Management 2210
Managers and Their Environment - A Research Guide
Part I and II - Industry and Company Environmental Analysis
Conduct a SWOT analysis for each of your two companies. What are your firms' key internal strengths and weaknesses? What are their major external opportunities and threats?
- Business Source Complete
Select 'Company Profiles' under the "More" button in the Toolbar and find the Datamonitor Reports for your companies. See if there is a SWOT analysis in those reports for each of your firms.
- Standard & Poor's Industry Surveys
Go to the 'Search by Company' section and search by Ticker or Company Name to find the Industry Report for your companies. The 'Current Environment' and 'Industry Trends' sections will discuss the external opportunities and threats that affect your companies - the OT part of the SWOT analysis.
- Standard & Poor's Company Research
Search the Company Profile by Ticker or Company Name. This section will discuss the internal strengths and weaknesses of your companies - the SW part of the SWOT analysis.
- Morningstar Investment Research Center
Look for a "Stock Analysis" information for your company. Archives of those are also available.
Part III - Analysis of Today's Key Issues
Discuss the key issues facing your company today.
- Business Source Complete and Wall Street Journal
- Enter the names of your companies in these databases to find articles and news stories about their management and leadership.
- Enter the names of individuals who serve as company leaders to find articles about them.
Part IV - Resource Evaluation
Cite your resources - see Citing Sources on the Library web site. Also explain why you used each resource in 2-3 sentences below each citation. Refer to some of the criteria below.
- Authority
- Type of publication
- Trade journal
- Business magazine
- Library database
- Author / publisher
- Sometimes you can Google the name of the author, magazine or publisher to find more about them.
- Currency
- Date of publication
- Content up-to-date
- Objectivity
- Point of view - 'inside' vs 'outside'
- Factual
- Use of statistics
- Scope/Coverage
- Length
- In-depth vs. summary overview
- Usefulness of resource for project
- Intended Audience
- General audience
- Business audience
- Specific trade or industry audience
Christine Kickels, Professor/Reference Librarian
(630) 942-2313
kickels@cod.edu
