Skip to Main Content

Business Studies Research Skills Guide: Get started

This Bachelor of Business Studies guide is designed to help you to understand the skills and tools you'll need to complete the research for your assessments.

Understand your task or research project

The first thing is to make sure you clearly understand your assessment task and what topic you are seeking information for; this is called topic analysis.

Start with your Subject Outline. Carefully review:

  • The task description
  • The rationale
  • The marking rubric

These will highlight key concepts you need to cover and the types of sources to use.

What information do you need?

Consider the type of information you need, such as definitions, background information, statistics, government reports, case studies, community perspectives or academic research.

Also check if your assessment specifies certain types of sources, like scholarly articles, media items, or primary/secondary sources.

The next few pages will give you guidance on how to best locate these materials. 

Keywords and limitations

With an understanding of your task you then need to plan how you will search for information. This starts with identifying and brainstorming keywords.

Topic analysis example: 

Instruction words research, report, describe, explain, compare, suggest, recommend
Key concepts international business, business strategy, corporate sustainability
Limiters geographic location, dates, peer-reviewed sources

Once you have identified key concepts in your assessment task, brainstorm additional keywords. This will assist you when searching for information. 

Keywords Synonyms or related terms
corporate

business, commercial, organisational, organizational
sustainability corporate sustainability, sustainable business, corporate conscience, corporate citizenship, responsible business, business ethics
business strategy business planning, strategic planning, strategy, innovation management
international management global management, transnational management, multinational

For some assessments, additional keywords will come from your chosen company/industry.


To learn more about topic analysis:

Charles Sturt University acknowledges the traditional custodians of the lands on which its campuses are located, paying respect to Elders, both past and present, and extend that respect to all First Nations Peoples.Acknowledgement of Country

Charles Sturt University is an Australian University, TEQSA Provider Identification: PRV12018. CRICOS Provider: 00005F.