MBAS906 Business Analytics Research Consultancy workshop

Summary

This video tutorial guides MBA students through the process of conducting research for their assignments by identifying relevant sources and data. It covers how to locate company, industry, and commentary information using university databases, advanced Google searches, and other resources. The tutorial emphasizes the importance of exploring company annual reports, leveraging databases like ProQuest Central and Business Source Complete, and utilizing Google Scholar for academic articles. It also advises on refining search strategies with keywords and alternative terms to access a wealth of data for analysis.

Takeaways

• 🔍 The course focuses on finding company, industry, and commentary information to support analysis from data sets.
• 📚 Key sources for information include academic journals, company reports, industry reports, consultancy reports, country reports, government publications, and newspaper articles.
• 🏛️ University databases like ProQuest Central, Business Source Complete, and Scopus are recommended for finding company and industry information.
• 🔎 Advanced Google searches, including using Google Scholar and Google News, are suggested for locating industry and consultancy reports.
• 🏢 To find company reports, start with a Google search using the company name and 'annual report', then explore the company's website for additional resources.
• 📊 Look for the letter from the chairman, financial statements, and information about the company's societal impact in the annual report.
• 📑 Use the refining tools in databases to narrow down search results by subject terms, names, and other criteria.
• 🌐 For industry information, especially regarding charities, use databases like ProQuest Central and focus on relevant subject terms and industry profiles.
• 🔑 Develop a keyword strategy based on the problem statement, including main keywords, alternative keywords, and focus words related to the topic.
• 📈 Explore freely available resources on the internet using Google and advanced search techniques to find the most recent and relevant reports and articles.
• 📘 For academic journal articles, use university databases and Google Scholar, experimenting with different keyword combinations to find supporting evidence.

Q & A

What are the different types of sources recommended for supporting analysis in MBA assignments?

The recommended sources include academic journal articles, company reports, industry reports, consultancy reports, country reports, government publications, and newspaper articles.

Which databases are suggested for finding company, industry, and product information?

The suggested databases are ProQuest Central, Business Source Complete, and Scopus.

How can one locate company reports for an American company?

For an American company, one can search on Google by typing the company name followed by 'annual report'. The annual reports and other relevant information can be found on the company's official website.

What additional tabs on a company's website might contain useful information for research?

Additional tabs such as 'About Us', 'Our Impact', 'Integrity', 'News', 'Magazines', and 'Resources' can contain useful information for research.

Why is Business Source Complete the first choice for researching an American company?

Business Source Complete is recommended as the first choice for researching an American company because it provides extensive coverage of scholarly business and management journals, company profiles, and industry reports.

How can one refine search results in the Business Source Complete database?

One can refine search results in Business Source Complete by using the refining tools on the left-hand side, such as narrowing down by subject terms, sorting by relevance, and using alphabetical order for names.

What are some useful free resources available on the internet for researching charities and fundraising?

Some useful free resources include the Urban Institute of Giving Dashboard, the National Philanthropic Trust, Fundraise Global Trends, Giving USA reports, Statistica on nonprofit organizations in the US, and the National Council for Nonprofit reports.

How can one find industry reports on charity within Google?

One can find industry reports on charity within Google by using advanced search options, limiting the search to PDF files, and using keywords such as 'industry report', 'charity', 'United States', and setting a date range for the most recent reports.

What is the significance of creating a keyword strategy for research?

Creating a keyword strategy is significant as it streamlines the process of finding relevant information within databases and Google Scholar by focusing the search on specific terms and synonyms related to the problem statement.

How can one ensure the most up-to-date information is accessed in Google Scholar for academic journal articles?

To ensure the most up-to-date information, one can limit search results in Google Scholar using the refining tool on the side, focusing on recent years, and using specific keywords and phrases from the problem statement.

Outlines

00:00

🔍 Research Kickstart for MBAs: Sourcing Data and Reports

This paragraph introduces the process of initiating research for MBA students, focusing on finding company, industry, and commentary for a current assignment. It emphasizes the types of sources needed, such as academic journals, company reports, industry reports, and government publications. The speaker outlines the databases and search methods to be used, including university databases like ProQuest, Business Source Complete, and Scopus, as well as advanced Google searches. The paragraph also provides a step-by-step guide on locating company reports, starting with a Google search for the company's annual report and exploring various tabs on the company's website for additional useful information.

05:01

📚 Utilizing University Databases and Google for Research Insights

The second paragraph delves into the utilization of university databases and Google for research purposes. It advises on how to access company information through the library's guides and subject filters, highlighting the Business Source Complete database for its relevance to American companies. The speaker demonstrates how to use search terms effectively within the database to narrow down results and find relevant company and industry reports. Additionally, the paragraph suggests exploring freely available resources on the internet using Google, with tips on using different keyword combinations and the 'News' section for the latest information.

10:02

📊 Exploring Industry Reports and Charitable Organizations

This paragraph focuses on locating industry information, particularly for charitable organizations. It guides the user to access industry guides through the library's resources and suggests using specific keywords to find relevant reports. The speaker recommends using databases like ProQuest Central and emphasizes the importance of sorting results by relevance and source type to access industry reports. The paragraph also advises on using subject terms and suggested sources to build up research quickly. Furthermore, it encourages exploring freely available reports on Google and using advanced search options to find the most recent and relevant industry data.

15:03

🗂 Crafting a Keyword Strategy and Accessing Academic Journals

The final paragraph emphasizes the importance of creating a keyword strategy based on the problem statement to streamline research. It suggests identifying focus words and alternative synonyms related to the topic, such as 'growth', 'sustainability', and 'competitive advantage'. The speaker advises on using these keywords to search for academic journal articles in university databases like Business Source Complete and Google Scholar. The paragraph also provides tips on refining search results using tools like date ranges and emphasizes the value of trying different keyword combinations to access a variety of journal articles and evidence to support research points.

Keywords

💡Academic Journal Articles

Academic journal articles are scholarly documents published in academic journals that present research findings and are subject to peer review. In the context of the video, these articles are a primary source of information for supporting analysis in MBA assignments. The script mentions using academic journal articles to support the data analysis already provided from datasets.

💡Company Reports

Company reports are official documents issued by companies that contain detailed information about the company's financial performance, operations, and future plans. The video emphasizes locating company reports, particularly annual reports, as a crucial step in researching a company. It suggests using Google to find these reports and looking at various sections of the company's website for useful data.

💡Industry Reports

Industry reports provide an analysis of a specific industry's performance, trends, and future outlook. They are vital for understanding the broader context in which a company operates. The script advises using databases like ProQuest Central and advanced Google searches to find these reports, which can offer insights into the industry's health and trends.

💡Consultancy Reports

Consultancy reports are documents produced by consulting firms that offer expert analysis and advice on various business issues. These reports can provide in-depth insights into specific sectors or business challenges. The video suggests using advanced Google searches to find consultancy reports that can support the analysis of a company or industry.

💡University Databases

University databases are online repositories that provide access to a wide range of academic and research materials, including journal articles, industry reports, and company information. The script mentions using databases like ProQuest Central, Business Source Complete, and Scopus to find relevant data for research.

💡Advanced Google Search

An advanced Google search allows users to refine their search queries using specific operators and filters to find more targeted results. The video script describes using advanced Google search techniques to locate industry and consultancy reports, as well as to find the latest company information.

💡Google Scholar

Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes scholarly literature across many publishing formats and disciplines. It is mentioned in the video as a tool for finding academic articles to support the points made in an MBA assignment.

💡Keyword Strategy

A keyword strategy involves identifying and using specific words or phrases that are relevant to the research topic to improve the effectiveness of searches in databases and on the internet. The video emphasizes the importance of creating a keyword strategy to streamline the process of finding information within databases and on Google Scholar.

💡Problem Statement

A problem statement in research defines the issue or question that the research aims to address. The video script suggests that once the problem statement is known, it will guide the selection of keywords and the focus of the research.

💡Data Sets

Data sets are collections of data, often numerical, that researchers use for analysis. In the context of the video, data sets are the raw numerical information that the MBA students are given to analyze, and they need to find supporting information from various sources to enrich their analysis.

💡Refining Tools

Refining tools are features in search engines and databases that allow users to narrow down search results by applying filters such as date range, document type, or relevance. The video mentions using refining tools in Google and academic databases to find the most relevant and recent information.

Highlights

Introduction to finding company, industry, and commentary for MBAs 906 assignment.

Types of sources needed for analysis: academic journals, company reports, industry reports, consultancy reports, country reports, government publications, and newspaper articles.

Utilizing university databases like ProQuest Central, Business Source Complete, and Scopus for research.

Conducting advanced Google searches to find industry and consultancy reports.

Locating company reports through Google by searching the company name and 'annual report'.

Importance of reviewing the annual report, chairman's letter, financial statements, and other tabs on the company website for useful information.

Exploring university databases for companies, industries, and products.

Using Business Source Complete database for searching American companies.

Refining search results in databases using subject terms and other filters.

Searching for freely available information on the internet using Google and different keyword combinations.

Locating industry information through industry guide companies, industries, and products.

Using APIIN through ProQuest Central to find nonprofit organizations and industry reports.

Recommendation to look at nonprofit institutions, health fundraising, and indexing terms for focused research.

Exploring freely available industry reports on Google using specific keywords and date ranges.

Performing advanced Google searches to find industry reports, limiting results to PDFs for easier access.

Identifying useful sources for charities and fundraising in the United States.

Creating a keyword strategy based on the problem statement to streamline research.

Using different databases to access academic journal articles and varying keywords for diverse results.

Recommendation to use Google Scholar for accessing journal articles with different keyword combinations.

Advice on limiting search results by date to ensure the most up-to-date information.

Encouragement to reach out to librarians for help with locating additional sources.

Transcripts

welcome to kickstarting your research

for

mbas 906 we're going to be looking at

finding company industry and commentary

on your current

assignment the first thing we need to

look at are the types of sources and

information and data you're going to

need to support the analysis that you've

already been given from your data sets

so these would include academic Journal

articles company reports industry

reports consultancy reports country

reports government Publications and

newspaper articles now where we're going

to find this information University

databases um companies Industries and

products we would be going

into databases like proest Central

business source complete and scopus

we're going to be doing advanced Google

search to find industry and consultancy

reports and we're going to be looking at

Google and Google Scholar and Google

News to find additional resources as

well first thing we're going to do is

locate the company

reports so depending on where your

company is situated in what country will

depend on where we start to locate these

annual reports you're currently

investigating an American company so we

would go to Google in the Google search

box type in the company name and annual

report and it will generally be the

first option in the list when you go to

the company

website uh look at the annual reports

but also look at the other tabs because

they also contain very useful

information you would definitely be

looking at the annual report look at the

letter from the chairman and some of the

financial statements also go back and

see information about who they are as a

society and making an impact with

integrity and look under the resource

tabs as well as well as news and

magazines all very good uh data points

that you can use to support the data set

that you already have access

to once you've had a look at the company

website through Google have a look at

some of our University databases so from

the library homepage click on guides and

from here we're going to click on uh

filter by subject area click on business

and find companies Industries and

products here we have the top three to

four databases that deal with uh

companies Industries and products one of

the first ones that I would be looking

at because it is an American company so

we won't be looking at data analysis

that is for Australian companies um

listed on the Australian stock exchange

Ibis world uh could be useful for just

Charities and donations

within the Australian context so you

could compare Australian to American if

you would like passport eurom monitor

does deal with um the European side and

international uh Industries but

unfortunately just not with the charity

side so I wouldn't recommend it for this

assignment where I would look first is

the business source complete

database so we're going to log in with

our username and password

[Music]

and once we get into it we would put up

the top the company that we're searching

for so the national multiple scoris

Society it is a phrase so put it in

double inverted commas and then the

drop- down box we would change it

instead of searching everywhere we can

first search for a company entity which

allows us to get access to 55 results if

we wanted to just search for anything

that actually talks about multiple

sclerosis societ

we would change that drop- down box back

to select any field and it would give

expand our search out

to6 so use both options especially for

this

assignment so once you get your search

results use the refining tools down the

left hand side to um narrow it down one

of the recommendations would be to look

under subject sorus

terms this way we can narrow down the

topic even even further SE particular

aspects about the company if you click

on name it puts it in alphabetical order

which makes it quite easy to browse and

find the um keywords that you're looking

for as you can see cycling cyclist

contests are all there that we could be

using and looking at the

results once you've had a look in some

of the databases have a look and see

what's freely available on the internet

so go to Google type in the company's

names read the results try different

keyword combinations so I've just looked

for the company name um and I've got a

number of results but when I added bike

um Ms I got access to different results

up the top in Google if you click on

news you'll get some of the latest

information so always take the time to

explore and see what's also available um

commentary wise in

newspapers so to support some of the

company information that we're finding

we're also going to locate industry

information now because we are after

charity information we're going to go to

the industry guide company's Industries

and products so from the library

homepage click on Library guides filter

by subject business and then companies

and

industries and from here we're going to

click on

apiin through proquest

Central once you're in the database we

start using some of our keywords so I'm

going to look for nonprofit

organizations and I'm going to look for

it as a subject term and or the

word and I'm going to limit it to the

United States change the drop down

option at the side to location we get

access to over

1,300 results from here sort by

relevance and then under Source type

look at the reports

option and then that way we get access

to the industry reports one of the ones

I would probably look at is nonprofit

institutions the quarterly update for

2024 from here we get access to which

company has written about it um and

it'll go through and give you a full

industry profile of nonprofits within

America always have a look at the

suggested sources on the side it's a way

to build up your research quite quickly

so um as well as looking at nonprofit

institutions it's also have saying maybe

have a look at Health Fund Raising for

organizations and also have a look at

the indexing terms so these are the

preferred subject terms for this

database and once we know what they are

what they are we can actually use them

to narrow down our research and get more

um relevant information more

quickly so by clicking on those subjects

orus terms um and looking at those

industry profiles the health funding one

we get access to the overview

competitive landscape products and

technology and so much

more again it's given us access to more

subject terms so if you hadn't already

noted some of these down take the time

and then use them in your advanced

search

options so once you've explored some of

the University industry databases go and

see what's freely available in Google

now most of you will just simply type in

keywords like industry report charity um

United States of America being a phrase

so I've put it in double inverted

Commerce and Trends use the tools option

at the front to put in a date range so

that you're getting the most relevant

upto-date reports um on this industry as

you can and it'll just make your results

more

relevant my next recommendation is that

if you are looking for industry reports

within Google do an Google advance

search so

google.com.au advanced search this gives

you more control over your search

results so what I'm telling Google is

that I want the words industry report

and charity have to appear in my search

results and we can have either the

United States in double inverted commas

or is in capital so either United States

or America

and what I can do is also under um file

type limit it to a PDF as most reports

that are uploaded online are PDF and

then this way it gives us access to

results um and reports that are freely

available and as you can see we get some

really useful interesting results again

use the tools option theide to put in

the date range so that you get the most

recent reports um up the top

and scan the first two or three pages to

see if any of those industory reports

are useful for this

assessment please remember that

different keywords will give you access

to different data sources and data sets

so this time I just did a quick search

for industry uh reports charity in

United States again limiting it to PDF

um and tools and I've got access to a

whole bunch of different reports uh that

I didn't have before so definitely take

the time to try those different

different keyword combinations um to get

access to additional sources and data

sets for your

assessment a couple of other useful

sources around Charities and fundraising

um for the United States that I would

recommend is having a look at the urban

Institute of giving dashboard the

national um philanthropic trust

fundraise Global Trends and G in giving

reports statistica on uh nonprofit

organizations in the US and to the

National Council for nonprofit reports

as

well so once you've grabbed your company

industry uh

reports uh the next thing to start

looking at is what are the keywords that

you're going to use from the problem

statement um that you're going to create

to formulate a keyword strategy so once

we know what angle you're going to talk

about think about what the keywords are

and what the alternative keywords are so

the alternative synonyms so name uh

words that have the same meaning take

the time to write these down now because

having these combinations already

written will streamline um how you find

information within the databases and

within Google Scholar so nonprofit

organizations charitable organizations

fundra uh

fundraising NFP bike ride can also be

known as a mass corporate charity event

physical activity events charity sport

event the national Multiple Sclerosis

Society will also be known as the

nms United States can also be the US

United States of America America and

then if you think more globally about

what's happening in this industry you

would also add that in and then

depending on what you're choosing to

focus on uh or the topic that you're

going to create a problem statement

around you would then start to use some

of these Focus words like growth so

expansion gaps opportunity best practice

competitive Advantage sustainability and

Trends so depending on what your problem

statement is your focus and topic words

will be slightly different but this is

just an example to get you

started so once you know what your

problem statement is and you're starting

to look for academic Journal articles to

support the points that you want to make

you need to hit different databases CU

they will give you access to different

journals the three that I would

recommend from the University of wenong

is business source

complete here I just typed in charity

sports events and I got

350 uh I tried also the scopus database

this is a great research database again

typing in charity Sports and events and

I got 82 and when I looked at proquest

Central charity sport events I got 18

after i' had a look at that I might go

and look at uh charity black events

change the keywords up and I would also

get different results so take the time

to plan think about your keywords from

your problem statement and go from

there once you've looked at two or three

University

databases um also try Google Scholar uh

different keyword combinations will give

you different um access to different

Journal articles so Mass corporate

charity event gave me access to

216 while charity bike ride analytics

gave me access to

11,000 um charity bike ride and

participants

21,000 so different keyword combinations

will give you access to different

Journal articles different evidence to

support the points that you want to make

so really do take the time to try all

those different

combinations cuz different combinations

will give you um additional evidence

that you might not have had if you

hadn't tried a different keyword so

charity sport events and I'm

specifically wanting to look at growth I

get 98,000 results whereas when I look

for charity sport events and a

competitive Advantage I get access to

23,000 um Journal articles within um

Google Scholar I'd probably start to

limit it using the refining tool aside

um and from 2020 onwards just to make

sure it's the most most update to dat

information

available now this was just a

Kickstarter so um depending on what your

problem statement is we're more than

happy to help come up with a keyword

strategy for you uh and if you do need

help locating additional sources company

industry and product information please

reach out to the Librarians either at

Sydney um or wool and gong

campus thank you for your time today