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Business, informatics, management and accounting: Key resources

A guide to finding information in business, informatics, management and accounting. Includes links to key resources and sources of help.

Use the resources listed on this page to find relevant information on topics studied in the Henley Business School. They will give you access to both primary and secondary sources of information.

  • Primary sources - these are first hand accounts of research that has been undertaken and written by the researchers themselves.
  • Secondary sources - these describe, summarize, or discuss information or details originally presented in another source. For example books, review articles, and systematic reviews.

There are also resources that provide data such as company information, and market and industry analysis so you can find out

  • Company details - where they are, what they do, who the directors are?  What is the structure of the company (e.g. parent companies, subsidiary companies)
  • Financial data - is the company making a profit?  What is their turnover?  Where is their most recent annual report and accounts
  • Industry analysis - how does the company compare to its peers?  Who are the competitors?  What is the market like for this industry?

Key resources

Journal articles are usually short papers on specific topics. They are published in issues or parts of journals (also called periodicals) which appear regularly. Use articles to find:

  • up-to-date research in your subject
  • reviews of developments in your subject - these review articles include extensive lists of references

You can look up a company on these databases to find basic contact details, what the company does, the structure of the company etc.You can also use these resources to find financial information about a company. You can find out about profits, turnover and numbers of employees and other details. Some of these resources enable you to create lists of companies that match certain criteria.

Market research is when information is gathered together to analyse a market or industry.  Usually, you can find out target audiences, the size of the market, top competitors and consumer behaviour, depending on the market, product or industry that you are researching.

Case studies

Websites

Help videos

You will need to login using your University email address and password to view the video. For the best experience please view on a larger screen such as a tablet or laptop instead of a mobile phone.

How to run a basic search in Orbis and FAME:

Creating a list of companies in Orbis and FAME:

D&B Hoover - basic searches:

Market research information databases:

IBISworld basic search:

Mintel reports basic search:

Videos: doing your literature search

This playlist of two videos shows you how to prepare for and perform a literature search. The first video introduces literature searches and their role. The second video covers using the search operators AND and OR to create a search statement, and explains the role of wildcards and truncation in constructing a comprehensive search. This information is also available in written guides - see the links below. 

If you are unable to view these videos on YouTube they are also available on YuJa or Stream (University username and password required):

Related guides

Getting items not held at Reading

Map of the south of the UKOur Inter-Library Loans service can get articles, books and other publications not held at Reading from other libraries (usually from the British Library).

For more information see our webpages: