Management: Finding Subject Specific Information

The databases below are just a few key resources available to you whilst studying accounting and finance at Royal Holloway. There are many other resources, for example under the "Companies and Industries" tab above, that have a wealth of financial data to offer too. Please do also look at the tabs entitled  Bloomberg and Datastream on this page, as these are two invaluable sources of financial and accounting information.

• Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA)

• Chartered Institute of Managment Accountants (CIMA)

• Institute of Chartered Accountants England and Wales

• Institute of Chartered Accountants in Scotland

  ICAS is a professional body for more than 20,000 world class business men and women who work in the UK and in more than 100 countries around the world. Members have all achieved the internationally recognised and respected CA qualification (Chartered Accountant).

• Vlearn.org

  A video based learning tool which draws together videos on a range of business topics, featuring speakers from both the academic and corporate world.

Further resources on companies

There are also some websites that offer reliable company information for free:

• Alpha Vantage provides free, open-access financial and economic datasets for academic research.
• Annual Reports is a free, up-to-date listing of over 85,000 annual reports on the internet covering over 7,000 companies. You can search for companies or filter by industry.
• Investor Network is a great website to use to find out company earnings information, as well as read news and commentaries on companies or industries.
• Morningstar is a financial services firm. It provides a variety of investment research and investment management services. Morningstar's research and recommendations are considered by financial journalists as influential in the asset management industry
• The Public Register Service is one of the largest, free directories of online annual reports available on the web.

Further resources on industries

• Doing Business

  Data and analysis that measures the business environment of more than 180 countries and selected cities around the globe.

Resources on infrastructure

• World Bank: Private Participation in Infrastructure Database

  Data on more than 4000 infrastructure projects for 137 developing countries. Select the "Get Data" tab in the center of the page to view pre-defined reports or build custom reports by country and sector.

• World Bank: Transport Data & Indicators

  Data and analysis on railway & private concessions and private participation in transport infrastructure. Also provides access to the Logisitics Performance Index which monitors the trade logistics performance of countries around the globe.

Resources on risk and sovereign debt

• Corruption Perceptions Index

  First published in 1995 by Transparency International, the Corruption Perceptions Index measures observed levels of corruption within a country. To view corruption/transparency data at the country level, see this link.

• Global Financial Stability Report

  Assessment of global financial markets, including emerging market financing from the IMF. Focuses on current conditions and highlights financial imbalances and other issues that could jeopardize financial market stability and sustained market access by emerging market borrowers

• Worldwide Governance Indicators

  A World Bank resource that measures six dimensions of governance: Voice and Accountability, Political Stability and Absence of Violence, Government Effectiveness, Regulatory Quality, Rule of Law, Control of Corruption. Data are available from 1996 - present for over 200 countries.

Resources for socioeconomic analysis

• Global Consumption Database.

  Data on household consumption patterns in developing countries. Select data by country and sector.

• Human Development Report

  Thematic reports published annually by the United Nations Development Progrramme (UNDP). Recent themes have included; The Real Wealth of Nations, human mobility and development, climate change, and the global water crisis. The site also provides access to thematic regional reports.

• OECD iLibrary

  The online library of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development contains all books, papers and journals by the OECD.

Freely available resources:

• Country Studies

Contains 80 eBooks previously published by the Federal Research Division. The books present a description and analysis of the historical setting and the social, economic, political, and national security systems and institutions of select countries throughout the world. The series includes several books on countries that no longer exist in their original configuration—such as Czechoslovakia, East Germany, the Soviet Union, Sudan, and Yugoslavia.

• CIA World Factbook

The World Factbook is an annual publication from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States with almanac-style information about the countries of the world. The Factbook provides a two- to three-page summary of the demographics, geography, communications, government, economy, and military of 266 U.S.-recognized countries, dependencies, and other areas in the world.

• International Monetary Fund

The International Monetary Fund is an organization of 190 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world. You can browse by country and see news, blogs and videos relating to that country as well as data and documentation relating to that country's finances, trade and economy.

• World Open Bank

Free and open access to global development data.

There are a variety of excellent websites that provide information on entrepreneurship:

• British Library Business and IP Centre

The British Library provides webinars and resource packs to help start, run and grow your business.

• Business and self-employed - Government advice

• Carbon Trust

Carbon Trust partners businesses, governments and organisations around the world to support them in realising plans for a sustainable, low carbon future. 

• Doing Business Guides

The 'Doing Business Guides' are designed to advise and assist UK companies looking to trade with and invest in opportunity-rich overseas markets.

• Entrepreneur

This site provides advice, insight, profiles and guides for established and aspiring entrepreneurs worldwide

• Federation of Small Businesses

This organisation helps small businesses to achieve their aims. They provide a wide range of business services including advice, financial and expertise.

• Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM)

GEM carries out survey-based research on entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship ecosystems around the world. GEM is a networked consortium of national country teams primarily associated with top academic institutions. GEM is the only global research source that collects data on entrepreneurship directly from individual entrepreneurs.

• Informi

Provided by AAT, a leading professional body for accounting technicians, this group provides support to SMEs, sole-traders and startups.

• StartUp Britain

This is a campaign by entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs. It aims to provide inspiration, resources and guidance to help people start and grow their own business.

• Startups

A useful online resource for anyone starting and growing a business.

These are some of the Library databases that can help you with your entrepreneurial endeavours:

These are further sources of information on marketing:

• Chartered Institute of Marketing

• ClickZ - Marketing News & Expert Advice 

ClickZ helps marketers and business leaders navigate the technologies transforming industries.

These are further resources that provide freely available data and statistical resources:

• Census boundary data

  Boundary data for the UK, both current and historical, for thematic and statistical mapping. Provides digitised boundary datasets of the UK, available in many Geographic Information System (GIS) formats to download and use. Includes GeoConvert: A geography matching and conversion tool.

• Census Microdata

  Census Microdata are datasets containing random samples of anonymous individual records.

• Census Support: Flow Data

  Part of the UK Data Service Census Support, providing data and user support for anyone interested in using flow (also known as interactive) data from the Census.

• Eurostat

  Official statistical information on the EU and the euro-zone, including key indicators.

• International Country Risk Guide Datasets (ICRG)

  The International Country Risk Guide (ICRG) rating comprises 22 variables in three subcategories of risk: political, financial, and economic. A separate index is created for each of the subcategories. Access to data for 1984-2016 is available.

• Research in Practice - Children's Care

  News, data and documents to support evidence-based practice in social care with a focus on children's' care.

• UK Data Service

  Major collections of government statistics and social data, including the General Household Survey and the Labour Force Survey. This collection includes data from the Collection of Historical and Contemporary Census Data (CHCC).

• UK Data Service - Census Support

  Statistics and related information from the UK Census of Population, including aggregate counts of persons and households for various geographical units.

• UK National Statistics

  Government statistics published by the Office for National Statistics, covering a range of subjects including business, crime, the economy, education, government, health and population.

• World Data Catalogue

What is Bloomberg?

Bloomberg is a platform (Terminal) which provides access to live financial, currencies, and commodities data, along with a wide range of news articles, reports, and background information. The service can only be accessed through the Bloomberg Terminals on campus.

To use the Bloomberg Terminals you will need to create a Bloomberg account. You can only do this on the Bloomberg Terminals, remote access is not available.

Bloomberg also overlays Excel so you can use Excel to export data from Bloomberg to analyse. Please see the guidance document below on how to install the Bloomberg Excel plugin if it is not already available.

Where can I access the Bloomberg Terminals?

The Bloomberg Terminals are located in PC Lab 1 in the Computer Centre at the Egham Campus.

When can I access the Bloomberg Terminals?

The room is open to users 24/7. Between 18:00-08:00 and at weekends you will need your university card to access the PC Lab. Please be aware that teaching takes place in the PC Lab and the Bloomberg Terminals will not be accessible during these times.

Where can I get help using the Bloomberg Terminals?

Bloomberg provide a short guide for getting started on the Bloomberg Terminals. You can also access the online Bloomberg Help Centre through the Bloomberg website, or by pressing F1 on the keyboard when logged into a Bloomberg Terminal.

The library also runs introductory training sessions on how to use the Terminals for relevant subject areas. We will directly contact you to advertise when these are running. You can also contact your subjects Information Consultant if you have any questions about using Bloomberg.

What is Bloomberg Market Concepts?

The Bloomberg Market Concepts course is an industry recognised qualification in using the Bloomberg Terminals. Please use your Royal Holloway email address to sign up to the course. The course is free for Royal Holloway Library users. Once you leave Royal Holloway you may be charged to complete the course.

You can access the course through a web browser, you do not need to be on a Bloomberg Terminal to complete it. The course can take between 8-12 hours to finish but it will save your progress as you complete different sections. Bloomberg do occasionally add new modules, so it is worth checking to see if there is any new content.

DataStream is a database providing historical financial and economic research data published by Refinitiv. It is now available via Refinitiv’s Eikon service (the previous DataStream Advance application has been discontinued by Refinitiv).

Support using DataStream

Free online training, including information about getting certified, can be found on Refinitiv's website.

As our number of Eikon licences is very limited, School of Business and Management students (or students from other departments studying a SBM module) should email Julia Charlton for a temporary Eikon login. See instructions below on installing Eikon and the Excel DataStream add in. N.B. Eikon is Windows-only, there is no MacOS version, but Mac users can still use the online version via a web browser.

Qualtrics is a survey tool like survey monkey or BOS but more sophisticated and customizable. It is only licensed for Management staff & students.

You can sign up for it online and you do not need to be on the VPN. You log into the support portal with your Qualtrics username (your Royal Holloway email address).

If you have any problems signing up please do contact Julia Charlton

Any other issues, you should contact Qualtrics Support in the first instance here https://www.qualtrics.com/support/

The link below will help you find Royal Holloway PhD theses, UK theses through British Library's EThOS service and theses and dissertations from other countries through ProQuest.