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A current awareness resource for students & faculty members in Business & Economics


Changes coming to access procedures for WRDS

Published by Mark Bodnar

Screen capture of the logo of the WRDS database
​Starting next week (Nov. 28, 2022), the procedures for accessing our WRDS financial datasets will change. Wharton Research Data Services has already emailed current registered users about the new procedures, but I thought I'd post the main details and ways to learn more for anyone who missed the emails...

<Read on for details!>

Practical & useful: Ebooks and more to support entrepreneurs

Published by Mark Bodnar

Simple line drawing of a Swiss Army knife.
One of the many things I love about working with Business & Economics is how the skills and strategies being taught are so practical & useful. In many cases, students are working on projects and policies that are directly and immediately relevant to issues and needs in the world beyond our campuses.

Nowhere is that more true than...

<Read on to learn about new ebooks and case studies to support innovators!>

Sage Business Cases: New for SFU instructors, students, and alumni

Published by Mark Bodnar

Screen capture of the search screen for Sage Business Cases.
I'm very pleased to announce that SFU instructors, students, and alumni now have unlimited access to over 4200 case studies in the Sage Business Cases database!

Sage Business Cases is a global and diverse collection of case studies designed to help students see theoretical business concepts put into practice. Sage has ensured broad coverage by partnering with well-known business case producers from around the world such as...

<Read on to get the most out of this valuable resource!>

Using long-term cycles & precedents to understand current rates & returns: GFDatabase in action

Published by Mark Bodnar

Chart from GFDatabase provided as an example of the deep data available.
It's been a couple months since I first announced our new subscription to GFDatabase, a source for global economic & financial data spanning decades — centuries in many cases! 

To help entice those who haven't yet explored GFDatabase, I thought I'd highlight the value of the long-long-long-range perspective that it provides...

<Read on to see GFDatabase in action!>

Sustainable at all stages: changing the fashion industry

Published by Mark Bodnar

Cover of ebook: "Designing Fashion's Future: present practice and tactics for sustainable change"
A couple years ago I collaborated with our Interactive Arts & Technology Librarian on a series of posts about one of the "wicked problems" of our modern world: sustainability in the textile & fashion industries.

Green line drawing of clothing hanging on a laundry line
That series was published to support an interdisciplinary cohort of students in our Business of Design program, all of whom were working on projects to change the way fashion and its materials are designed, produced, purchased, and discarded... change of the sort that our world so desperately needs.

The word "change" is key here. The Business of Design program has changed to Make Change Studio, but the students involved are still trying to change the world, and they've returned to the topic of fixing fast fashion.

<Read on for an update and expansion of the original posts on fixing fast fashion!>

New! GFDatabase for economic & financial data spanning centuries

Published by Mark Bodnar

Partial screen capture of a GFDatabase chart showing the price of UK gold and the level of inflation since the 1200s. Click on it to view an enlarged/full version of the chart.
The wealth of online data published in and about the last few decades is, of course, wonderful and has deeply changed the type and amount of research we can do.

However, that flood of data about the recent past can result in myopic research: if information is not online and in a form that's easy to integrate and analyse with other data, then it may not even be seen, producing research conclusions that miss long-term trends. We are constantly seeking ways to fill this gap in older online information.

I am very pleased to announce that SFU researchers now have access to economic and financial time series data that spans decades — centuries in many cases: GFDatabase!

<Read on for details if you need centuries of data on things like inflation and gold prices...>

Extended to Dec. 31, 2021: Films on Demand: Streaming video for SFU courses

Published by Mark Bodnar

Logo of the Films on Demand streaming video collection.
Just a quick note to let you know that our special, short-term access to the Films on Demand: Master Academic Collection has been extended for another year.  You can continue relying on FoD's thousands of streaming videos remaining available for integration into your remote classes throughout 2021.

See my initial post from May 2020 about Films on Demand for its full description, as well as... 

<Read on for sample film titles and links to other streaming video resources...>

A feast of resources for those researching alternative protein markets! (redux)

Published by Mark Bodnar

One of our marketing classes (BUS 345 E100) is going to be doing some primary research on alternative protein products & consumers again this semester.

In support of that class, I've listed some key resources, but students in other classes may also want to use this post as a case study to learn about some of the powerful market research tools available to SFU researchers.  Bon appetite!

<Read on for a menu of delicious databases>