Ten Steps to International Business Intelligence
Step 1) Keep Current in International Business
Economist.com & EIU Viewswire open incomparable windows on the world of international business, offering timely briefings on business issues worldwide as well as country intelligence for over 190 countries. They are Web-based services from the Economist Intelligence Unit and the Economist magazine. Factiva, combines Dow Jones & Reuter's content. It features a searchable publications library with the full-text of The Wall Street Journal, The Wall Street Journal Europe, The Asian Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Business Week, Reuters, and thousands of other newspapers, magazines, news services and journals worldwide. Lexis-Nexis also has the full-text of thousands of sources covering international business issues including the Financial Times. ABI/INFORMand Business Source Premier index, abstract and provide selected full-text of thousands of English language business and economics journals. Use the Articles Guide guide to identify additional databases for full-text articles. The Financial Times’ portal, ft.com, reports current news from a European perspective.
2) Find In-Depth Country Intelligence
EIU.com provides more than 200 in-depth Country Profiles and Country Reports for the major economic and strategic powers including the U.S., Canada, the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Australia, Japan, Russia, China, Hong Kong, and India, as well as Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Israel. EIU Viewswire covers all of the countries with convenient Country home pages that organize EIU's news and analysis into sections on the country's politics, economy, finance, business and regulations. Datamonitor360 features Country Analysis Reports using the PESTLE framework. Each profile analyzes the political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental structure of the country. Each of the PESTLE factors is explored on four parameters: current strengths, current challenges, future prospects and future risks. You can supplement these reports with the U.S. Department of State's Background Notes and Country Commercial Guides (easily retrieved via globalEDGE). globalEDGE features Country Insights reference pages that link to key sources for each country. Doing Business is the World Bank's portal that provide's objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement across 183 economis and selected cities at the subnational and regional level. Baker Library’s Country Guides are useful guides to country-related Web sites. FITA (Federation of International Trade Associations) has excellent country profiles with links to sources. HLB International's "Doing Business in..." guides are free sources of information on foreign countries. Portals to the World are "links to electronic resources selected by Library of Congress subject experts.". The CIA's World Factbook s a widely cited sources of basic statistical information. The World Bank e-Library has extensive downloadable books and reports on countries and regions that focus on social and economic development. Two notable examples are the annual World Development Report and Doing Business In. FDI.net is the Investment Promotion Network sponsored by the World Bank. It organizes more than 12,000 Web-based documents in a searchable database. Wikipedia's List of Sovereign States links to detailed country reports with links to references. You may also wish to visit Yahoo! Countries or use Google or Bing to locate additional sources. Countries and Their Cultures [GN307 .C68 2001 Ref] is a four volume encyclopedia of individual country customs and cultures that is available online and in print. Canada's Centre for Intercultural Learning has developed Country Insights, a site that provides insightful information on the cultural characteristics of countries around the world including the U.S. Kwintessential Country Profiles is a British site that provides free information on "understanding other people's languages, cultures, etiquettes and taboos" for the traveler of visiting business person. Culture Crossing is "a community built guide to cross-cultural etiquette & understanding" with detailed guides for individual countries. SourceOECD has in depth economic, financial and international trade data and country reports for all of the major economies and the emerging markets. The World Bank's Doing Business database provides comparative data on the cost of doing business across 155 economies. The World Bank has developed outstanding Web sites on Political Risk Insurance and Foreign Direct Investment that explain these subjects in depth and link to resources on these topics by country. The Political Risk Yearbook reports on individual countries are available in Business Source Premier. Culturgrams [GT150 .C85 Ref Res] provide insight to customs and cultures of 177 countries. The Political Risk Yearbook [HB3730 .P762 Ref] is an annual multi-volume work thoroughly analyzing political, economic and investment risk in more than 100 countries.
3) Research International Companies
Hoover's Online, OneSource, Thomson Research, and Factiva all have reports on international publicly traded companies. The reports include company profiles, news and articles, annual reports, SEC filings, financials and stock market performance data. Datamonitor360 features in-depth comapny profiles on more than 50,000 U.S. and international private and public companies. Thomson One Banker provides worldwide company reports, analytics and market data. Investext on OneSource has a selection of investment research reports written by leading firms that evaluate the investment outlook and performance for leading companies and industries worldwide. You can also search ABI/INFORM, Business Source Premier, Factiva and the other Article Databases for articles about international companies. Two leading online financial services, Bloomberg and Datastream, are available on the Business Workstations. The Company Research Tutorial outlines Ten Steps to Company Intelligence. Most of these steps apply to international as well as U.S. companies. Europages, Kompass, Thomson Global Register, and other Company Directories offer company profiles and contact information. You may use the directories in the Company Information Center to locate companies and/or the search engines such as Google and Yahoo! to find company home pages.
4) Investigate International Industries and Markets
IBISWorld U.S. & Global Industry Reports features over 700 reports on U.S. industries and a growing collection of global industry reports. The U.S. reports are written at the 5-digit level of the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). Each report of about 25-30 pages uses Michael Porter's "Five Competitive Forces" framework. Gale's Business & Company Resource Center features essays on major global industries. Investext on OneSource has a selection investment research reports covering major international industries and their leading companies. Euromonitor International's GMID: Global Market Information Database is an online database providing business intelligence on countries, consumers and industries. It offers integrated access to statistics, market reports, company profiles and information sources. 205 countries are researched, with extended coverage of 52. It includes Market Research Monitor. Datamonitor360 is an international market research database that has thousands of industry analyses utilizing Michael Porter's Five Forces framework to create industry scorecards. Business Insights offers international market research reports on Consumer Goods, Energy, Financial Services, Healthcare, Technology, Telecoms, eCommerce and Human Resources. Mintel publishes hundreds of market research reports covering the U.S., UK and European consumer markets and lifestyles. The Business & Industry Database covers many foreign trade journals and newspapers as well as U.S. sources. The U.S. Commercial Service publishes a Market Research Library with detailed country and industry research reports to help U.S. businesses export. ABI/INFORM, Business Source Premier, Factiva, Lexis-Nexis and the other Article Databases provide thorough coverage of international markets. The reports in Standard & Poor’s Industry Surveys focus on both the U.S. and international industries. You may profit from reviewing the steps to industry research found in the Industry Research Tutorial.
5) Locate Key International Data and Statistics
Both GMID and Datamonitor360 feature extensive data on products, markets, countries, economics and demographics. STATISTA: The Statistics Portal covers international markets, countries and much more. Charts and Tables can be downloaded for presentations. TableBase is an international database that specializes exclusively in tabular data dealing with companies, industries, products and demographics. Smathers Libraries has many of the sources referred to. The Article Databases often contain data relevant for international research. EIU Viewswire has five-year economic forecasts for each country that can be downloaded as Excel files. The Dismal Scientist tracks economic conditions around the world including Asia, Europe and Latin America. SourceOECD has detailed economic, financial and trade data for many countries. IFS Online (IMF) is the International Monetary Fund's online database of financial data by country. The IMF, OECD and the World Bank all have financial, economic and country data on their Web sites. World Development Indicators Online is the most comprehensive database for comparative economic and social indicators. Global Financial Data is an unparalleled source for historical stock market, financial, and economic data for more than 200 countries. You can use both Bloomberg and Datastream on the Business Workstations for international economic and financial data.
6) Explore International Business World Wide Web Sites
globalEDGE is a comprehensive directory of Web sites related to international business studies. The websites listed in the right-hand column of the International Business Information Center offer a wealth of information about countries, business customs, exporting, importing, doing business in foreign countries, and a host of other topics. Mouse over the links to see brief descriptions of the sites.
7) Investigate International Trade Resources
Export.gov is the United States Commercial Service's export portal. Here you will find market research, trade leads, and other exporting resources including, A Basic Guide to Exporting. The State Department’s Country Commercial Guides are comprehensive overviews of foreign markets prepared annually by embassy staff. Exportall, FITA, TradePort and Trade Compass are four international trade portals on the Web that have good free content. EIU Viewswire has detailed information about foreign exchange, tax and trade regulations for each country. ABI/INFORM, Factiva, Lexis-Nexis and the other article databases provide thorough coverage of international trade topics. D&B’s Exporter’s Encyclopedia [HF 3011 .E9 Bus Ref] is an impotant print publication in Business Reference. See the International Business Information Center for additional sources.
8) Research International Public Policy Issues
Many public policy issues impact the international business environment. You can research the World Trade Organization, globalization, sustainable development, foreign direct investment and many other issues using CIAO and Policy File. CIAO is Columbia International Affairs Online, a database of articles, working papers, conference proceedings and other materials. Policy File is a database of research from universities, public policy think tanks and other organizations including the American Enterprise Institute, Brookings, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Hoover Institution, the IMF, the Institute for International Economics, and many others. You can further explore the literature by utilizing PAIS and EconLit, the Social Science Citation Index in the Web of Knowledge, ABI/INFORM and the other Article Databases. Search UF Libraries' Catalog by author, title, subject or keyword to find additional books and reports held by the Libraries. Our Government Documents Department is a depository for UN, U.S., OECD and European Union documents.
9) Browse Core Collections of International Business Books
The Business Library contains core collections of books on African Business, Asian Business, China Business, European Business, Globalization, International Business, International Finance, International Investment, International Management, International Marketing, International Trade, Latin American Business and the World Economy. You may search UF Libraries' Catalog by author, title, subject or keyword to find additional books held by the Libraries. Or browse Books24x7, netLibrary and the World Bank e-Library for eBooks. The Global Entrepreneur is an excellent example of a valuable book available both in print and electronically.
10) Conclusion
Use the International Business Information Center to link to the most important Databases, Articles, Web sites and other sources for keeping abreast of international business and to identify sources for researching international companies, industries and markets.
