Researching Your Country
We recommend two strategies for gathering country-specific business information.
1. Use the country-specific databases such as WorldGeorgraphy and CountryWatch to get an overall view of your country. Specific content you'll find in these reports related to economic conditions, foreign investment indices, holidays and traditions, and culture and etiquette.
2. To gather specific business information on your country, you will want to search our general business databases such as ABI/Inform and Business Source Complete and use keywords. An example would be to enter "Spain" in the first text box and then enter "banking crisis" in the second.
Culture Smart for Over 100 Countries!
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Search for your country!Search on "Culture Smart" in OneSearch for current guides on working with businesses from over 100 countries!
Country Reports from Statista
Another great resource for country reports is Statista, the library's database that offers over one million statistics as well as comprehensive country profiles. Search on your target country and download the country report. Here is one example -- you may need to sign in to one.sjsu.edu to access:
Databases from the Library
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CountryWatch This link opens in a new windowCountryWatch provides critical country-specific intelligence and data that covers demographic, political, economic, business, cultural and environmental subject matter. Click on My Subscription in top right corner of page to to discover what's included and available.
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Mergent Market Atlas This link opens in a new window
Provides details on company financials, ratios, business segments, descriptions, sustainability, officers and directors and access to a multitude of company, industry, index, ESG and economic data views and reports. Mergent Market Atlas delivers the same comprehensive suite of financial information used by professionals under LSEG's Refinitiv and FTSE Russell brands. Note: Mergent Online is discontinued by the vendor. Mergent Market Atlas is the new platform for accessing content previously found in Mergent Online.
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World Geography This link opens in a new windowA great source of information on a country's society, culture, and economy.
Commonly Used Business Databases to Find Journal Articles
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ABI/INFORM This link opens in a new window
The ABI/INFORM Collection includes three comprehensive databases: ABI/INFORM Global, ABI/INFORM Trade & Industry, and ABI/INFORM Dateline. Together, they provide access to thousands of full-text journals, dissertations, working papers, and key business and economics publications such as The Economist and MIT Sloan Management Review. The collection also features in-depth country and industry reports, as well as major news sources like The Wall Street Journal. With broad international coverage, the ABI/INFORM Collection offers researchers a global view of companies, industries, and business trends. It also delivers valuable historical context, with content that dates back to the early 1900s.
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Business Source Complete This link opens in a new window
This database contains monographs, major reference works, book digests, conference proceedings, case studies, investment research reports, industry reports, market research reports, country reports, company profiles, SWOT analyses, detailed author profiles and more. Indexing and abstracts for scholarly business journals back as far as 1886 are included.
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Emerald Insight This link opens in a new window
Developed for Business Schools and Management Departments, Emerald Insight is a collection of peer-reviewed management journals -- 100+ full text journals or 75,000+ full text management articles and reviews from the top 300 management journals.
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Gale Business Insights This link opens in a new window
Thousands of global company, country and business topic overviews featuring detailed information as well as interactive rankings and statistics, with quick links to associated content. Global Histories, SWOT Reports, Thomson Reuters Company Financials and Investment Reports, Market Share Reports, and Industry Research Essays. Full-text articles from academic journals, business periodicals, newswires and other media outlets, 200 business executive video interviews and lessons for deeper insight into issues and decision-making. Thousands of interactive LiveCharts for economic and business indicators that let researchers generate their own analyses and custom charts for reports and presentations.
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Gale OneFile Business This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text coverage of all business disciplines including accounting, economics, finance, marketing, management, and strategy, as well as business theory and practice. Users will understand the activities of companies and industries worldwide through nearly 4,000 leading business and trade publications, updated daily. Complementing these titles is a selection of international, U.S., and regional news publications,
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Gale OneFile Entrepreneurship This link opens in a new window
Ideal for business schools and entrepreneurs, Gale OneFile: Entrepreneurship is updated daily and provides insights, tips, strategies, and success stories as well as subject-appropriate full-text periodicals.
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ScienceDirect This link opens in a new windowGood coverage on technology-related business and applied science journals.
If you have a favorite journal, magazine, or newspaper and would like to know if it is available online through the library, go to the Journal Index to find out. You can search by title or subject.
Hofstede's Cultural Framework
Professor Geert Hofstede conducted one of the most comprehensive studies of how values in the workplace are influenced by culture. His cultural dimensions theory analyzes countries using several dimensions. This tool provides the scores of 93 different countries on this value scale.
Free on the Web
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CIA World FactbookThe Factbook provides information on the history, people, government, economy, energy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 267 world entities, basically every country, dependency, and geographic entity in the world..
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CPI: Corruption Perceptions Index“First launched in 1995, the CPI has been widely credited with putting the issue of corruption on the international policy agenda.” It is produced by Transparency International.
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Global EdgeThis site is hosted by Michigan State University, funded in part by US Department of Education, Title VI B Grant. It includes course materials that instructors can use for their classes. It has a wealth of resources including guided modules with case studies and narratives.
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Google SearchUse Google to find country information. Make sure to inspect the accuracy and integrity of the information. Generally speaking, the following sites are more reliable: .org, .gov, .edu. Try a search such as Mexico site:gov.
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International Monetary FundAccording to its website, IMF " is an organization of 189 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world." Take a look at the IMF Data Mapper (link on the left) to find a country's GDP.