Course Guide: Business Administration 484
Introduction
This course guide is related to the Advanced Corporate Finance mergers and acquisitions assignment taught by Dr. Annette Citzler. Each student must know how to access relevant information. The assignment is to discover the history leading up to a company's merger or acquisition and determine the extent to which the resulting entity achieved the ends which were claimed for it prior to the merger or acquisition.
The purpose of this assignment is to have each student thoughtfully choose and research the business literature as indexed in Business Source Complete. Students are expected to create a paper that ethically and legally incorporates information from a Datamonitor report and from articles in journals, magazines, or newspapers.
Sally Carroll-Ricks, MLS, MM, AHIP, Assist. Prof., Library
in collaboration with Annette Citzler, PhD, Professor of Business, September 8, 2009
Texas Lutheran University
- Determine the kind of information you need and how much.
- Access the information you need effectively and efficiently.
- Evaluate the information you retrieve and the credentials of the author or publisher and incorporate valid information into your knowledge, values, and practice (ex., solving a problem or making a decision--academic, personal, or professional).
- Use the information effectively to accomplish your specific purpose (ex., writing a paper, making a presentation, creating a poster, creating a CD-ROM).
- Analyze the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of your information, and then access and use the information ethically and legally.
based on the Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education
Association of College and Research Libraries, 2000
Top
Know - Identify the Information Need
Outcome: The student will locate general information about the mergers and acquisitions of a company needed for this assignment.
- What kind of information do you need? Do you need books, journals, magazines, reports, newspaper articles, etc.
- How much information do you need? What is the scope of your project? How comprehensive is your project? How many references do you need?
- In what industry are you interested (see below)? This may help you to decide on a company to investigate.
Possible industries:
Aerospace/Defense Industry (Boeing, Raytheon)
Airlines (AMR Corp, Continental Airlines, Northwest Airlines)
Banking (Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Key Corp, Wachovia, Wells Fargo)
Building Materials (Fastenal, Martin Marietta, Owens Corning, Vulcan Materials)
Chemicals (Air Products and Chemicals, Ashland Inc., Dow Chemical)
Drug Manufacturing (Bristol Myers Squibb, Johnson & Johnson, Merck Co. Inc., Pfizer)
Energy (American Electric Power, Duke Energy, Dominion, TXU Corp)
Food & Beverage (Constellation Brands, Dean Foods, H. J. Heinz, Smithfield Foods, Tyson Foods)
Oil & Gas (Chevron, Conoco Phillips or ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil or ExxonMobil)
Telecom (AT&T Inc., Qwest Communications International Inc., Verizon Communications Inc.)
Top
Retrieve the Information Effectively and Efficiently
Outcome: The student will effectively and efficiently locate and retrieve a Datamonitor report and citations from Business Source Complete.
Background Information (Datamonitor Report)
- Navigate to Library Home Page > Databases by Subject > Business & Economics > Business Source Complete
- In top EBSCO bar, go to More > Company Profiles
- Enter key word from company name, for example: Boeing. If you find it, read the summary, and then click the complete Datamonitor report > History (you'll need the History for your bibliographic citation). In the History section, look to see what mergers occurred during the time period your professor has assigned, for example, 1996-2001. Take note of pertinent dates and company names. You will use these to search for information about those companies.
- Notice how many pages are in the Datamonitor report and do NOT print the entire report. Instead, in the browser toolbar, click File > Save As and save to your "Y" drive. The Datamonitor report will become your foundational document and you may need to refer or quote from it once you begin writing your paper.
- To see the suggested APA citation style for this document, click DETAIL VIEW and then the YELLOW page icon.
- Copy and paste the APA citation format into a Word document or print the citation (you'll need this for your bibliographic citation).
Search Strategy
- In Business Source Complete, click Basic Search.
- Enter key words from company name, example: Boeing. Then click Search.
- Limit your search if you are getting too many hits (more than 100, for example). Limit by adding dates, adding another keyword (merger, for example). Use "Narrow Results by Subject" and click a subject ("Consolidation & merger of corporations" or "mergers," for example).
Search Tips
- Click on the links within your hits to expand your search for other company names.
- Print out the complete abstract and summary of any source you think you will use. You will need this information for your bibliographic citation.
- You may need to place two keywords in quotes to retrieve pertinent articles, for example, "Southern Company."
- You may need to search for "Morgan Chase" instead of "JP Morgan Chase."
- For one giant company, like AT&T, you may need to limit search to scholarly articles in order to reduce the number of hits.
- Do not narrow your search by "merger" if you are getting too few hits, as will be the case for some companies, such as Fastenal, TXU, and Constellation Brands.
- You may need to search by two names if you are getting too few hits, as in the case of "Sprint" and "Nextel."
Advanced Search Tab
Use the additional limits offered on the Advanced Search screen to further narrow your search.
Evaluate the Information
Outcome: The student will identify authoritative resource material, approved by the course professor, that might be used in the assignment.
Outcome: The student will determine whether or not the library can link to a full-text article and whether or not an article should be requested via Interlibrary Loan.
Outcome: The student will navigate to the Interlibrary Loan request page and demonstrate how to request material.
Initially,
evaluate the information (source of the information), along with the credentials of the author or publisher, for its relevance to your topic. If you find it relevant, retrieve the full-text by linking to it from within the database you are in, or by searching the
PERIODICAL TITLES list to see if the library can provide it in another database or in the print collection. If need be, submit an
Interlibrary Loan Journal Request if you can wait 7-10 days. Business Source Complete is a key information source in the field of business that provides authoritative and ethically acquired information.
If you locate information that is relevant, examine its reference list, if available, for other information related to your topic.
Top
Use the Information Effectively
Outcome: The student will create a paper that will describe what a company said prior to a merger or acquisition and what actually resulted after the merger or acquisition.
Incorporate the information you have identified to support your discussion, following the advice of your professor. Ask yourself, did the merger or acquisition result in the effects initially presented to the shareholders and the public?
Top
Act Ethically - Analyze Issues and Cite Sources
Outcome: The student will download a Datamonitor Report and obtain appropriate citations in an ethical and legal manner.
All papers must include a source cited page.
Analyze the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of your information, and then access and use the information ethically and legally. As an ethical professional, to avoid plagiarism and to abide with copyright provisions, you must inform your audience (whomever is receiving the information you are presenting) of your sources. You must abide by TLU's policy on academic honesty and plagiarism.
Standard citation style allows others to retrieve the document or source material that you utilize, in the same way that a description of the scientific method used in original research allows others to repeat the exact experiment that you conduct. As a professional, you should use an official citation manual, recognized by your profession, in forming the description of the documents or sources that you utilize. In business, the most often used style is the APA style. NoodleBib is an excellent source that allows you to register and store your "Works Cited" lists permanently and, it will walk you through the process of formatting your citations in the APA, Turabian/Chicago, or the MLA style.
If you incorporate graphics or images from other sources into your assignment, you must cite each graphic or image so that it is clear to viewers where each graphic appeared originally. Citing documents and graphics can be confusing, so if you need assistance in creating a citation, ask your professor or Ask-A-Librarian.
Top
