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Business research usually means one of four questions: what is going on in an industry, how one company is doing, who the customers are, or what the economy is doing. Each question has its own sources. Decide which one you are asking before you open a database.
Here is a warning that saves a lot of grief. Most employers in Porter County are privately held, and no one publishes their revenue. When the strategy case in BUS 4900 is about a local firm, you will be estimating. Build the estimate from employment counts, industry averages, the firm’s own job postings and news coverage, and show your work. Tessa Rudolph would rather help you build a defensible estimate than watch you cite a number you found on a website that sells email lists.
Databases and indexes
- Business Periodicals Full Text. Trade, management and academic journals, about 4,000 titles. Start here for literature in any business discipline.
- Company & Industry Profiles. Public-company financials, competitors and SWOT summaries, plus industry reports for about 900 industry codes.
- Market Research Reports. Consumer and category reports. The license allows class use only, so do not paste them into anything you send to an employer or a Small Business Clinic client.
- Financial Statements & Filings Archive. Annual reports and required filings for public companies, back to 1993.
- Regional Economic Data Explorer. County-level employment, wages, establishments and commuting for Porter County and its neighbors.
- Business Case Library. Teaching cases with notes for instructors, which you can request through your professor.
Live market data runs on six terminals in the Commerce Hall trading room lab, bookable in two-hour blocks. The library does not have a terminal, and it gets asked weekly.
Books and e-books
| Call numbers | Subject |
|---|---|
| HB 1–3840 | Economic theory, microeconomics, macroeconomics |
| HC 10–1085 | Economic history and conditions by region |
| HD 28–9999 | Management, labor, industries and operations |
| HF 5001–6182 | Commerce, marketing, accounting, advertising |
| HG 1–9999 | Finance, banking, investment, insurance |
Business books age quickly. For anything about current practice, prefer the e-book edition, which is usually the newest. Statistical yearbooks and industry directories are on the ready-reference shelves on Level 1.
Specialized sources
- Government statistics. Employment, prices, trade and census business data are free. The Regional Economic Data Explorer puts the county-level series in one place.
- Industry classification codes. Find the code for your industry first. Almost every data source is organized by it.
- Regional research. The Institute for Regional Economic Development publishes an annual Porter County economic outlook and survey of local employers.
- Datasets for econometrics. ECON 3500 students can get help finding, cleaning and citing panel data. Bring the variable list to your consultation.
Citing and getting help
The College of Business uses the author–date style. Cite database reports as reports, with the publisher, the title, the date and the database name. A ratio you calculated yourself from a filing should cite the filing. Reference managers handle most of this. See citation manager help.
Tessa Rudolph is the business and economics librarian. She is in Halvorsen 248 most days and holds Thursday afternoon hours in the Commerce Hall lobby from 1 to 4 p.m. during the semester. Teams preparing case competitions can book a 60-minute group consultation. See also finding evidence in business.
Fictional information
UW–Porter Falls is a work of parody. This business and economics guide is fictional, as are the company profiles, market reports and the Porter County data it points to. The databases, call-number shelving, collections and librarians on this guide are invented, so nothing here can actually be searched, borrowed or booked, and none of it describes a real library.