LibGuides: Coventry University London: Business

Business Resources Overview

Welcome to the Business Subject Guide

This Subject Guide provides you with key academic and professional resources related to Business.

These resources cover all major aspects of the discipline and are recommended for for other subject areas.

Click the icon to find more information about a resource and how to access it.

If you need any help, please speak to a member of the Library Team!

Key Resources

General Resources

Journals, Magazines & Databases - ProQuest ABI/INFORM, ProQuest Central, ProQuest Accounting, Tax & Banking Collection, EBSCO Academic Search Complete, EBSCO Business Source Complete, CIAO, Emerald, SAGE, Elsevier Science Direct, Elsevier SCOPUS and Zetoc.

Economic, Market & Company Information - FAME (for companies) IBIS World (industries), Mintel (market intelligence), Statista (reports and statistics), EuroMonitor Passport, Companies House and UK Data Service.

Newspapers - British Standards Online (BSOL), Financial Times (FT), EBSCO Regional Business News and LexisNexis Lexis Library.

Dissertations & Theses - ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (UK & Ireland) and British Library ETHOS.

Additional Resources

We also have a range of free resources which are recommended for wider reading around business - see the 'Other Useful Resources' tab.

Why should I use these resources?

The key to achieving academic success is to use a range of resources in your assessments. This will help you to:

Gain a better understanding of the subject area.
Identify relevant resources.
Develop critical thinking and information retrieval skills.

Academic and professional resources are generally more trustworthy and reliable sources of information so you should prioritise these over non-academic resources in your assignments.

Can't I just Google?

Google can be great. It’s quick, easy and there is a vast amount of free and current information, including governments, organisations, businesses websites and specialist blogs.

The downside is that it does not discriminate and the crawler cannot find everything - especially information stored in the deep web in databases or subscription services!

Google also uses an algorithm called PageRank which may not give best results for academic information.

Database Searching Tips

Alphabetical List of Resources

ABI/INFORM Complete [ProQuest] It features thousands of full-text journals, dissertations, working papers, key business and economics periodicals, country-and industry-focused reports, and downloadable data. Its international coverage gives researchers a broad picture of companies and business trends around the world.
Academic Search Complete (EBSCO) Academic Search Complete is a scholarly, multi-disciplinary full-text database. It offers 10,900 publications including monographs, reports, conference procedings, 5,300 periodicals and 4,400 journals.
Accounting, Tax and Banking Collection (ProQuest) Quickly locate precise results from sources ranging from current news to professional and academic journal articles covering the trends and history influencing important accounting, tax, banking, and financial issues of the day.
Business Source Complete (EBSCO) It is the world's definitive scholarly business database, providing the leading collection of bibliographic and full text content. Indexing and abstracts for the most important scholarly business journals back as far as 1886 are included.
CIAO: Columbia International Affairs Online A source for theory and research in globalisation and international affairs. CIAO is also a source for teaching materials including original case studies written by international affairs experts, course packs of background readings for history and political science.
Emerald Management Journals Emerald is a publisher specialising in academic journals in the areas of Business, Management and Engineering. Search and access the full text online.
ProQuest Central ProQuest Central combines all of ProQuest’s main business, marketing, finance and humanities databases, allowing you to search over 24,000 academic publications at once. The collection includes academic and trade journals, magazines, reports and newspapers. ACCESS: Instead of using your username and password, click on "Open Athens" from the right side of the screen.
SAGE Journals SAGE is a leading international publisher of journals, books, and electronic media for academic, educational, and professional markets. Since 1965, SAGE journals span a wide range of subject areas including business, humanities, social sciences, science, and technology.
Science Direct ScienceDirect contains over 25% of the world's science, technology and medicine full text and bibliographic information.
SCOPUS (Elsevier) Scopus is a comprehensive scientific, medical, technical and social science database containing all relevant literature from Reed Elsevier. It contains many publications that relate to the fields of Business, Management and Accounting.

Companies House Companies House is the United Kingdom's registrar of companies and is an executive agency and trading fund of Her Majesty's Government. It falls under the remit of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and is also a member of the Public Data Group.
Euromonitor Passport Contains full text market research reports and statistical data. Information includes consumer lifestyles, country information and company and brand data. ACCESS: Click "Open Athens" from the right side of the screen. Search for "Coventry University" and click "Submit". If you get an error message or they ask you to complete a form with your details, just close the tab and open Euromonitor again.
FAME (Financial Analysis Made Easy) Financial Analysis Made Easy (FAME) is a financial database of public and private British and Irish companies. Each detailed record contains the profit and loss account, the balance sheet, financial and profitability ratios and financial and profitability trends. It is provided with searching and analysis software. This means that it is possible to carry out searches using criteria such as company name or registration number, trade description or SIC codes, number of employees, geographical area (postcode, post town or country) or accounting or financial data such as turnover. Any number of these criteria may be combined and inter-company comparisons made.
IBISWorld IBISWorld contains market research reports and industry ratings from UK and China. It also has industry Brexit Impact statements. This database covers a wide variety of industry sectors including, construction, energy, manufacturing, finance, wholesale and retail.
Mintel Intelligence Consists of the full text of Mintel market research reports. Mintel has an emphasis on consumer markets in the United Kingdom. Staff and students of Coventry University access Online Mintel on the understanding that use is solely for academic purposes.
Statista Find statistics, consumer survey results and industry studies from over 22500 sources on over 60000 topics on the internet's leading statistics database.
UK Data Service UK Data Service is a free web based database containing macro and micro economic data and social data from the IMF, OECD, Eurostat, ILO, UN as well as the UK’s Office for National Statistics. A comprehensive resource to support researchers, teachers and policymakers who depend on high-quality social and economic data. Although it is a free database, you must register and indicate how you will use the data prior to downloading it.

Dissertations & Theses: UK & Ireland [ProQuest] A comprehensive listing of theses with abstracts accepted for higher degrees by universities in Great Britain and Ireland since 1716. Search hints: For off-campus access to this resource click on ‘Log in through your library or institution’; select ‘United Kingdom (UK Federation)’; select Coventry University & enter your Coventry University username & password. At the top menu select the databases ‘ProQuest Dissertations & Theses: UK & Ireland‎’ to search the dissertation and theses collection.
EThOS (British Library Theses) Based at the British Library, EThOS allows you to view records for all theses (PhD level) produced at UK HE institutions and many of these are now available to download online. You need to register first to do this and it is free of charge.

British Standards Online BSOL includes all British standards and international and European standards that have been adopted as British standards. It also includes ASTM standards and ISO standards that haven't been adopted as British standards. BSOL also holds BSI Publicly Available Specifications, as well as BSI books. IEC standards that haven't been adopted as British standards are scheduled to be added in autumn 2015. This service can only be accessed on University computers, or via Remote Desktop.
Financial Times - Subsciption Link The Financial Times is an international daily newspaper with a special emphasis on business and economic news. Students can click on the link and subscribe with their Coventry email address in order to access all of the features that the newspaper provides. The format of the email address should be username@coventry.ac.uk.
Lexis Library [LexisNexis] Lexis Library is a newspaper and legal database. British national and many local daily & Sunday newspapers are in full text. Access to full text legal information is also included: UK and international cases and legislation with links to full-text journal articles, where the law journal is included in the Lexis database. It is an excellent resource for locating full-text United States cases and legislation and numerous full-text US legal journals. Full text EU law is also available.
Regional Business News [EBSCO] Regional Business News provides comprehensive full text for regional business publications (including titles from Crain Communications). This database has full text for more than 50 sources. Search hints: For access to this resource login with your Coventry University username & password. Select EBSCOhost Web icon and scroll down list of EBSCO subscribed database and check box for Regional Business News.

Learning and teaching education resources to support the development of critical thinking and information literacy skills.

Basic Business Research Methods Intended for both profit and non-profit organisations, this site is of interest to the wider social science community, as long as it is understood that by research methods, the author means finding out 'what information you need to collect in order to make major decisions about a product, service, program, etc'. The author is Carter McNamara, of Authenticity Consulting, LLC, and the information he offers centres around case studies, interviews, questionnaires, surveys and focus groups. Some of the information is original to the author; the rest is a collection of material from other Internet resources, arranged under simple subject headings. The website also provides links to more general information for business and management researchers.
Biz/ed Biz/ed is a free online service for students, teachers and lecturers of business, economics, accounting, leisure and recreation and travel and tourism. It is created by the Institute for Learning and Research Technology (ILRT), University of Bristol (http://www.ilrt.bris.ac.uk/). The learning and teaching education resource includes lessons plans and learning activities.
British Library Business and IP Centre The British Library Business & IP Centre is in London and offers much free help for entrepreneurs, small businesses and inventors who are in or near London. Anyone can apply for a free British Library Reader Pass. The Centre offers a modern, welcoming environment and a huge range of resources, eg. market research reports, journals, directories, online databases and trade literature. Free consultations are available for would-be entrepreneurs. There is an extensive workshop and events programme covering a wide range of topics, from how to do market research to writing a business plan - some are free and some have a subsidised charge. You can watch webcasts of some events on your computer. For most of these services, users need to go to the British Library in London. Fee-paying research services are also offered for those who cannot go to the Library.
Business Insider, The The Business Insider is an American news website with the latest business and company news. It mainly focuses on USA business, but could be of interest to business students or those starting businesses. News items range from the serious to the lighthearted. The Green Sheet section covers environmental news. There are video clips and newsfeeds. The site is run by a company in Silicon Valley, California.
Global Issues in Context [Gale] Designed by information professionals and subject experts to support global awareness and the development of critical thinking and information literacy skills, Global Issues in Context empowers users with the tools they need to understand today’s world issues from a global perspective. Published by Gale and Cengage Learning.
GOV.UK This government website contains information about starting up and running a business in the UK, including help if you're self-employed or as sole trader.
ONS - Office for National Statistics ONS is the UK's largest independent producer of official statistics and the recognised national statistical institute of the UK.
Start Up Loans Government funded scheme to provide loans and mentors for entrepreneurs who are aged 18 and over.
Startups Startups is a general website about starting your own business.