching
– “Emerging markets”
• Truncation
– Manag? Account*
• Wildcard
– Organization/organisation
– Organi?ation
 Combining Keywords
• AND
– Finds articles containing both words
– AND narrows a search
– clothing AND India
• OR
– Finds articles containing either word
– OR broadens a search
– China OR India
• NOT
– Will exclude a word
– Asia NOT China
 Set limits
• Date
– For up to date material
• Language
• Material type
– journals
– Peer-reviewed
Example

“Critically analyse the advantages and disadvantages of

foreign market entry of a clothing company to China”

Keywords – Foreign market entry, clothing China

Synonyms – international markets, apparel, fashion

(foreign market entry OR international markets) AND

(clothing OR apparel) AND China
Locate
Sources of information
Journals Company Information
Business Source Complete Business Source Complete
ABI Inform Mintel
Emerald IBISWorld
Passport Euromonitor
Statista
Annual report
Company website
Industry Information Country Information
Business Source Complete Business Source Complete
Mintel Passport Euromonitor
IBISWorld Foreign & Commonwealth Office
Passport Euromonitor CIA World Factbook
Statista
Top tips…
• Use a database to search for academic (peer
reviewed) journal articles
• Make use of search techniques and select keywords
carefully
• Use the databases to search for country, industry and
company reports
• Look at the Annual Report for the company
• Use up-to-date research
• Ensure you reference everything you use
Any questions?
 Further help available
• Contact Subject Librarians
– Sue Marshall
– S.marshall@coventry.ac.uk
– 0755 742 5631
– Becky Collins
– Becky.Collins@Coventry.ac.uk
– 0755 742 5544
• Use Ask-a-librarian service
• Guides available via Locate
• Library YouTube channel