Entrepreneurship

Guide to research strategies and resources for Entrepreneurship research

Getting Started

Think about what you are trying to research in entrepreneurship. Are you interested in learning about the efficacy of small business grants? Do you want to learn about venture capital funding cycles? Or are you interested in diving deeper into industry projections for data mining algorithms? Deciding on your research topic will give you a jumping-off point to dig deeper.

For more information about finding your research topic, see Choosing a Research Topic in our Research Essentials Guide.

Once you have your research topic, it's time to start your research. Determine some keywords that describe the most important concepts for your topic, and use those keywords to search for articles, books, or other materials that cover your topic.

Searching is a process of trial and error, so be prepared to use a few strategies when finding materials. Using Boolean operators along with your keywords, such as AND or OR, can also help you refine your search.

For a deeper dive into finding sources for your topic, see Finding Books and Articles in our Research Essentials Guide.

As you find materials to help you in your research, you may start to find that you are drifting away from your original research topic. That's okay! This can be a great chance to refine your topic. For example, if you start out researching the viability of solar panel start-ups in New York, but wind up becoming more interested in writing about leveraging solar panel subsidies as you read, that can turn into a great opportunity to pursue a topic that interests you more.

At this point it is also a great idea to sit back and take stock. Always remember to evaluate your sources, and reach out if you still need help.

Key Databases & Websites

ABI/INFORM Complete
Business related articles from journals as well as trade publications, dissertations, conference proceedings, market reports and wire feeds.
Business Source Elite
This database provides full-text coverage of business, management and economics journals and periodicals. These publications cover topics such as accounting, banking, finance, international business, marketing, and sales. (Insights enabled)
Gale Business: Entrepreneurship
Gale Business: Entrepreneurship connects researchers with real business plans and case studies, how-to guides, and popular journalism concerning entrepreneurship topics of interest. Many articles linked are only available as citations.
Small Business Collection
Ideal for business schools and entrepreneurs, Small Business Collection is updated daily and provides insights, tips, strategies, and success stories. Users find more than 500 subject-appropriate, active, full-text periodicals, including: Beverage Industry, Black Enterprise, Economist, Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, HR Magazine, Real Estate Weekly, Restaurant Business, and Tea & Coffee Trade Journal.
Gale Business: Insights
Company and industry profiles including SWOT reports, market share and financial reports, industry rankings, products and brands, marketing data, and more. Contains articles and abstracts from journals and news sources.
Academic OneFile (Gale)
Articles from journals, magazine, newspapers, trade publications and some ebooks covering multidisciplinary subjects.
CountryWatch
Reports on political, business, demographic, cultural, and environmental information and statistics on countries around the world. Also includes daily news coverage by country, comparable country data sets and regional maps.
Leadership and Management (Gale OneFile)
Focus on articles concerning leadership, management, training, and other topics related to management.

First Research Industry Profiles
Industry profiles that includes an overview, the competitive landscape, financials, industry indicators, sales and marketing, and more.
Business Source Elite
This database provides full-text coverage of business, management, and economics journals and periodicals. Business Source Elite also includes MarketLine Profiles, which provide a comprehensive industry profile including a market value forecast, category, geography segmentation, and market share. To access MarketLine Profiles:
Type in "industry profile" in the first box and the industry you're researching in the second box, e.g. dairy.
Mergent Market Atlas
Market Atlas provides tools for both interactive online research and easy predefined report access. These tools and reports are reflected across multiple product modules including Company, Sustainability, Industry, Country and Economic analysis. Market Atlas covers over 50,000 US and foreign public companies, current and historical (past 15 years) firm descriptions, statistics, financial information and ratios, annual reports, mergers, acquisitions, disposals, joint ventures, long-term debt, capital stock, and insider trading.

U.S. Economic Census Data Tables
Data derived from 2017 U.S. Economic Census, illustrating industry trends and projects. Economic Census conducted every five years; watch the website for publication and analysis of 2022 materials.
U.S. Census Bureau - County Business Patterns
CBP is an annual series that provides subnational economic data by industry. This series includes the number of establishments, employment during the week of March 12, first quarter payroll, and annual payroll.
North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Codes
The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) is the standard used by Federal statistical agencies in classifying business establishments for the purpose of collecting, analyzing, and publishing statistical data related to the U.S. business economy.
Bureau of Labor Statistics - Industries at a Glance
A brief overview of the industry, workforce and earnings statistics, industry-specific pricing information and workplace trends.
NYC Open Data: Business Data
Varied data sets from NYC Open data covering a wide swath of regulation and business registration data.

ABI/INFORM Trade & Industry
Journals and other sources ranging from current news to professional and academic journal articles covering the trends and history influencing important accounting, tax, banking, and financial issues of the day.
EDGAR: SEC Search Portal
Provides public access to the full-text of documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). These include annual reports on form 10-K, quarterly reports on form 10-Q, etc.
Key Business Ratios
Mining information from the Dun & Bradstreet (now a subsidiary of Mergent, Inc.) database of financial information on 60 million+ companies from 209 countries around the world, Key Business Ratios (KBR) can be used to assess a firm's strengths and weaknesses relative to competing firms or an entire industry.
OECD iLibrary
OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) iLibrary is OECD’s Online Library for books, papers and statistics and the gateway to OECD’s analysis and data. Indexes 480 complete databases with 4.5 billion+ data points produced since 1998.

PolicyMap
Users can access thousands of U.S. data indicators to perform demographic and socioeconomic analysis, from a neighborhood census block group up to a national level, or create custom regions, for research and studies.
Statista
Find statistics, consumer survey results, and industry studies. Categorized into 21 market sectors, the platform provides direct access to quantitative data on media, business, finance, politics, and a wide variety of other areas of interest or markets.
Data sources include market research reports as well as trade publications, scientific journals, and government databases.
CountryWatch
Reports on political, business, demographic, cultural, and environmental information and statistics on countries around the world. Also includes daily news coverage by country, comparable country data sets and regional maps.
Sports Market Analytics
Sports Market Analytics is an online, continuously updated nationwide sports marketing analytics database with four reporting formats to accommodate user needs: Single Sport Analytics, Subject Analytics, Sport Summaries, and Sports Venue Analytics. It offers an all-encompassing perspective on the sports business, drawing upon syndicated and custom proprietary market research, industry reports, and licensed industry articles.

Google Patent Search
Full text searchable U.S. and international patents
U.S. Copyright Office
Search the Copyright Public Records Catalog online. 1978 to present.
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office - Trademark Search
Search database for trademark registrations and applications by mark, owner, or serial/registration number with Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS). The site includes FAQs, tutorials, and videos.
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office - Patent database
Divided into separate databases for patent applications and awarded patents.
USPTO - Inventor & Entrepreneur Resources
Educational resources and assistance from the U.S. Trademark and Patent Office.
NY Department of State Records
New York Department of State's Division of Corporations, State Records and Uniform Commercial Code. The Division examines, files, and maintains numerous documents vital to business and state government including state and local laws, oaths of office, trademarks, certificates of incorporation, and Uniform Commercial Code Article 9 financing statements.
Iona University Libraries Copyright & Fair Use Research Guide
Iona University Libraries' comprehensive guide to copyright law and fair use. Tailored to faculty work, but includes additional online resources, videos, and clear definitions of Fair Use.

U.S. Major Dailies
U.S. Major Dailies provides access to U.S. national and regional newspapers, including Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times and The New York Times.
News (Gale OneFile)
Provides access to more 1,000+ major U.S. regional, national and local newspapers as well as leading titles from around the world.
The New York Times (1980 - Current)
Often considered the official U.S. newspaper, the NYTimes publishes the complete text of important documents, speeches and presidential press conferences.

Also available in full-text:
from 01/01/1939 to Present in Iona University Libraries Print/Microform
from 06/01/1980 to present in LexisNexis Academic
from 06/01/1980 to present in National Newspapers Premier
from 01/01/1985 to present in Academic OneFile
from 01/01/1985 to present in InfoTrac Newsstand
from 01/01/1985 to present in New York State Newspapers
US Newsstream
US Newsstream enables users to search the most recent premium U.S. news content, as well as archives which stretch back into the 1980s featuring newspapers, newswires, blogs, and news sites in active full-text format.
Wall Street Journal
The WSJ is considered the US's preeminent publication for business news and information on financial markets worldwide. Content available from 1984 - Current.

ABI/INFORM Dateline
Articles and content from magazines, newspapers, and wire services covering local and regional business news about companies, local markets, employment opportunities, data on benefits and compensation, corporate strategies, etc.
Barron's
This premier business publication's detailed indexing helps users quickly find the news information they need. Content available from 1988 - Current.
Barron's Free Pass
This free pass to Barron's generously provided by a donation from the Carpentieri family allows not only full-site access to Barron's, but also a number of subscription benefits like webinars and networking events. Students and staff should sign up using their "iona.edu" email address.

Small Business Association Loan Programs
Find loans from the SBA, check for Lender Matches, and learn about the terms of different SBA loans.
Angel Capital Association
Member directory of Angel Capital Association with information about various funders.
The Capital Network
Non-profit dedicated to creating equitable funding ecosystem.
Small Business Association Office of Veterans Business Development
Information on small business support for veterans, including continued education programs, funding, and support networks.

Small Business Association Create a Business Plan
Includes business plan templates, tips, and resources for developing both traditional business plans and leaner start-up business plans.
BPlans
Website includes sample business plans, tools, guides, and practical advice on planning and sustaining a business.

Peterson's Test and Career Prep (Gale Presents)
This career exploration resource helps students and job seekers search thousands of college and graduate schools, identify scholarships, take practice tests, create resumes, and explore careers.
Skillport (Books 24x7)
Ebooks and streaming video from the following collections: BusinessPro, covering business skills, management and strategy; Executive Summaries; and IT and Desktop Videos, which are short, 3-5 minutes in length, on-demand instructional videos covering a variety of topics geared toward learners that already have some familiarity with the software or hardware.

Key Subject Journals

Entrepreneurship Journals

Digital Business Magazines & New York Times

Flipster Digital Magazines
Digital newsstand that offers a browse-able access to popular magazines such as Bloomberg Businessweek, Forbes, Fortune, and The New Yorker. Magazines can be downloaded to Android™ phones and tablets and Apple® phones and tablets for offline reading.
The New York Times Academic Pass
The Academic Pass provides access to NYTimes.com, NYTimes.com smartphone and tablet apps, and NYTimes In Education.

Research Videos & Tutorials

Video: Evaluating Sources
This video goes over how to evaluate sources for credibility, accuracy, and bias.
Tutorial: News Reporting vs. Opinion Pieces in Journalism
This tutorial goes over evaluating news pieces to distinguish between news reporting and opinion pieces. Distinguishing between these types of journalism will help determine how best to use the information they provide.
Video: Anatomy of a Research Paper
This video will help you plan how to construct a research paper once you've found your sources and are ready to write.
Tutorial: Paraphrasing, Quoting, & Summarizing
There are three major ways to use information with attribution to the source it came from. Learning these three methods - paraphrasing, quoting, and summarizing - will help you in your research.
Tutorial: Why Citations Matter
Why do citations matter? This video goes over the many reasons why attributing information to the source where it was found is important in research and in life.

Google Scholar (Search and Export Citations)

Google Scholar (www.scholar.google.com) allows you to search for relevant scholarly information across many disciplines and sources.

If you search Google Scholar on-campus, you will be automatically linked to full-text articles which are in the Library databases. From off-campus, you must link to Iona University Library Databases from Google Scholar.

Instructions for linking to Iona University Library Databases from Google Scholar

Go to Settings (three bars on top left of the page)
Click on Library Links
Type in Iona University

How do Google Scholar Library Links work?

When you search Google Scholar, you'll see Find full-text @ Iona links in the results. Sometimes these links will appear to the right of the result, and other times the links will be hidden at the bottom of the result -- to unhide (or expand), click the double arrows.

You still need to log in (authenticate) with your Iona user id and password after clicking Find full-text @ Iona. Full text is not guaranteed. Iona full-text holdings are constantly being updated, and sometimes Google's inventory of our catalog may not be in sync. If an article isn't available full-text, please request via ILL.

To configure exporting citations from Google Scholar to Refworks

Go to Settings (three bars on top left of the page).
Locate the Bibliography Manager
Select RefWorks from the drop-down menu next to Show links to import citations into.
Click on Save.
When you locate an article that you would like to export to RefWorks, click on Cite and select RefWorks to export.

More about Google Scholar:

Click on the double rights arrows (>>) to see all the access options.

Full view = Takes you directly to the full-text of the article in a library database or publisher web site
Library Search = Searches the Iona Library Catalog for the book titles, this option will not appear for articles
Find Full Text@ Iona = Takes you to full-text citation finders where it will direct you to an ILL form or the full-text
Cached = Refers to old snapshots of articles that Google has indexed
All Versions = Shows different formats (preprint, journal, repository) of the same academic work
Cited by = Articles Referencing the original

Last Updated: Dec 8, 2025 4:06 PM
URL: https://guides.iona.edu/entrepreneurship
Print Page

Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Marketing