WISER Session
(Enter OxLIP and test databases)
Welcome/Introduction
Welcome to this WISER session on business, management and economics resources.
My name is Andy Priestner and I’m Senior Information Officer at the Said Business School library.
One of my principal duties at the business school is to train students and staff in how to use the huge
variety of business and management resources at our disposal either through group or one-to-one
training. As there are so many databases at our disposal in Oxford, a fair proportion of my training
time is spent advising users on which specific database or databases will give them the research results
they need.
Aim
The aim of today’s session is to introduce you to three major databases which I guide library users to
on a regular basis. All three – you’ll be pleased to learn – are phenomenally easy to use and contain
vast amounts of data and analysis.
[Next Slide]
Structure
I’ve structured this session so that first we’ll look at the types of resources available in the business,
management and economics field. Then we’ll move on to the live demo of the databases. Finally I’ll a
give brief overview of the resources accessible to University members at the Said Business School
library only.
[Next Slide]
Types of Resource
The types of resource in the business, management and economics field can be grouped into five main
areas:
1. Journals (not just peer-reviewed academic journals but also business magazines and trade
journals)
2. Company & Financial (including retrieving company accounts, share prices, examination of
company performance and competitor and industry analysis)
3. Newspapers (newspapers and newswires – perhaps a neglected research source, but they often
contain important information about companies, people and developments in the business
world)
4. Market Research (this could be market research reports on emerging markets, industries,
consumer trends. MR reports are particularly expensive and can have upwards of 10,000
pound price tags, so are often out of the reach of the academic sector, although we do have
access to some cheaper titles)
5. Economics & Statistics (Data on world economies, demographics, employment and
governmental information)
The majority of information is now available in electronic format, but don’t be tempted to dismiss the
value of hard copy information altogether..
[Next Slide]
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Remember us?
The humble book is an increasingly neglected research tool: research monographs (books which
analyse a very specific aspect of a subject); or books claiming to be state-of-the art reviews on a
particular subject; and to a lesser extent textbooks can be useful sources of information. Obviously
with books you’ve got to remember that as soon as they’re published they’re several years out of date,
so they don’t have the immediacy or currency of journals which is where most researchers now start.
You may well find by searching OLIS – the library catalogue – that some other highly relevant printed
materials such as market research reports are available here in Oxford (the Bodleian Library receivse
many UK market research reports which individual libraries could never afford to purchase
themselves). These can be requested via stack request to be read at both the Social Science Library
and the Said Business School
[Next Slide]
Resources on OXLIP
The databases I’m going to demonstrate today are: read off slide
ORBIS: also very useful for competitor analysis and industry research.
BSP: also country reports, industry profiles, market research reports, company profiles and some ebooks.
BUSINESS INSIGHTS: Those areas are consumer goods, energy, finance, healthcare and technology.
Concentration
If you’re anything like me then your concentration in a training session begins to wander after the first
10-15 minutes you begin to think about what food you need to use up in your fridge, so to help you all
out I’ve decided to start with the most brain-straining database first and to finish with the easiest.
[Next Slide]
Live Demo
Ok so let’s get started and go into OXLIP
ORBIS
1. Go to Social Sciences
2. Select Business and Management Studies or Economics – there’s large crossover of resources
between the two lists. I’m going to select Economics.
3. So we’re going to start with the company database ORBIS.
4. New subscription this year. The database is provided by BVD, the same company behind
Fame and Amadeus – QN: Anyone used it before? If you’ve already used either of these then
you’re one step ahead as it has the same interface.
5. The database is made up of 7 different datasets. Some of these are listed separately on the
previous listing page, but all roads lead to Rome.
6. Choose Bankscope – goes to ORBIS.
7. Select UK
8. To my mind the basic search is a waste of time and just doesn’t have enough functionality so
your best bet is to be very brave and go straight into the Expert Search.
9. From this window you can build all your searches.
10. We’ll start with a simple company name search: DELL
11. Sometimes difficult to identify the one you want. But country code and annual turnover are
usually good indications. In this instance I want the first one.
12. Once OK’d you get a search summary screen where all your searches will be displayed.
13. Now you need to decide how you want to view your result. We want report.
14. Work down report from address/website/financial profile/industry.activities.
15. Can also navigate around the report from the left panel – Board Members/M&A
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16. Graphs – prepared for you for the most recently filed accounts: Evolution of a variable across
time: Turnover. No of employees.
17. Graphs – Evolution of a variable across time. Change to just show OR, Cashflow, TA.
18. Often users want to find all the companies in a particular industry and do a company search so
they can find out which industry code to search on. Say someone wanted to find out who
Dell’s top competitors were.
19. All you need to do is go to Industry/Activities and check what the Standard Industrial
Classification code is for Dell: 357.
20. Go to Search. Delete first search
21. Select Industry and US SIC Code and select 357. There are 2411 companies worldwide with
that code.
22. Before we look at them we probably want to narrow that down to the biggest players.
23. Key financials: Operating revenue: 10,000 (10 million). Then modify and try 100,000; 589
24. Quicker route is to select the top 50 with that same industry code.
25. Go to List. Some inactive
26. Go to active companies only.
27. Show Format option: City Country, Operating Rev, Current Market Cap, Employees.
28. Sort by Employees
29. Can Export to Excel.
30. Peer Analyses – Pie Chart. Change number of slices to 20 (may need a double click)
31. na’s and anomalies – either not filed, subsidiary or provided info on sorting variable.
32. Other Analyses are available.
33. Back to search – show that industry not necessarily by code. US SIC – Alphabetical.
34. Ice Cream and UK.
35. Support website
Handout – ORBIS
[Go to OXLIP – saved as favourite]
QN: Anyone used BSP before?
BSP
Business Source Premier is Oxford’s largest business and management journals database, covers
hundreds of academic journals and trade magazines and a lot more besides
Best way to demonstrate effective searching is to use a search example. Example I’ve chosen is
what one of the MAB project teams were researching last year: the telecomms sector in Hungary.
They wanted to know was it a good market to go into? Was the sector growing or in decline.
For this section I’m going back to use some screengrabs I prepared earlier to avoid excessive
typing and spelling mistakes [go to PPT]
1. 0 results
2. Not Telecoms. Click on search
3. 3 results.
4. Taken out growth (more terms use, the fewer the results) 70 results. Click on Market Profile.
5. Show picked up on search terms. Click on pdf.
6. Market Profile for the past 6 years.
7. Showed them the Advanced Search.
8. Automatically ‘and-ing’
9. Telecommunications in Subject (what the article is chiefly about) and Hungary in Geo.
10. 1 result! Rubbish.
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11. Back to Advanced search. Click on Indexes.
12. Telecommuncations is not there
13. Telecommunication is. As well as other relevant terms.
14. Run search again.
15. 142 results!
16. Advanced search again. Added in growth just to see.
17. 44 results. Click on the domestic economy
18. Domestic economy – look at search terms in different fields.
[Back to Live]
Other resources on BSP – live demo
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Go into Company Profiles from market research company called Datamonitor
Input ‘wal’ – go to Wal-Mart Stores – medium-large global companies
Go to Business Description/Key Employees/Products and Services/SWOT Analysis
Go to Country Reports from EIU, OECD etc.
Japan. Select Country Report. Mention embargo. Go to Aug 2005.
Scroll to economic forecast.
Go to Industry profiles
Choose Amusement/Gambling. Show Swedish Gambing report then carry out Advanced
Search for it – gambling (abstract) and Sweden (country)
9. Show results options
10. MR reports – Automotive Reports like industry profiles will come up as part of your search
results.
11. Excellent context-sensitive help
Handout – BSP
The last database I’m going to show you contains some meaty market research reports. The
problem with MR reports as I intimated earlier isn’t so much finding out what market research
exists, but rather affording them! Business Insights is a database which collects together a large
set of MR reports with an affordable annual price tag for the whole lot.
QN: Anyone used Business Insights before?
Business Insights
1. Go to Business and Management
2. Athens Login: oxumast0392 Password: GyAb+2999 (talk about registration for remote
access)
3. Show different industry groupings – flip through e.g. Healthcare
4. Latest first
5. Show all option – 27 pages of full reports
6. Latin American cardio-vascular market
7. Edit Find: hypertension
8. Pdf opens in a new menu
9. No Advanced or Expert Search just a keyword box, so unlike BSP and other products you
don’t know what fields you are searching. Search all the reports at once
10. e.g. Chocolate.
11. If more than 2 reports you can sort them by relevance or currency
12. At a glance guides e.g. Consumer Goods
13. Simple searching. Just a question of getting lucky – seeing if the industry you need is covered
by a report.
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Some new resources on OxLIP (due to the recent allocation of additional funding for
electronic resources)
 Emerging Markets Information Service – EMIS delivers news, company and financial data
direct from more than 70 emerging markets in Asia, Latin America, Central and Eastern
Europe, the Middle East and Africa
 Euromonitor GMID – Global Market Information Database – demographic statistics, lifestyle
data and industry reports (will be available via Athens password)
Resources at the Business School
Our database contracts with certain suppliers restrict access to use within the business school only.
This doesn’t mean that they’re out of reach for non-SBS students. Provided you are coming to
SBS to use a specific resource then you can have access to our library. The only caveat I’d add is
that its really helpful if you think you’ll need assistance that you let us know in advance of your
visit.
Those databases restricted to access at SBS are as follows:
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Keynote
Mintel
Thomson One Banker Analytics
Bloomberg
Datastream (also at SSL)
Factiva
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