Library guide for Executive MBA in Indigenous Business and Leadership

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Introduction

This guide will get you started with doing a literature search for your business topics.  It includes tips for literature searches, with emphasis on using business databases, which give you access to information not freely available on the open web.

Research help and library services

You can contact Moninder Lalli, Librarian for Graduate Business Programs (moninder_lalli@sfu.ca) for assistance via email or to make an appointment. Or Ask a librarian.

Library services

Special topics guides

Business information resources has side tabs with resources, including Facts & data sources, citing help, and Additional information.  This last tab includes provides tips and resources to search for different types of information, including Company information, Industry surveys, and Market research, Business presentations, Business writing and more.

Check the BUEC Buzz to keep on top of new resources available for business research at the SFU Library.

Video tutorials for finding business information

Before you start  searching for information, please watch these four tutorials to save you time and effort.  Created by Mark Bodnar, SFU Business and Economics Librarian, the tutorials provide very useful tips and search strategies to business information.

Actions vs Words: Understanding a Company's Strategies Using News Sources  (11.35 mins.)
"This one is about using news sources to gather information about what a company has been doing so that you can infer the company's strategy, rather than relying solely on the company's explicit statements or third-party analysis." [Mark Bodnar] Also includes a very good demo of using Factiva (business news) database.

Secondary Research for Business Decisions: Foundations for Estimates (8.02 mins.)
To cover the all-important principles that underlie many of the presentations I do in Beedie classes. [Mark Bodnar]

For more on secondary research, try Mark's 12-part series of posts "on research to support new outdoor recreation services, but the steps involved are common to many research topics and the advice I've provided is based on my meetings with thousands of researchers over the years." [Mark Bodnar]

Spying on a Conversation: Literature Review Assignments in Business (18.25 mins.)
"Provides lots of tips and tricks to make the research for your next literature review assignment much more efficient and effective" [Mark Bodnar]

An earlier video tutorial, Only 4 Steps: Researching in Academic Business Journals (6.30 mins.), provides basic instruction on how to break down your topic and do a literature search.

Terminology

Terminology describing Indigenous Peoples has varied over time.  For better search results, consider adding multiple search terms, names of specific groups, place names and also variations in spelling of names. For more on terminology, consult the SFU Library guide First Nations Terminology  

Databases for business research

Start here to search most business topics or for specific journal articles.  

  •   Business Source Complete is a key resource, and includes business journals (trade and scholarly), industry reports, and country profiles. 
  • CBCA Full Text Business - Canadian focus: Trade journals, general business publications, academic journals, topical journals, and professional publications.
  • IBISWorld Industry Reports - Analysis of Canadian, US, Chinese and global industries providing insight into current and future industry performance, changing trends, operating conditions and supply chain linkages. Each report covers the industry's description, outlook, and life cycle stage, as well as the competitive landscape, major companies, and key statistics.

For more, see business databases by area of concentration:

Accounting, Business Administration, Finance, HR/Management and Organizational Studies, International Business, Management Information Systems, Management and Organizational Studies, Marketing, News resources: Finding newspaper articles and newspapers, SAGE Business Cases, Technology & Operations Management

News sources

  • Factiva - Over 35,000 sources (newspapers, newswires, industry publications, websites, company reports, and more) from 200 countries, in 26 languages. Includes the Wall Street Journal.
  • Nexis Uni - International news coverage, business news, legal cases and law reports from early 1970's to present. Content is strongly American with significant coverage of Canadian and international topics. Formerly LexisNexis Academic.
  • Canadian Newsstream  - Full text access to major Canadian daily newspapers (such as the Globe and Mail, National Post, The Gazette (Montreal), and Vancouver Sun) as well as small market newspapers and weeklies published in Canada.
  • American Indian Newspapers Newspapers published in Turtle Island (North America) between 1828-2016. Topics include community news, health, education, cultural promotion, commercial enterprises, sovereignty, and more.

Databases for Indigenous topics

For assistance in search techniques, try: How to find journal articles  
If the full-text of the article is not available within the database, then use the "Get@SFU" link to find a copy or to request through Library's Inter-Library Loans (ILL) Service

NOTE: For topics related to Indigenous Peoples, it may be helpful to start with Bibliography of Indigenous Peoples in North America and then select more databases. Click on the link for "choose databases" (just above the search box), and then select Business Source Complete and other databases.

  • Bibliography of Indigenous Peoples in North America - Academic articles and Indigenous news sources.  Covers all aspects of Native North American culture, history, and life from the sixteenth century to the present.
  • Canadian Research Index (1982-) Access to "all depository publications of research value issued by both the federal government and the ten provinces and three territories".
    • Older reports are on Microlog fiche, which is very useful, as many are not available on government sites or in print in libraries

    • (Note currently not available: In normal times you can request Microlog fiche by sending  an email request to Nina Smart with the report's title and Microlog number, who will then request a special loan. Example:  1992's "Native women and aboriginal treaty rights : a discussion paper"  Microlog number: 92-04323)

  • Canada Commons (formerly, Canadian Electronic Library from desLibris) - for public policy documents from Canadian institutes, think-tanks and research groups.
  • Policy Commons - a database that brings together grey literature (reports, working papers, policy briefs, data sources, and media) from NGOS, think tanks, and research centres around the world. 
    • Note: Boolean operators must be in capital letters (OR, AND)
  • CANLII - Largest free web resource providing access to legal documents from Canada's federal, provincial and territorial governments, including laws & legislation, and cases.
  • Environment Complete - Comprehensive coverage (over 1,900 journals) in environmental and many related disciplines. Also available is fulltext access to over 200 monographs.
  • Academic Search Premier - Multidisciplinary index to academic & popular journals. Indexes many popular journals including the MacLean's Magazine
  • America: History and Life Canadian & United States history
  • PsycINFO - use for consumer psychology, employees, etc. Contains Articles, books, book chapters, technical reports, and theses and dissertations in the field of psychology
  • ProQuest Sociology Collection - articles & dissertations. Includes articles on businesses, analysis of social issues such as racism, structural barriers, homelessness, drug use, etc.  
  • ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Abstracts and Index  Dissertations and theses from around the world. Historic and ongoing coverage.  Current theses on your topic can provide you with both research methods and useful bibliographies.
  • Education Source - covering all levels of education from early childhood to higher education as well as multilingual education, health education and testing. Includes journals, books, conference papers, book reviews and educational tests.
  • Statista - Covers many market share topics and other statistical data on countries, consumers, industries, etc. 

For more, try: Databases for Indigenous topics, Databases for Law, Databases for Resource & Environmental Management (REM),  News sources, 

Google and Google Scholar (citation searching)

Search tips for Google, Google Scholar, DuckDuckGo, and other search engines

Google Scholar: Save special settings in Google Scholar by adding "library links" so that the "Get@SFU" link" will appear besides the search results.
                           Guide: Google Scholar library links and button

There are a few search tips that may make your searches more effective. 
  intitle: limits search results to words in the "title" (may include the leading paragraph)
  site:.ca limits seach results to Canadian URLs
  Use capital OR within parentheses to combine synonyms or related words
  Don't use AND to combine different concepts, Google assumes an "AND" when two words are next to each other
  Don't use asterisk (*) to search for various endings or words, instead, spell out the word

Search for a topic: Indigenous land claims in British Columbia

(aboriginal OR indigenous) land claims (BC OR British Columbia)
  Results

Search results limited to words in the title of document, using "intitle:".  Use capital "OR" for synonyms. Put braces "()" around words that mean the same thing. 

intitle:wine industry intitle:(BC OR British Columbia OR Okanagan) 
  Results

Searching for publications by industry associations, websites of groups, etc.

  intitle:(Indigenous OR Aboriginal OR "First Nations") (association OR society)

Search for documents from a particular country's domain.  Country domain codes used by Google: Web country codes
The example below is for Canada, with country code of ".ca". 

site:.ca (elderly OR seniors OR aged) intitle:families (Indigenous OR Aboriginal)
  Results

Google Scholar

  • Google Scholar  Be sure to access Google Scholar via the Library's website to ensure you see the "Where can I get this?" links that will take you to the full text SFU offers.

Add Library links

In addition, you could also save special settings in Google by adding "library links" so that the "Get@SFU" link" will appear besides the search results.
Guide: Google Scholar library links and button

Citation searching

  • Citation searching is a useful strategy to check to see if a work that is relevant for your research has been cited by anyone else since it was initially published.   Enter the "citation" information into Google Scholar, using the link from SFU Library.  If your citation appears in the results list, check beneath it for "Cited by."

"Cited by"

"cited by"

   For more on measuring the quantitative impact of articles, journals, or authors, see Impact metrics.

Google NGO and IGO search engines

Find books, journals, and other publications at SFU Library

BLOG: Indigenous business books & e-books

Search the Library Catalogue to search for books, and to search for journal articles by citation, journal title, article title, or topic. For advanced search strategies for finding books and articles in the Library Catalogue, see the guide Power searching and Boolean searching 

For the searches below, you can limit the search results by "Subject" (left-hand side) or "Resource type." 

Sample searches:

Combine different concepts using AND
Combine same concepts using OR
Use quotation marks to search for a phrase
Use brackets for synonyms
Use asterisk (*) for different endings of words

Note:  For Catalogue Search, when combining concepts, use CAPITAL letters ( "OR", "AND")

TIP: When you find a relevant book, try clicking on the "Subject" link in the full Library record for more books on that topic.

Selected subject headings of interest: 

For more:

  The Library Catalogue Search Guide provides search tips for effective searching, including power searching, and strategies for finding books and journal articles.

Government information

British Columbia

Canada

Other guides: 

Past MBA projects & theses - SFU First Nations Scholarly Community

University research portals with a focus on Indigenous topics

Two resources for information on key topics relating to Indigenous peoples of Canada:

IPortal - Indigenous Studies Research Tool
From the University of Saskatchewan Library.

Indigenous Foundations Portal
Developed by the First Nations Studies Program at the University of British Columbia. 

Learning tutorials 

  • LinkedIn Learning (formerly Lynda.com) - Provides thousands of in-depth step-by-step video tutorials, taught by experts, on software development, design practices, business skills, web development, and photography.
    • Tutorials on data visualization, project management, data analysis, software (PowerPoint, Excel, Tableau, Photoshop), computer languages
    • Learn how to do presentations, create flowcharts, tell stories with data, customer service management 

Presentation skills

See the Student Learning Commons for expert and friendly help with academic writing, learning, and study strategies.

Library guides

Research Commons writing help

For writing support services, check: 

For citing help, see the SFU Library guide: Citation Guide for Business Sources.