Research Guides: Business: Citing Business Resources

Citation Guides

For additional help with the APA, Chicago, or MLA citation styles, see the links below.

MCLA's Citing Sources Guide
Basics of citing
APA Blog
APA's searchable Q-and-A column, with solutions to specific citation issues.
Harvard Business School Citation Guide
Based on the Chicago Manual of Style.
Purdue Owl
This site provides detailed information about how to cite your sources in APA style, as well as many others.

Citing Within the Paper

Within your reports and papers, you'll need to include in-text citations whenever you refer to outside sources or include charts or other visuals, in addition to your full reference list. This will allow your readers to easily trace back each piece of information to your credible source, thereby strengthening your argument.

In-Text Citations
Generally, an in-text citation will include the creator/author's name and the date of the publication in parentheses: (Author, Year).

For more information about APA in-text citations, please follow the link above.
Footnotes and Endnotes
Footnotes and endnotes are not a requirement of APA style but are sometimes recommended by your instructors because they can be used to clarify and explain your source for the information you cited.

Please follow the link above to learn more.

Citing

Citing sources properly is necessary to demonstrate where your information is coming from. It also helps keep you from accidentally plagiarizing.

Be sure to check with your instructor to see what citation format you should be using.

Citation Examples

Below are examples of how to cite some popular business resources, based upon our interpretation of the APA 6th edition rules.

Annual Reports

Honda Motor Co. (2011). Annual report 2011. Retrieved from http://www.honda.com

Alcoa Inc. (2011). 2010 Annual report and Form 10-K. Retrieved from MergentOnline.

Business Source Premier & Business Search Interface

Company profiles

Datamonitor. (2011, May 6). Alcoa Inc. [company profile]. Retrieved from Business Source Premier.

Industry reports

Datamonitor (2008). Organic food industry profile: United States. Retrieved from Business Source Premier.

Barnes Reports (2012). U.S. ship & boat building industry. [industry report]. Retrieved from Business Source Complete.

Articles

Ritter, R. C. (2004). When Offshore Manufacturing Doesn't Make Sense. McKinsey Quarterly, 4, 124. Retrieved from Business Source Premier.

Census.gov

Population data

U.S. Census Bureau. (2010). Pittsburgh city, Pennsylvania -- Profile of general population and housing characteristics: 2010. [table]. 2010 Demographic Profile Data. Retrieved from U.S. Census Bureau website http://www.census.gov.

Economic Census

U.S. Census Bureau. (2007). Pennsylvania -- Economy-Wide Key Statistics: 2007. [table]. 2007 Economic Census. Retrieved from U.S. Census Bureau website http://www.census.gov.

County Business Patterns

U.S. Census Bureau. (2009). Allegheny County, Pennsylvania -- Geography Area Series: County Business Patterns. [table]. 2009 Business Patterns. Retrieved from U.S. Census Bureau website http://www.census.gov.

10-K from SEC Edgar

H.J. Heinz Company. (2011, June 16). Form 10-K. Fiscal year ended April 27, 2011. Retrieved from SEC Edgar website http://www.sec.gov.

Citing books and e-books (APA)

Books

By one author

Drucker, Peter (2011). Technology, management, and society. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press.

By two authors

Wheeler, A. & Katz, J. (2011). Brand Atlas : Branding intelligence made visible. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

By three to seven authors

Harrington, L.H., Boyson, S., & Corsi, T.M. (2011). X-SCM : the new science of X-treme supply chain management. New York, NY: Routledge.

Article or Chapter in an Edited Book

Rao, A. (2010). Brand Alliances. In. B. Loken, R. Ahluwalia & M.J. Houston (Eds.), Brands and Brand Management. (pp. 43- 61). New York, NY: Routledge.

E-books

Wörtche, G. (2010). Investment strategies: implementation and performance. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com