Finding Case Studies

I am from time to time asked to find case studies on various business related topics. These can be found quite easily. Many textbooks will contain case studies, although sometimes these will be fictitious ones used to illustrate a point. You can also search on databases such as Business Source Complete or Emerald.

When searching on BSC you can limit the document type to 'case study' or put case study as a search term with your keywords. This will then retrieve articles that are case studies. When searching in Emerald, search in the advanced search on the Journals tab, rather than Case Studies, (our subscription doesn't cover these). Then just use case study as a search term and you will find journal articles that use the case study methodology.

There are a number of websites where you can get case studies, but most of these will charge you. However, the Times 100 Business Case Studies is free http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/case-studies/ It has lots of case studies and is organised in a very user friendly way. You can search by topic, company or industry sector. Topics cover different areas of finance, marketing, operations, people, strategy etc. Industries include automotive, construction, financial, retail and public sector giving case studies from companies such as Barclays, British Gas, Asda, M & S and BP. This website has been added to the Company Information subcategory of Business and Economics in Subject Databases on Locate.

Information on the local economy

I have found that a good place to search for information about the local economy is on the Council's website, http://www.coventry.gov.uk/ . This is certainly true for Coventry City Council and will probably be the case for other local authorities.

To find this information on Coventry City Council's website, go to 'Your Council and Democracy', then choose 'information and statistics' from the links at the side. Here there are a number of different reports and links to statistics under the headings of 'Facts about Coventry, Key statistics and 'State of the City'. The statistical material from the Office for National Statistics covers Coventry and the West Midlands/Warwickshire area.

Under these sections you will be able to find information about the local economy, population, demographics, labour market and unemployment, Coventry's top employers and links to census information. There is also information here about health, education and housing.

If you are looking for information about the local economy, businesses, workforce, employment etc for your assisgnment or dissertation, then this website is definately worth a look.

Palgrave Dictionary of Economics

The Palgrave Dictionary of Economics is so much more than a dictionary giving brief definitions. The articles on the topics which are written by key economists are very detailed with links to other articles. They are excellent for getting a good overview on a topic, so good to use in essays. It also contains a lot of information on key economists, giving biographical details as well as details about their work and publications.

The Palgrave Dictionary of Economics is very easy to use and you can narrow your search using the categories on the left-hand side. There is also an A-Z and topic browse facility. Not only are there lots of links to other cited articles, there are links to related topics, making it very easy to explore. At the end of each article there is citation information, "How to cite this article".

So for essays on economics and finance related topics or just getting started on dissertations to get a good overview on a topic or person, this database is highly recommended.