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Hi, I’m Amanda Hornby, the Geography Librarian. Welcome to the tutorial for Geography 123:
Introduction to Globalization.
Most of you are familiar with going to Google and looking up information on a company, such
as Nike, or a topic, like Nike and labor practices. However, you’ll need to go beyond the open
web to access the information you need for the Geography 123 research project.
In the next few minutes, I’ll show you the best resources out there for accessing proprietary
company data and academic sources on your Transnational Corporation and issues related
to globalization.
The URL for the class research guide is: guides.lib.washington.edu/geog123
The guide is your Intro to Globalization research toolbox and includes the following resources
and tools: Company Information, Scholarly Journal Articles & Academic Sources, Statistical
Data, a week-by-week guide to your class worksheets, and helpful video tutorials.
Now I’ll walk you through the process of researching information about our example
Transnational Corporation, Nike, Inc. using my top three recommended sources for this
project, Hoover’s, Mergent Online and PAIS International.
Remember, if you’re researching at home or off campus, you’ll need to click the
“off campus access” button and enter your UW Net ID to have free access to all UW restricted
resources.
First, start with “Hoovers”, a searchable business database, in the guide’s Company
Information page to find annual reports and other proprietary data on your Transnational
Corporation.
Let’s search for our example TNC company, Nike, Inc. in the search box. Since private
companies don’t file SEC reports or Annual Reports, it’s recommended to use a public
TNC -- look in Hoover’s for your TNC's NYSE ticker symbol to ensure it’s publicly traded.
After you search, look for the NYSE symbol and “headquarter location” to get the
most data on your Transnational corporation. Click on the company name. Hoover’s provides
a full overview of the company, its history, competitors and extensive financial data and
SEC filings. You can also email yourself a direct link to your TNC’s company record.
For the most comprehensive and accurate data on your TNC, I recommend the global company
database Mergent Online. Let’s find data on our example TNC, Nike, Inc.
Enter the company name or NYSE ticker symbol in the company search box
The Company Details section of the company record provides the following information
about your TNC: Company Synopsis, History, Property, Subsidiaries and much more
The “Reports” section of the company record contains extensive company annual reports
and the “filings” section includes comprehensive company SEC Filings; Explore the other sections
for proprietary data on your TNC.
To save this information, check out the “Report Builder”, where you can create a custom
report about your TNC and export it as an Excel spreadsheet or Word document.
Finally, you’ll need to find scholarly articles or books on your TNC -- using the article
databases in the “Scholarly Journal Articles & Books” section of your guide.
But let’s back up a minute. What is a scholarly source, anyway? Scholarly journal articles
are written by and for scholars, researchers, and professionals and represent a formal conversation
among specialists. Before they are published, scholarly journal articles go through a rigorous
editorial process called peer-review. After you find your sources, be sure to look at
the author and journal credentials and look for an extensive bibliography or reference
lists.
PAIS International is an international studies article database that contains peer reviewed
articles and policy reports on topics related to globalization.
Let’s find scholarly articles on our sample TNC, Nike, Inc.
After you search, filter your results by academic sources by clicking on the Journals or Peer
Reviewed Journals sections of the results screen.
You will most likely need to identify broader issues raised by the activities of your TNC
and its industry, rather than just looking for articles on the TNC itself. In this case,
I’m interested in a broader issue related to Nike, that of the Chinese clothing industry
and workers or labor, so I’ll change my search to
apparel industry AND china
Your article results will appear on the screen – try the “Descriptors” links to find
more information about a related topic, read through the article abstract to assess it’s
relevance to your research -- to read the full article, click on the Check for full
text button. You can also email yourself the article citation and format it in the citation
style of your choice.
You’re well on your way to finding reliable data on your TNC and reading the best academic
sources available. If you get stuck at any point during the process be sure ask a librarian
for help in person at any library on campus or chat with a librarian, live 24/7. Thanks
for listening!