MBA Resources: Library Research Guide

Use these library databases to research current and projected conditions in individual industries.  Reports are available for the US, but also specific states, other countries, and global sectors.

Use these reports to gain insight into the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats for individual publicly-traded companies.

Visit your company's website and look for the corporate information or investor's webpage, where its Annual Reports are published. These present the company's perspective on the year's activities and performance.

Look through the company's most recent 2-3 reports for information about its technology, systems, or privacy.  You can use Ctrl-F to search for words like these in the reports, which are often lengthy.

Also be sure to look for other useful reports on the website, such as their Privacy Policy.

Use these library databases to find articles from scholarly journals, major business magazines, and trade publications (periodicals for specific industries).

When searching Business Source Premier for articles, keep these tips in mind:

1. Use AND and OR to connect keywords: e.g., Nike AND (security OR privacy OR cybersecurity)
2. In your search results, limit to the last five years
3. In your search results, limit the Source Type to Academic Journals, Magazines or Trade Publications (depending on the kind of article you want)
4. When viewing an article, click Cite to create a properly styled citation, or Permalink for a persistent URL back to the article
5. If the full text isn't available, click Check for Full Text, and if necessary, request the article from another library

For any publicly traded company, use Morningstar to find ten years of financial data and key ratios, plus an expert analyst's perspective on the company's performance and outlook.

To cite articles found in Business Source Premier, use the Cite tool inside the database to generate a citation in your chosen style.

Here are examples of APA-style citations for other resources used in this project.  You can use these as models for your own:

IBISWorld Industry Report
Daly, J. (2021, July). Pharmacies and Drug Stores in the US. IBISWorld Industry Reports. https://my-ibisworld-com.proxy108.nclive.org/us/en/industry/44611/about

MarketLine Industry Profile
MarketLine (2021, October). Hotels and Motels in the United States. MarketLine Industry Profiles.  Business Source Premier. https://login.proxy108.nclive.org/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&AN=153730348&site=bsi-live

Company Annual Report
Pfizer Inc. (2021). Annual Report on Form 10-K. https://investors.pfizer.com/Investors/Financials/Annual-Reports/default.aspx

Morningstar Financial Data
Morningstar. (2021). Ford Motor Co.: Income Statements [Data set]. Morningstar Investing Center. https://login.proxy108.nclive.org/login?url=https://www.nclive.org/cgi-bin/nclsm?rsrc=220