Researching foreign markets for Canadian business students
This guide is curated by Olivier Charbonneau, Senior Librarian at Concordia University (Montréal, Canada), for students enrolled in MARK 462 / IBUS 462 Environment of World Business. It provides for sources required to successfully research international business topics for Canadian corporations engaged worldwide.
Some sources are available to all on the Internet, others are licensed by Concordia University’s Library for students, faculty and staff of our organization. You will require your credentials (e.g. Netname) to access library licenses databases. To browse all databases recommended for students at the John Molson School of Business at Concordia University, please access the Business Research Portal on the library website.
For each of the headings below, we provide the name of a source, also called databases, as well as a clickable link to access its content. Should you be prompted for your NetName, please provide it to log on.
And, yeah, you need to visit and use of all these sources. Yes way. For real… No, I’m not kidding. Using better sources will increase the quality of your paper. These are the best sources out there. You should have a really great bibliography…
Find out how to use the APA citation style for your business paper’s bibliography. Or, you can just use OWL at Purdue University.
– Olivier Charbonneau, Senior Librarian, Concordia University
Passport by Euromonitor
- Licensed by Concordia for faculty, students and staff only. Netname log in required, contact your local institution to enquire about access.
- Consumer data and reports for 180+ countries, includes Canada. Very expensive professional research tool, free for Concordia Community curtesy of your Library.
- Use keyword search for:
- Lifestyles <country-name-here>
- Click on “Analysis” & download as many reports as you want
- Also, remember to browse this system, it contains sectorial reports and data. The video below explains how to navigate this database.
OECD iLibrary
- Licensed by Concordia for faculty, students and staff only. Netname log in required, contact your local institution to enquire about access.
- OECD is the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. This system contains all OECD publications, as well as those from: International Energy Agency (IEA), Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), OECD Development Centre, PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment), and International Transport Forum (ITF) since 1998.
- The OECD is a an association of governments mostly from affluent countries.
- Every year or so, the OECD produces a comprehensive report on the economies of member states (e.g. countries who are part of the OECD). If your target country is a member of the OECD, or if member states asked for such a report, make sure you search for:
- economic survey <country-name-here>
- Make sure you browse for other publications and dataset from this system, it contains information on many countries.
- Make sure you use the “full version” of this system by clicking on the link above. The version on the “free web” does not provide enough insight to be useful.
DoingBusiness: measuring business regulations
- Free website maintained by the World Bank
- It uses common aggregated data to generate an “ease of doing business” score, raking most countries around the world.
- In addition to a country report, ou can access, download individual metrics composing the DoingBusiness index.
- Find your country in the drop-down box
- Download the (static) pdf version or use the web portal to browse individual variables for a country
Information by countries and territories – Government of Canada
- Free website by Global Affairs Canada, lists every country
CIA WorldFactbook
- Free website by the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States of America. This is what they want us to know that they know about the world. We can neither confirm nor infirm that they know more, but they probably do. Incredible amount of detail for every country.
LonelyPlanet Guide
- As Douglas Adams points out in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, backpackers know their way around the universe. Looking at travel websites and guides can provide insight and evidence useful for business. This is the free website of a specific series of travel guides. There are others out there. Your local public library may have more.
- Remember to wash your hands… and to carry a towel.
Search “The Economist” on ProQuest Business Databases
- Licensed by Concordia for faculty, students and staff only. Netname log in required, contact your local institution to enquire about access.
- Searching for articles in ProQuest is a great idea. Concordia University provides free and unlimited access to many business trade publications and research journals through ProQuest.
- To focus your search, use the link in the heading for this section to
- Search only articles on your country of choice from a single publication, in this case: The Economist, the reputed and long-running weekly British news magazine. Yeah, just type your country’s name in the search box and… voilà!
- Sort by publication date: this will give you a run-down of the salient news.
The Economist Intelligence Unit
- Licensed by Concordia for faculty, students and staff only. Netname log in required, contact your local institution to enquire about access.
- Provides a summary report for each country. Complementary to searching The Economist magazine (step above).
United Nations Data’s «Datamarts»
- Free website provided by the United Nations.
- Provides for an interactive way to generate custom data tables for a multitude of topics, ranging from literacy rates to foreign direct investment (FDI).
Free International business textbook
- Because you really really want an extra thing to read… and I am thorough(ly evil) librarian.
Bonne chance !
– Olivier Charbonneau, Senior Librarian, Concordia University
Ce contenu a été mis à jour le 2020-06-23 à 4:10 pm.