Commerce Subject Guide: COMM 4991 International Management

Country Risk Assessment (Country Risk Reports)

Both ABI/INFORM and Business Source Complete carry country risk reports. Try both and compare reports. Tip: sort newest to oldest or use creation date limiter to get newest reports

1) ABI/INFORM:  Go to ABI/Inform database > Select “country report” under document type >> insert country in TITLE

ABI carries Trade & Investment Risk Reports by BMI (“Fitch Solutions Risk Reports”)

These quarterly reports contain:

• Trade & Investment Risk overview
• Trade & Investment SWOT
• Economic openness analysis
• Government intervention analysis
• Analysis of the legal environment

2)  Business Source Complete (BSC): Go to BSC > select "country report" under document type >> insert country name in keyword search box. 

BSC carries country and region reports by S&P Global, Marketline, and more.
 

Company, Industry & Market Profiles

You will need to look in a variety of databases for information on your company or industry. The following databases contain company and industry profiles. If your company is too small to have much company information available, try industry and product research & reports. Also, try searching business media for news stories.

• Statista
  • Go to Reports in top menu and select desired category. Search by company keyword.
• Business Source Complete
  • Try Company Profiles or Company Information for larger companies
  • Try general keyword search and then filter by source type
• ABI/Inform
  • Try searching your company in the "Look up companies / organization" box. Apply additional limits under Document Type such as Business Plan, Business Case, Company Profile, Industry Report, Market Report, Market Research. No hits? Try your company name or a product name (e.g., "maple syrup" in the general keyword search box, with these business Document Type limiters applied. You can also browse by company and industry
• NexisUni
  • Try a simple search using "Companies" in the drop-down menu, or click into "Find a Company -- For in-depth company information on Dossier" (for larger companies)
• SEDAR+ (for Canadian publicly traded companies)
  • Search your company name under Profiles, then click "search and download documents for this profile." Try Annual Report or MD&A as a document type (Management Discussion & Analysis)
     

News media background

Newspaper, magazine and trade journal articles will provide plain-language overviews. Use Mount Allison databases to avoid paywalls. 

• Go to Proquest All to search across Canadian, U.S. and international media all at once. Limit to Source Type: newspapers, magazines, trade journals
• The NexisUni and Eureka databases also carry lots of national and international news, if you are not finding what you need in ProQuest
• TIP: vary your search terms if you are getting poor results. Try synonyms, variant spellings, adding or subtracting keywords

Academic articles

Search your management concepts & frameworks, company, service or other keywords in Novanet, the Ebsco Business Source Complete and ProQuest ABI/INFORM databases. Limit to peer-reviewed, scholarly journal articles. Note: Novanet will search all databases and journals at once, so it may be a good place to start. Using Google Scholar? Make sure you set your library links to avoid paywalls.

Academic journals on international management include the following. Novanet will search all these journals at once:

• Journal of International Management (carried in Science Direct database)
• International Management Review (carried in ABI database)
• International Journal of Management & Economics (carried by ABI database)
• Journal of International Business Studies (carried by ABI, most recent year available by interlibrary loan)
  
   

Trade Data

• Trade Data Online
  Government of Canada database includes Canadian and U.S. import and export data with over 200 countries, trade balances, and manufacturing shipments by product and industry, at the national, provincial, and regional level. Based on Statistics Canada and U.S.Census Bureau data.

• International Trade Centre (ITC)
  This joint agency of the WTO and the UN provides access to product and service trade related information on 220 countries and 5,300 products, with Market Analysis Tools that show continuously updated data on foreign direct investment, trade flows, competitiveness, tariffs and non-tariff trade remedies, voluntary sustainability standards, etc. The Standards Map lists details on over 1,000 standards for environmental protection, labour rights, economic development, food safety, and business ethics. (Some analysis features, and raw data downloads only available with registration.) 
  • Trade Map database through the ITC: https://www.intracen.org/resources/tools/trade-map
• UN Comtrade (United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database)
  International trade statistics (converted to US dollar) provided by over 130 countries. Searchable by imports, exports or re-exports of commodities.
   

Foreign Direct Investment

Statista often has FDI reports for various countries. Search reports by country, or in main search bar search by keyword (e.g., FDI Thailand)

International Trade Centre Investment Map: "Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) statistics for about 200 countries and detailed FDI sectoral and/or country breakdown for about 115 countries." Helps companies identify potential locations for investment. 

The OECD Data Explorer measures various aspects of Foreign Direct Investment across OECD and non-OECD countries. The OECD FDI Regulatory Restrictiveness Index (FDIRRI)  "...assesses regulatory restrictions in 22 economic sectors, categorised into four policy areas: foreign equity limits, screening and approval, restrictions on key foreign personnel, and other restrictions. Only statutory measures that discriminate against foreign investors, or which are deemed particularly more burdensome to foreign investors, are accounted for as restrictions." Scroll to page bottom to access database
 

Other useful links

• Government of Canada International Trade & Investment portal
  • Information on importing, exporting, reaching new international markets
• Global Affairs Canada
  • Information on sanctions, treaties, and Canadian Trade Commissioner Services worldwide
• Export Development Canada
  • Supports for Canadian businesses operating internationally (or that want to expand internationally), including webinars and some profiles of SMEs. Register for a free EDC account to search the EDC Company InSight database to see if companies you plan to do business with are listed.
• International Labour Organization
  • Statistics on all aspects of labour and work
• Try a Google Advanced search and limit to PDF to turn up reports, or crawl individual websites using a
  Google Advanced site search (e.g., site:herbaland.ca export)
• See more resources on International Economics, Trade & Development links on Mount A Library Economics guide
• Mount Allison International Trade Subject Guide

Set library links within Google Scholar to avoid paywalls and be routed through to Mount Allison subscription databases. See three steps below.

Harmonized System Nomenclature
Tip: The easiest way to find your product's HS classification is to download the Statistics Canada Canadian Export Classification PDF and search the entire PDF using CTRL-F.  

Harmonized System Nomenclature, Maintained by the World Customs Organization. (See WCO  PDF version for alternative search interface.)
The Harmonized System (HS) is the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System comprised of about 5,000 commodity groups, each identified by a six digit code. It is used by more than 200 countries and economies as a basis for their Customs tariffs and for the collection of international trade statistics. Over 98% of the merchandise in international trade is classified in terms of the HS.

Statistics Canada's Canadian Export Classification is based on the Harmonized System.

Industry Classification Systems (NAICS, SIC, etc.) By Statistics Canada.
This page links to the latest North American Industry Classification (NAICS Canada) version and several other classification systems.

Product Classifications (NAPCS, etc.) By Statistics Canada.
The North American Product Classification System, for aggregated import and export statistics of goods and services, replacing SIGs and SEGs (Summary Import & Export Groups). Less detailed, and not always compatible with the HS.