Research Guides: Marketing & Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC): International

General Country Information Resources

These sources will give you background information for individual countries.

Worldmark Encyclopedia of the Nations
An RU eBook. Presents easy-to-understand information on countries and dependencies from around the world. 2012, 13th edition.

Business Source Elite This link opens in a new window
Try limiting in "Publication Type" to "Country Report" or type in a country name, then on the second line, enter "Political Risk Yearbook". Provides full text for more than 2,300 scholarly business journals, including full text for more than 1,100 peer-reviewed titles. With full text back to 1965, and searchable cited references back as far as 1998, this database covers all business fields.

CIA World Factbook
Provides up-to-date statistical and descriptive information about the history, people, government, economy, and more for 266 world entities.
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Its Reference tab includes: maps of the major world regions, as well as Flags of the World, a Physical Map of the World, a Political Map of the World, and a Standard Time Zones of the World map.
Kwintessential
Country Profiles from the British company, Kwintessential: a Global Guide to Culture, Customs and Etiquette.
Country Insights
Includes key cultural information, such as communication styles, displays of emotion, dress, punctuality, formality, and stereotypes. Produced by the Canadian government.
Dismal Scientist Country Pages
Provides an economic analysis & key economic indicators for 43 countries; economic forecasts require starting a free 14-day trial.
Jim Vileta’s Business Research Launchpad: Country Links A to Z
The University of Minnesota, Duluth, provides links to various Internet sources on individual countries.
Market Research Library: U.S. Commercial Service
Access the U.S. Commercial Service Market Research Library containing more than 100,000 industry and country-specific market reports, authored by our specialists working in overseas posts.
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The Library Includes: Country Commercial Guides (read latest “Doing Business In” guides), Industry Overviews, Market Updates, Multilateral Development Bank Reports, Best Markets, and Industry/Regional Reports.
Students/researchers may register with Export.gov to get access.
Country Guides from HSBC Global Connections
These guidebooks for doing business in many countries provides a thorough analysis of various options in establishing a local business. Also try their "Trade Forecast Reports".
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Gleans information from the Economist, the Wall Street Journal, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and other reputable sources.
BBC News Country Profiles
Provides instant guide to history, politics and economic background of countries and territories, and background on key institutions.
Index of Economic Freedom
Provides country analysis and data on foreign investment taxes, tariffs, banking regulations, monetary policy, black markets, etc.
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The degree to which an individual nation is free economically is a very important measure to consider in making international business investments. In determining a country's Economic Freedom Score, the Heritage Foundation considers many attributes, including Rule of Law, Limited Government, Regulatory Efficiency, and Open Markets.
Tradeport
"California's Gateway to Global Trade" provides free country profiles in PDF format in the “Market Research" tab. Choose "Country Library" in the drop-down menu.
NationMaster
A website that allows users to generate graphs comparing two countries based on numerical data extracted from the CIA Factbook and other cited data sources.
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"A great tool to use for looking backward to see who tracks the data you're looking for." Celia Ross, Making Sense of Business Reference.
World Development Indicators
The World Bank's World Development Indicators (WDI) is the statistical benchmark that helps measure the progress of development. Provides both current and historical country-specific data on more than 1,400 indicators.

International Company Business Data

The following online sources will provide selected information of public and private international companies, including the names of officers, company organization, company histories, SIC/NAICS codes (if they do any business in the U.S.), sales, number of employees, annual reports, profitability ratios, and more.

Business Source Elite This link opens in a new window
Features company profiles provided by Datamonitor, a database of 5000 of the largest worldwide companies. These reports contain information on the key facts, business descriptions, history, major products and services analysis, SWOT analysis, top competitors, locations and subsidiaries. Provides full text for more than 2,300 scholarly business journals, including full text for more than 1,100 peer-reviewed titles. With full text back to 1965, and searchable cited references back as far as 1998, this database covers all business fields.

Current Events in Foreign Countries

Try our newspaper search products to locate current information regarding consumer marketing in specific countries.

Wall Street Journal (Eastern Edition) This link opens in a new window
Considered to be the preeminent publication for business news and information on financial markets worldwide. Full-text access for 1984 to present.
Chicago Tribune This link opens in a new window
Complete full-text of Chicago Tribune from 1989 to date.
New York Times This link opens in a new window
Full-text access from 1980 to present.

International Market Share

Choosing an International Company to Research

Fortune "Global 500"
An annual ranking of the world's biggest companies from Fortune Magazine.

SEC EDGAR

SEC Filings
SEC filings of international companies who trade stock on US exchanges are available. These are known as 20F reports and are similar to the 10K reports of US companies. They can be found in LexisNexis and Mergent.

Level of Currency

Searching for Scholarly Materials

Locating current, scholarly materials on national consumer trends, culture, behavior, and attitudes can be a difficult task. Try these library and open web resources to advance your discovery.

JSTOR This link opens in a new window
JSTOR provides students with exposure to peer reviewed scholarly research with a reference resource of over 1,500 academic journals and other content.
EBSCOhost Databases This link opens in a new window
This link provides access to the EBSCO Homepage of the EBSCO databases to which the RU Library subscribes. From this Homepage you can select various databases to search simultaneously.

I-Share Catalog
Use I-Share to search for library materials in Illinois, check the availability of items, and place requests.
Google Books
Search the latest keyword index of the world's books.

Nature This link opens in a new window
Tips: Unmark "Include Preview-Only content" & Sort By to "Newest First".
Note: Many citations will not provide immediate full text access. In this case, you will need to request the item via ILLiad Interlibrary Loan (for articles) or the I-Share book catalog (for books).

Assessing an Industy Internationally

A. T. Kearney - Ideas & Insights
Our research studies offer unique, in-depth, forward-looking analysis of major issues for global business leaders, helping them make the best decisions in an increasingly global world. Includes: Global Retail Development Index, Foreign Direct Investment Confidence Index.
globalEDGE -Global Insights
Global Insights provides international business and trade information on over 200 countries, the 50 U.S. states, as well as nearly two dozen industry sectors, and many of the world’s trade blocs.

Books in the Library

International Marketing Data and Statistics by Euromonitor
Call Number: HA42 .I56; SCH: REF HA42 .I56
Publication Date: CHI: FOLIO Circulating Collection; SCH: REF
Available in print at either library. A market planning survey done by Euromonitor International which provides statistics from 2010 and earlier on economic measures for nations outside Europe.
World Consumer Lifestyles Databook 2011 by Euromonitor
Call Number: CHI & SCH: REF HF5415.32 .W67 2011
Publication Date: 2011-03-04
Available in print at either library. World Consumer Lifestyles Databook is an ideal resource to consult if you want to build detailed profiles of consumers. It is full of hard-to-research statistics which highlight similarities and differences in lifestyles for 76 countries.
Europa World Year Book 2012
Call Number: AUD FOLIO JN1 .E85
The Chicago Campus Library owns the print version. Each country of the world is covered in an individual chapter that includes the latest available economic, demographic, and commodity numbers.
CRB Commodity Yearbook
Call Number: HF1041 .C56
Publication Date: SCH: 2012; CHI: 2013
Available in print at either library location. This great resource can be used to find background information, prices, supply, demand, and trade data regarding individual commodities. Covers the top ten producing nations with nine years of historical data.
World Economic Factbook
Call Number: HC59.15 .W675
Publication Date: SCH: 2012; CHI: 2013
Available in print at either library location. Represents a unique combination of hard-to-get political and economic information on 204 countries of the world laid out in a concise, double-page spread format.

Voices from Other Libraries

Country Business Environment Intel
Web resources gathered by librarian Ka-Neng Au of Rutgers University.

List of Countries

Popular Country Suggestions

Spain
Australia
Brazil
India
Philippines
Canada
France
Ghana
South Africa
Egypt
Saudi Arabia
Sweden
Afghanistan
China
Denmark
Finland
Germany
North Korea
Peru
Russia