1. Assignment details
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For this assignment you will need to analyse the challenges and opportunities of the impact of COVID on conducting business in one of the countries provided for Assessment 1 and Assessment 2. This page has been created to help you find information for your assignment. For full assessment details please refer to your course outline and learnonline site. |
2. Finding country Information
Statista provides access to statistics and studies gathered by market researchers, trade organizations, scientific publications, and government sources on over 600 industries.
Country reports accessed through Statista provide information on macro environmental factors such as economics, demographics, and culture.
To access country reports go to Reports > Country reports, from the Statista homepage.
From the country reports page you can either Filter or search for your country, then select your country report from the results list.
Passport GMID finding country information example:
- Select Economies, then Economy, Finance and Trade (top of page).
- Scroll down to the Explore Analysis box.
- Select Country Report (for analysis), Economy, Finance and Trade (for category), then the country that you want from the drop down boxes, and Select Go.
Business Source Ultimate database is a great place to find country reports and country risk reports. These reports contain information on the political, economic and business environment needed for your analysis. Remember to check the publication date of the report for currency of the data.
- Enter the name of the country (i.e. Japan or India) in the search box and select GE Geographic Terms from the drop down box. Select search.
- Under Refine Results, select Sources Types > Country Report (select Show More to see the full range of sources)
To find risk reports
- Type your country into the search box.
- Type risk report into the second box, then search.
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You can also visit the 'Country Information' tab in the 'Company and Industry Information' guide for a full list of suggested resources.
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3. Finding industry Information
Passport GMID is a global market research database providing statistics, analysis, reports, surveys on industries, countries and consumers worldwide. To find industry information:
- Search for 'management system' in the search box (top of page).
- From the results select the Analysis tab.
- Then limit by geography for the country you are after.
- Open the industry report for that country (e.g. Japan) by selecting the relevant title on the right side.
IBISWorld provides detailed industry reports on Australian industries and selected US and Chinese 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. management system, then select search.
- From the results page, filter your results by country > China/global, to show relevant results.
You can also browse industries by selecting Industry research > China > China Industry Reports.
You can also find a COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Impact Update when you click on a China Industry Report (e.g. Biscuit Production in China).
4. Finding company information
The following databases contain some information on international based companies, although in some cases it may be basic or limited to only major companies:
| Company information | Industry information |
|---|---|
For more information on how to search the databases above, please see the Company and industry information guide.
Tip: Company websites are a great place to look at when you first start researching a company. This will help you find more information on the history of the company, the industry, previously run promotions and media releases, and annual reports.
- Visit company website and look for things like 'about us' or 'our story'.
The following stock exchange websites may contain additional relevant information:
5. COVID-19 Impact Information
Find information on the impacts of COVID-19 on companies and industries using key company and industry databases.
The video below discusses how to find COVID-19 related company and industry information using various library databases.
6. Plan your search
For your assignment you will need to search for academic references. Start planning your search by:
- Identifying the keywords in your topic
- Next think of alternate words for your key words to also use in your searching
Below are some examples of keywords:
| Keywords | Alternative words |
| management system | management |
| health care | health, public health, medicine |
| food production | agriculture, food industry, nutrition |
| technology | computer industry, information services, electronics |
For more search tips use the resources below:
Watch: Plan your search (2:26mins)
Read: Plan your search
7. Finding information
The Library collection can be a useful starting point in locating academic references.
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
At the results list you can:
- Limit to articles from Peer Reviewed publications
- Limit by Date eg 2017 to 2022
Complete the Library Collection interactive tutorial for additional searching tips.
You can search databases to find quality journal articles on your topic. To find which databases are best suited to your subject area, go to the Database subject list, and select the > next to the Business and Management heading. For this course choose the Management databases.
Most databases have a limiting feature which will allow you to retrieve items published within a particular year or year range e.g. 2017-2022.
Business Source Ultimate is a database which covers all things business and includes peer-reviewed journals.
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.
Google Scholar searches only within academic or scholarly sites, rather than over the whole internet like a regular Google Search. For more information on using Google Scholar, have a look at our Searching for your Literature Review Guide. Click on the image below to learn how to use Google Scholar effectively.
By accessing Google Scholar from within the library website, you will be able link directly to articles that the Library has access to by clicking on the Fulltext at UniSA link.
8. Critical thinking & analysis
Critical thinking is an essential part of taking a scholarly approach to learning. It involves analysing and questioning information you receive to arrive at logical, well-reasoned conclusions.
The following resources will assist you in understanding and developing your critical thinking and analysing skills needed for your assignment.
9. Report writing
Now that your research is completed it is time to put all of your information together. Watch this short video (approx 3 mins) for tips on how to write a report:
Study Help is an online hub packed with useful assignment and study resources and tips:
Have a look at:
- Assignment writing
A collection of resources and videos about writing assignments - Assignment planning
A short guide on the steps you need to plan out your assignment successfully. - Understanding assignments and instruction words
A short guide on how to analyse your question.
Referencing support
Need help referencing? Follow the roadmap!
Referencing Roadmap (Harvard)
Help with the Harvard UniSA referencing style. Find in text-citations and reference examples, from different sources such as articles, books & chapters, websites, and more.
Other referencing support tools:
Discuss referencing, exchange advice and post questions and answers about referencing (facilitated by Student Engagement Unit).
Referencing software (EndNote)
What do you do with all those references you have found?
Use a bibliographic management software to store, organise and cite your references. The Library supports the bibliographic management tool EndNote. There are also many free systems available.
