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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

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 Guide for Graduate Business Programs
• Belzberg Library Information for Graduate Business Programs.  (Belzberg Library is located in downtown Vancouver)
• After you graduate and for the GDBA or the Radius Programs, try the UBC's Small Business Accelerator guides
• Welcome video -- for a quick introduction to using the Library website for research and to get help.

Researching business information: Getting started

Start with Business information resources to find recommended sources, and for search tips that will save you time. This guide includes Facts & data sources, citing help, and more. 

For resources on specialized topics like Company information, Industry surveys, and Market research, see Additional resources: Business information sources.

Depending on your topic, you may also wish to consult other guides such as First Nations, Government resources, Resource and Environmental Management).  Guide for "BUS 615 Marketing" has a focus on aboriginal tourism.

In addition, try the detailed research guide available on Indigenous business resources.

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

• BUEC Buzz Blogpost: Business and Indigenous Communities in BC

Video tutorials for finding business information

Mark Bodnar, Business and Economics Librarian, has created the following tutorials which will provide tips and strategies for finding 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]

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]

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]

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.

Business databases

 Business Source Complete is a key resource, and includes business journals (trade and scholarly), industry reports, and country profiles.  Start here to search most business topics or for specific journal articles. 

See Only 4 Steps: Researching in Academic Business Journals (6.30 minute video tutorial), to learn how to break down your topic and do a literature search.

You can also search business databases by area of concentration

• Accounting
• Finance
• HR/Management and Organizational Studies
• International Business
• Management Information Systems
• Management Science
• Marketing
• News resources: Finding newspaper articles and newspapers

Databases for Indigenous topics

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.

Bibliography of Native North Americans
Index for all aspects of Native North American culture, history, and life.

CBCA Complete  Canada's reference and current events - scholarly journal articles, trade publications, dissertations, books, newspapers and magazines.

Canadian Research Index Canadian government publications. 

America: History and Life Canadian & United States history

For more, try our First Nations databases list.

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 any of the sample searches below, try limiting the search results by "Subject" (left-hand side) or "Resource type."

Sample searches:

• (Aborig* OR Indigen* OR "First Nations") AND (land OR "natural resources" OR minerals) AND rights AND (Canad* OR "British Columbia")
• (Aborig* OR Indigen* OR  "First Nations") AND business AND (Canad* OR "British Columbia")
• (Aborig* OR Indigen* OR "First Nations") AND (fish* OR tourism) AND (Canad* OR British Columbia")
  • Limited by selected "Subjects"
• (Aborig* OR Indigen* OR "First Nations") AND (employ* OR jobs OR labor* OR labour* OR skill*) AND (Canad* OR British Columbia")
  • Limited by selected "Subjects"
• ("settler colonial*" OR decolonial* OR post-colonial* OR imperialism) AND (tour* OR travel* OR ecotour*) AND (aborig* OR "First Nations OR indigen*)
  • Can further limit by "Subjects"
• (Aborig* OR indigen* OR "First Nations") AND elder*
• (Aborig* OR Indigenous) AND knowledge

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: 

• Aboriginal Australians -- Business 
• Aboriginal title -- Canada
• Entrepreneurship
• Indian business enterprises -- Canada
• Indians Of North America -- British Columbia -- Claims
• Indians of North America -- British Columbia -- Industries
• Indians of North America -- Canada -- Economic conditions
• Indians of North America -- Canada -- Government relations
• Indians of North America -- Employment -- Canada
• Indigenous peoples -- Canada -- Claims
• Indigenous peoples -- Canada -- Economic conditions
• Indigenous peoples -- Land tenure -- Canada
• Natural resources -- Law and legislation -- Canada
• Native business enterprises
• Project management
• Small business -- Management
• Small business -- Planning
• Tourism -- Canada

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

Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada

Library and Archives Canada
Includes Aboriginal Heritage and Land Records

Statistics Canada
Includes Aboriginal peoples and Business and finance

Research portals that 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. 

Terminology and advanced search tips

Terminology describing Indigenous Peoples has varied over time.  For more search results, consider adding multiple search terms, including names of specific groups, and place names.

The SFU Library guide First Nations Terminology includes further tips and strategies for searching.

Advanced search tips and strategies

For advanced search strategies for finding books and articles in the Library Catalogue, see Power searching and Boolean searching. 

To optimise your searching on the open web, see Search tips for Google, Google Scholar, and other search engines.

Citation searching and impact metrics

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."

Example:

Trosper, R., Nelson, H., Hoberg, G., Smith, P., & Nikolakis, W. (2008). Institutional determinants of profitable commercial forestry enterprises among First Nations in Canada. Canadian Journal Of Forest Research, 38(2), 226-238. doi:10.1139/X07-167

"Cited by"

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

Past SFU MBA projects

You can also see examples of MBA research projects completed by previous SFU graduate business students.

Google searching

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

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

Search for documents from a particular country's domain.  The example below is for India, with country code of ".in".  Other country codes:  Web country codes

site:.in (elderly OR seniors OR aged) intitle:families 
  Results

Library guides

• Avoiding plagiarism
• Search tips for Google and Google Scholar
• Library Tutorials

Writing and citing help

For writing support services, check: 

• NEW: Citing Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers
• Writing Services Offered by the Research Commons.
• Upcoming workshops

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