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World of Opportunities (WOO) Conference

Course Number: BU491

Subject: Business

Welcome to Laurier Library's WOO Conference course guide. This guide provides information sources to help you find country and industry information, explore risks, and identify business opportunities in a country outside Canada. 

Use the links below to navigate to the different sections of this guide.

Country Profiles

The following information sources provide an overview of population, economy, industry, history, geography, government, and other aspects of countries. 

Provides a quick guide to the economics, politics and history of countries and territories, including quick facts, profiles of political leaders, an overview of the media market and a chronology of key events.

Covers political and economic information and selected data on countries and organizations worldwide. Select a country from the drop-down menu and hit "Go".

Global Insights provides international business and trade information on over 200 countries, 50 U.S. states, as well as nearly two dozen industry sectors, and many of the world’s trade blocs. Under "Global Insights", select from one of the four options: "By Trade Bloc", "By country", "By State", or "By Industry".

Offers country analysis, political risk overview, and economic overview. From main page, click "Country Info" under Guided Search. Select a country from the drop down list and choose a source you want to search, then click "Search".

Provides country statistical data. Select a country from the drop down menu under "Country Profile" (found on the right side, under the calendar).

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency provides country-specific information, including country profiles and select data. Click on the box indicating “Please select a country to view”.

Country Analysis Reports

The following resources may provide in-depth analyses about countries, such as their economic developments and prospects, business risks, legal and cultural considerations when exploring business opportunities there. 

Country Reports:

Find country profiles, economic indicators, and business risk factors from country reports, produced by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), Oxford Economics, Fitch, and Mergent. Once in the database, click on "Country Reports" under Featured Reports on the left panel, then enter country name into the top field. You can refine results by selecting items under "Report containing", or selecting report providers.

Select a country from the alphabetical listing.

Includes country analysis - PESTLE. Type in country name then select "Country Profiles" from the drop-down menu beside the magnifying glass. Click the search button.

Includes demographic, economics and marketing statistics for 205 countries. Click on the "Economies" tab, then "Economy, Finance and Trade". Under Explore Analysis, select Country Report in the first field and a country. 

Country Risk Research:

Find Country Risk Assessments for 160 countries, along with information on payment methods, debt collection and insolvency trends. Select a country from the drop-down menu and click "OK."

On the search page, click on the "Source" field, search for "Economist Intelligence Unit", then select "EIU - Risk Briefing". Select country of interest under the "Regions" field. Once country and source are chosen, click "Search".

Published semi-annually by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Offers country analysis, political risk overview, and economic overview. From main page, click "Country Info" under Guided Search. Select a country from the drop down list and choose a source you want to search, then click "Search".

Provides political stability and risks as well as business environment analyses within country reports. Enter PEST analysis +country name, e.g. PEST analysis Canada into the top search box. Country reports can be found under Analysis tab.

Includes all 100 of Political Risk Services' Country Reports, including political and economic risk analysis.

Data on the quality of governance for over 200 economies over the period 1996–2022, for six dimensions of governance: voice and accountability, political stability and absence of violence, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law, control of corruption. Click "Interactive data access", then click the "Country Data Review" tab. Select indicator, year and country.

Country Data

Find time series data for more than 200 countries and 18 country groups including demographic, social, economic, financial, natural resources and environmental indicators  First select your country by searching or browsing the country list. Then expand the "Series" to select individual variables. Finally, click "Time" at the bottom to select the year(s) for which you want statistics. View data as a table, chart or map by selecting an output icon at the top right.

  • IMF Data
    • Includes data on government finance, international financial statistics, balance of payments, and much more. Major economic and financial indicators may be available on annual, quarterly or monthly data. Click on the Data Topics tab and then select one database, e.g. International Financial Statistics.

  • OECD iLibrary

    A wide variety of socio-economic indicators at the annual, quarterly and monthly frequencies for OECD member countries and some non-member economies. Click on the Statistics tab, and search statistics by keyword, country, indicator or select a database.

  •  UNdata

    Statistics from all the major UN sources. Click Datamarts tab. On the Explorer page, select Datasets and click the +sign in front of the database name to find the datasets of your interest; or select Sources or Topics to search for data.

Doing Business Abroad

Government of Canada provides information to help Canadian companies to explore  business opportunities in specific countries, or browse by sector to find new markets and growth possibilities.

Explore Canada's free trade agreements (FTA), foreign investment promotion and protection agreements (FIPA), plurilateral agreements, and World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements. 

The World Bank Doing Business project provides measures of business regulations and their enforcement in 190 economies that allow for comparisons across countries and over time.

Learn how to sell your products and services abroad, find support services, get financing, get information on permits, and more.

EBRD invests in economics in three continents. They provide information about         financing projects, procurement notice, business advice, and more. 

PKF International Limited provides information about the financial, legal considerations that could affect business dealings within a particular country.

Provided by U.S. Department of Commerce to help U.S. companies find new international business partners in worldwide markets.

Industry Research

Industry reports:

Contains Canadian, US and Chinese Industry Reports, iExpert Summaries, and Business Environment Profiles. Industry market research reports contain such information as trends, statistics & analysis on market size, market share of major companies, industry growth rates, and key external forces affecting supply and demand.

Enter industry name or keywords into the search box in the top field, then select "Industry Report" under "Document type", and click "Search". Alternatively, click "Industry Reports" under "Featured Reports" on the left panel, then enter industry name or keywords in the top field before clicking Search.

Provides industry reports and analysis including Porter's Five Forces analysis. Enter in keywords into the search box in the middle and select "Industry Profiles" from drop-down menu in the right box.

Includes Industry Surveys. Click on the "Markets" tab at the top of the screen and select your industry under the Industries subheading or click on "Industry Surveys" under the Market Research subheading.

Offers industry/market analysis and forecasting. Select an industry from drop-down "Industries" menu or enter keyword in search box.

Searching Articles

Omni

You may use Omni (the library catalogue) to search for all types of articles (scholarly, trade, newspaper).

  • Go to the library homepage
  • Click on Omni Advanced Search which offers you options for search (by keyword, title, author, publisher, subject, etc.).       
  • On the result page you may refine results by publication type, publication date, subject, language and more, or only show peer-reviewed documents. Consult Getting started with Omni for guidance.

      example: searching peer-reviewed articles on Chinese automotive industry.  

Industry/trade journals and newspapers:

Trade journals and newspapers can be found in the following databases:

Scholarly Journal Articles:

Scholarly articles can be found in the following databases:

Citing Sources

Citation Styles

The Laurier Library provides guidance on citing in different styles (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.) and by subject including government publications and data and statistics.

Business Citation Guide

Developed by business librarians at Bronfman Business Library at York University, this guide provides great examples of citing business resources, including books, articles, industry reports, company reports, and analyst reports from databases.

Page Owner: Yanli Li

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