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Research your international business plan

1. BUSS 3107: International Business Environments

The assessments in this course are primarily based upon developing an effective International Business Plan to assist an Australian company with the decision to expand business operations into a new overseas location.

There are two assessment points in this course:
1. Assessment 1 - Business proposal
2. Assessment 2 - International business plan

This page has been created to help you find information you need for your assessments, including finding:

  1.  Information about the company you're looking into 
  2.  Information about the industry the company operates within
  3.  Country information
  4.  Academic literature to support your recommendations

Remember: All citations must be in APA-7 referencing style. Please check the referencing style guide for more detail.

For full assessment details please refer to your course site.

2. Plan your search

The Library holds a range of databases (search tools) to help you find company, industry and country information.

Company information top picks Industry information top picks Country information top picks
Ivybrook Farm's website

Passport

IBISWorld

Passport

Business Source Ultimate
I want more I want more I want more
D&B Hoovers Business Source Ultimate OECD data

Tip: Both Passport and Business Source Ultimate country reports may discuss COVID-19.

3. Company and Industry information

Company and Industry Information guide banner

Tip: You can also use this Library guide for country information.

4. Finding industry Information

To find industry information:

  • On the Home Page, select Industries from the top of the page - then your chosen industry (e.g. Drinks).

Industries tab in Passport GMID

  • Scroll down to the Explore Analysis box.
  • Select your company/brand's industry, choose Country Report for analysis, choose the product's category then choose the appropriate country from the drop down menu, and select Go.

Explore analysis box in Passport GMID

  • Your country report should automatically open.
  • Using the menu at the top of the report, you can navigate through different information such as industry analysis, datagraphics and related industries.

Industry reports include information such as:

  • SWOT analyses
  • Major competitors
  • Products and markets
  • competitive landscape

To find industry reports type your industry within the main search box, e.g. wine, then select search.

IBISWorld search box

  • From the results page, you can filter your results by Country (Australia, US, China or Global), to show relevant results. You can also filter results by Report > Industry or Company.

You can also browse industries by selecting Industry research > Choose a country or global (e.g. US) > Select appropriate report.

Industry research in IBISWorld

For Australian Industry Reports, you can find associated Risk Ratings Reports.

Risk Rating Report in an Australian Industry Report

To search for an industry profile, enter the name of the industry (e.g. chocolate) in the search box and click Search.

Business Source Ultimate sample search

On the left hand side under Refine Results, select Source Types, (click Show More to see full range of sources):

Source types filter in Business Source Ultimate

And in the pop-up box, select Industry Profiles then hit the Update button.

Selecting Industry Profiles in Source Types

5. Finding country information

Passport example search:

  • On the Home Page, select Economies tab, then Economy, Finance and Trade tab (top of page).

Economies header in Passport GMID

  • Scroll down to the Explore Analysis box.
  • Choose Country Report for analysis, select Economy, Finance and Trade for category, then search for your desired country from the drop down menu, and select Go.

Explore analysis box in Passport GMID

Business Source Ultimate example search:

  • Type your country into the search box.
  • Type risk report into the second box, then search. 
  • Select the most recent risk report from the results.

Business Source Ultimate search example

6. Finding academic literature

To do a search, try using

  • double quotes for phrases
  • truncation* to find the plural and other forms of a word
  • connect using AND, OR and NOT

sample Library Collection search

At the results list you can:

  • Limit to articles from Peer Reviewed publications 
  • Limit by Date e.g. 2019 to 2024

Refer to the following resource for more information on how to search the Library Collection.

Make sure you access Google Scholar from the library website. You will be able to link directly to articles that the Library has access to by clicking on the Full-text at UniSA link.

Google Scholar via Library website

Watch the following to find out more:

Business Source Ultimate search example

Tips: You can limit your search to retrieve only peer-reviewed articles by ticking the scholarly/peer reviewed option. You can also limit your search by date range.

7. Report writing

Now that your research is completed it is time to put all of your information together. Watch this short video (2 min 53 sec) for tips on how to write a report:

More help

8. Referencing support

Managing your references

What do you do with all those references you have found? You can use a bibliographic management software to store, organise, and cite your references.

There are many free systems available. The Library supports the bibliographic management tool EndNote. EndNote automates citing your references and allows you to create and organise a library of references. For more information and to download the software, check out the EndNote Guide:

9. Feedback