Getting Started with Entrepreneurship
This guide offers a starting point for learning more about entrepreneurship, and as an introduction to resources to support you in starting a small business, validating a business idea, or pitching your startup to investors.
Databases
Key Resources
-
IBISWorld - US/Canadian & Global Industry Reports
Our IBISWorld database contains a range of comprehensive industry reports in the following regions - United States, Canada and Global. Industry analysis includes key statistics, industry performance, up-to-date forecasts, supply chain information, and competitive landscape.
-
Frost & Sullivan online
Frost & Sullivan provides in-depth full-text market research and strategy reports in various emerging high-technology sectors.
-
Forrester Research
UNB's Forrester Research license expires March 31, 2025, and will not be renewed due to low use.
Forrester Research is a global research and advisory firm specializing in information and communication technologies (ICT) in the following areas: IT infrastructure, networking, software, eCommerce, digital marketing and cybersecurity.
Faculty, staff or students interested in IT assessment, digital transformation, applications development, IT trends, emerging technologies and their impact on businesses and consumers will find Forrester's reports offer important insights to your research.
-
BCC Research Academic Library
"BCC Research produces comprehensive market research reports to assist with market sizing, forecasting and industry intelligence. They cover topic areas such as biotech, engineering, pharmaceuticals, information technology, energy and resources, nanotechnology and photonics."
-
EMarketer pro
eMarketer is the go-to authority on digital marketing, mobile, social media and ecommerce, offering insights essential to navigating the changing, competitive and complex digital environment. By weighing and analyzing information from different sources, eMarketer provides information to evaluate emerging trends, validate decisions, develop new ways to reach consumers and stay ahead of the competition.
-
Statista : the portal for statistics
Statista is a multidisciplinary database that aggregates information covering 80,000 topics. Access to data from over 18,000 sources covering 1.5 million statistics. All statistics can be directly downloaded in PNG, PDF, Excel, and PowerPoint formats. Data prepared according to academic citation standards, with a citation tool (APA, Chicago, Harvard, MLA, and Bluebook) and links to the original source for further research. Statista also covers industry reports, studies, forecasts, dossiers, digital market outlook , aesthetically pleasing infographics, and more.
Subscribed multi-user unlimited access -
PitchBook.
PitchBook is a private equity and venture capital database covering a wide range of companies, as well as startups. It can be used for competitor research to help identify companies that offer similar products or services. Researchers can also track entire private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) lifecycles from fund initiation to company exits, private mergers and acquisitions (M&A) transactions, and the limited partners, fund managers, advisors, and other key players involved. Researchers can save custom searches and set up email alerts to come daily, weekly, or monthly.
Subscribed multi-user unlimited access -
ABI/INFORM Complete (ProQuest)
Indexing, abstracts, and full-text of scholarly and trade journal articles in business, management, and trade. Also covers dissertations, SSRN working papers, market reports, industry reports, business cases, local and regional business information, and global and trade news. Includes full text of The Wall Street Journal and digital images of selected key business journals from the first issue to the present. ABI Help Guide
Permitted Use | Subscribed multi-user unlimited access -
Business Source Ultimate (EBSCO)
Business Source Ultimate provides full text for more than 7,200 scholarly business journals and other sources. Coverage includes virtually all subject areas related to business. BSU provides full text (PDF) for more than 350 of the top scholarly journals dating as far back as 1922.
Permitted Use | Subscribed multi-user unlimited access | Fulltext: 1922 - present. Abstracts and indexing: 1984 - present
Additional Resources
-
Passport GMID (Global Market Information Database)
Passport GMID is an international market research database and analysis tool from Euromonitor. The database contains business intelligence and reports across key industries, companies, markets, and consumers in more than 200 categories for 80 countries. Also available is research on lifestyle, demographic and socio-economic country data that spans 206 countries.
Passport GMID User Guide PDF -
Mergent Intellect
Mergent Intellect offers subscribed access to detailed business data for over 200 million public and private U.S., Canadian and international companies. Alongside detailed company research, the "Advanced Search" feature of the Intellect interface provides the opportunity to find executive contact information, build contact/mailing lists and much more.
-
D&B Hoovers (formerly Hoover's Online)
D&B Hoovers provides company information through a global database of over 120 million company records and business analytics (including financials, contacts, news, reports, triggers, and industry information). It's a great place to begin when researching an unfamilar company. Alongside company information D&B Hoovers can help to build a list of companies to match a customized set of criteria.
-
Scopus
Scopus, a multidisciplinary online resource, will be invaluable to students and faculty in various fields of study within the sciences, health sciences and the social sciences. Scopus offers full-text linking, abstracting-and-indexing information including peer-reviewed titles from international publishers, Open Access journals, conference proceedings, trade publications, quality web sources.
-
Science Direct (Elsevier)
Science Direct offers comprehensive coverage of literature across all fields of science, medicine and technology. All previous ScienceDirect journal collections have been merged into this single collection, along with select purchased eBook titles.
Permitted Use | Subscribed multi-user unlimited access -
Canadian Business and Current Affairs (CBCA) Complete (ProQuest)
Canadian Business and Current Affairs (CBCA) Complete is the nation's largest and most comprehensive bibliographic full-text reference and current events database. Available through the ProQuest Web interface, CBCA Complete combines full text and indexed content from all four CBCA database subsets (Business, Current Events, Education, and Reference). Subject coverage is comprehensive and information is available from the broadest range of Canadian sources anywhere.
Permitted Use | Subscribed multi-user unlimited access -
IEEE Xplore Digital Library (Current & Archive)
The IEEE Xplore Digital Library is a powerful resource for discovery and access to both current and archival scientific and technical content published by IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) and its publishing partners. This resource provides Web access to almost 3-million full-text documents from some of the world's most highly cited publications in electrical engineering, computer science and electronics, including:
- IEEE & Assorted Publisher journals, transactions, and magazines, including early access documents
- IEEE & Assorted Publisher conference proceedings
- IEEE published standards
- IEEE Standards Dictionary Online
Limited to 10 simultaneous users -
FP Advisor (formerly Infomart)
FP Advisor is a collection of 12 databases from the Financial Post (FP) that provide access to detailed information about the top publicly traded companies in Canada. The collection includes: Company Snapshots, Company Surveys, Corporate Analyzer, Investor Reports, Historical Reports, Industry Reports, Predecessor & Defunct, Mergers & Acquisitions, Dividends, New Issues, Fixed Income, and a Directory of Directors.
Subscribed 4-user access -
Mergent online
Mergent Online provides access to financial data for over 25,000 public U.S. and international companies. Results include: company details/history, executives, ownership, key financials, equity pricing, reports, filings, news, competitors, plus a customized Report Builder. Company financial reports for up to 15 years can be downloaded via Excel spreadsheet software. Mergent also offers real-time access to company filings submitted to the SEC (U.S.) and SEDAR (Canada). Additional attributes include a Global Private Company database for over 20 million private companies, reports (industry or equity), economic indicators, and country profiles.
-
Communication & Mass Media Complete (CMMC - EBSCO)
"CMMC incorporates the content of CommSearch (formerly produced by the National Communication Association), and Mass media articles index (formerly produced by Pennsylvania State University) along with numerous other journals..."--About the database.
Permitted Use | Subscribed multi-user unlimited access | 1915-Current -
Dissertations & Theses (ProQuest PQDT)
"Searchable and browsable database of dissertations and theses from around the world, spanning from 1743 to the present day. It also offers full text for graduate works added since 1997, along with selected full text for works written prior to 1997. It contains a significant amount of new international dissertations and theses both in citations and in full text. Includes citations for dissertations and theses from around the world, ranging from 1861 to those accepted last semester. Dissertations published from 1980 forward include 350-word abstracts; master's theses from 1988 forward include 150-word abstracts. Digital dissertations and theses are archived as submitted by the degree-granting institution. Designated as an official offsite repository for the U.S. Library of Congress, PQDT Global offers comprehensive historic and ongoing coverage for North American works and significant and growing international coverage from a multiyear program of expanding partnerships with international universities and national associations."
All PhD dissertations and Master's theses from depositing universities are available from 1997 onwards, unless the document's author has requested a temporary delay.
It is also possible to search within an interface exclusive to Dissertations & Theses @ University of New Brunswick.
For UNB theses submitted after 2012, please consult UNB’s institutional repository, UNB Scholar, or the library catalogue, UNBWorldCat.
Permitted Use | Subscribed multi-user unlimited access | 1743-Current -
Google scholar
Google Scholar searches a subset of the Web that Google has classified as "scholarly literature". They do not publish a list of chosen sites, and they do not state how often sites are checked. Some important sources are not covered at all. Thus, Google Scholar alone should not be relied on for comprehensive research.
