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Resource in Focus: SAGE Business Cases

'Cut to the case' banner for Sage Business Cases

Overview of SAGE Business Cases

This platform provides access to over 2,500 business case studies, which cover a variety of topics and industries focusing on global brands and companies.

Subjects covered includes:

  • Human Resource Management
  • Marketing
  • Operations Management
  • Corporate Social Responsibility
  • Entrepreneurship
  • And many more

Case studies also include teaching notes (only available to Business School Staff Members), discussion questions and learning objectives.

Searching

On the landing page you can:

  • Browse by subject
  • Browse by content partner
  • Browse by academic level

Or apply your keywords and use the filter options down the left hand size to narrow your results list:

Screen shot of keyword search on Sage Business Cases.

Access

Sage Business Cases is available through our catalogue, Library Search. If you are on campus no password is required. If you are off campus you will need to log in using your University campus ID and password.

All case studies are also individually catalogued on Library Search so you can also locate each one listed separately on there.

Teaching notes for academics

The platform also provides teaching notes for academics, these suggest teaching strategies, target audience and possible responses to discussion questions that can help facilitate classroom discussion.

For academics to access the teaching notes, we will require an access code. Please email lib-socsci@ncl.ac.uk to obtain this.

You will then need to have a personal profile set up on the Sage Knowledge platform. You can set this up by clicking on My Profile which is located in top right hand corner of Sage platform screen.

In the My Profile tab, you need to enter your details and then tick the box next to SAGE Business Cases Instructor Access and enter the access code.

This should then mean when you try and view any teaching notes associated to a case study, you will now have access.

A help video about unlocking teaching notes is available at: https://vimeo.com/260082960

Copyright and Distribution

All case studies are catalogued individually on Library Search so we’d recommend you circulate or embed into Blackboard the catalogue record for the case study from our catalogue.

This means we’ll get usage data from those accessing the SAGE platform.

To get a permanent catalogue link access the record on Library Search and click on the Permalink icon. Then paste the URL into your teaching materials, within Blackboard or your online reading list:

Screen shot of Library Search highlighting where to find the Permalink for entries.

The licence also allows authorised users (e.g. staff/students) to print a ‘reasonable’ number of case studies. Academics can also make individual cases available through Blackboard as this is a password restricted environment. Students can then download and save/print cases from within the VLE.

Help materials

Once logged into SAGE Business Case Studies there are a range of resources available, this video:

For further resources on business cases, check out our Business Cases Resource Guide.

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Finding Information: Types of Information

Light bulbs

In our previous blog we explored how looking for information in the right place can help save you time and effort.  However, sometimes, the right place to look can depend on what type of information you’re looking for.

While you’re probably familiar with books and you may have been introduced to journal articles, these are just two of the types of academic information available to you.  Depending on your research question or essay title you might also find it useful to explore, for example, conference proceedings, maps, company information or newspapers. 

Each type of information has its particular use; books provide an in-depth overview of a topic; journal articles are more specialised and focus in-depth on a particular area of a topic, and newspapers give you a useful perspective on events.  While Library Search can help you find a large range of information types, some types of information are only available in special databases or archives.  Before you start your search, it’s therefore important that you decide what types of information you will need to complete your assignment most effectively.  You can find out more about different information types on our Finding Information Guide and in the video below:

When you know which types of information you need for your assignment or project take a look at our Resource Guides, which provide useful links and guides to appropriate sources.

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Managing your References: EndNote and OSCOLA

“Should I use EndNote as a way to manage my references?” is often a question we get asked. We wish that there was a simple answer to that question, but there isn’t! It all depends on how many references you have, how you like to work and if you are willing to make time to learn how to use EndNote properly. You see, while EndNote is tool that can make your academic life easier (for example, it can help you build a collection of references, insert references into your work and create bibliographies), it will only save you time, if you invest time NOW.

So if you’re using the OSCOLA referencing style and weighing up whether to use EndNote or not, then you might want to consider the following:

  • You need to have a good grasp of the OSCOLA fundamentals before you even start with EndNote. If you need a refresher on OSCOLA, then check out the OSCOLA referencing guide first before even looking at EndNote.
  • EndNote will not do EVERYTHING for you. You will still need to manually input and amend your references to ensure your footnotes and bibliography comply with OSCOLA.
  • Have you got the time to invest in EndNote before using it? We strongly recommend that you make a start using EndNote from the beginning, rather than in the middle or at the end, of your research.
  • How do you want to use EndNote? Some people decide to use it simply as a storage place for their references and PDFs and leave it at that. Others use it both as a storage place, as well as a tool to help them cite.

Still not sure? Watch the video below to see how to use OSCOLA style and the Cite While You Write feature in Word. Then take a look at the OSCOLA and EndNote guide and see if it’s something you’d like to start using.

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Warm up your referencing techniques


Referencing is the acknowledgement of the sources that you use in your work. You must reference all sources that you use in your assignments, projects or dissertations, and includes quotes, ideas, facts, images, videos, audio, websites, statistics, diagrams and data.

Over the next two weeks we will be producing a series of blogs focusing on how to reference successfully in your work. We will cover…

  • explain why referencing is important
  • advice on how to produce consistent and reliable referencing
  • help on how to manage your information to make your life easier and assignments less stressful
  • point you in the direction of where to find advice and help

So come in from the cold and warm up with some referencing help and keep your eyes peeled for our upcoming blogs.

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Finding Information: Knowing Where to Look

Photograph of several closed doors, one painted yellow the others painted white.

When you’re looking for information to help you write your essays, assignments or projects it can be tempting to turn to the source of information you use every day – Google.  While Google can be useful in some ways (such as finding company websites or journal author’s profiles), it wasn’t exclusively designed to help you find good quality, academic information that is reliable and relevant.  This means you’ll likely have to spend more of your time wading through huge amounts of information and fact-checking resources for accuracy.

Thankfully, Google isn’t your only option – there are a number of different places to look that have been created with the aim of providing you with the information that you need, such as your reading lists, Library Search, and key Subject Databases.

Take a look at this video to find out more about how these sources can help you:

For more help on finding information, take a look at the Academic Skills Kit.

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Resource in Focus: Bloomsbury Collections: Politics & International Relations, Education and Linguistics

We now have access to three excellent e-book collections from Bloomsbury: Bloomsbury Politics & International Relations, Bloomsbury Collection: Education and Bloomsbury Collection: Linguistics.

Bloomsbury Politics & International Relations (over 1000 e-book titles) – subjects covered:

  • International relations
  • European politics
  • Middle East politics
  • Political history
  • Political theory and philosophy
  • Security and strategic studies
  • …and more.

Bloomsbury Collection: Education (over 450 e-book titles) – subjects covered:

  • Childhood and youth studies
  • Comparative and international education
  • Education policy and politics
  • Education and international development
  • Higher education
  • Language and education (Education)
  • Philosophy of Education (Education)
  • Teacher education
  • …and more.

Bloomsbury Collection: Linguistics (over 350 e-book titles) – subjects covered:

  • Applied linguistics
  • Corpus and computational linguistics
  • ELT and TSOL (Linguistics)
  • Grammar, syntax and morphology
  • Language acquisition
  • Language and education (Linguistics)
  • Second language acquisition
  • Semiotics
  • …and more.

You can browse the collections via Library Search (Bloomsbury Politics & International Relations, Bloomsbury Collection: Education and Bloomsbury Collection: Linguistics) or via our Subject Guides under the Books and eBooks tab. The e-book titles are also catalogued individually in Library Search. Please contact us if you have any questions about these resources: lib-socsci@ncl.ac.uk.

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Resource in focus – Romanticism: Life, Literature and Landscape

Romanticism: Life, Literature and Landscape is a powerful digital resource, ideal for students and researchers interested in William Wordsworth and the Romantic period.

Screen shot of a verse manuscript from Romanticism: Life, Literature and Landscape.

 It provides unique access to the working notebooks, verse manuscripts and correspondence of William Wordsworth and his fellow writers, including Dorothy Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Thomas De Quincey and Robert Southey.  While also offering a fascinating insight into the wider social, political and natural environment that shaped much of Wordsworth’s work, through the addition of travel journals, legal and financial records, guidebooks and over 2500 pieces of fine art from the Wordsworth Trust. There’s even more to explore with secondary research materials, including essays, biographies, maps, and photographs of the Lake District.

You can choose to browse the database via the Documents and Visual Resources tabs on the menu or use basic / advanced searches to focus your results.

Documents

The Documents section allows you to browse materials by collection (e.g. Dove Cottage manuscripts, Maps, Wordsworth Library Letters) or by document type (e.g. prose manuscript, correspondence, diary) and sort items by date, document type or first line.

You can also run a Document Advanced Search, which allows you to look for keywords within collections, document types or in works by a particular author.

Screen shot of an item record from Romanticism: Life, Literature and Landscape.

Item records contain clear, full colour, digital scans of the document, which you can view in detail online or download as a PDF. You’ll also find bibliographic details and notes with options to export the record to EndNote or RefWorks.

Visual Resources

Under Visual Resources you can browse the Art Gallery, Art Wall, Photograph Gallery, and Effects and Objects.

The Art Gallery showcases paintings, sketches and prints featuring portraits of Wordsworth and his family, alongside landscapes of the Lake District and other inspirational locations.  The Art Wall provides an in-depth look at a small selection of these artworks with a short essay on their history and context.

Screen shot of an image record from Romanticism: Life, Literature and Landscape.

The Photograph Gallery provides modern images of the Lake District specially commissioned for the database, while Effects and Objects offers photographs of the rooms and garden of Dove Cottage, and some of Wordsworth’s personal possessions.

You can also run a Visual Resources Advanced Search to focus your exploration.

Images are subject to copyright but may be used for educational purposes.  Take a look at the FAQs in the help section for more details.

More to Explore

Beyond Documents and Visual Resources, you’ll also find a collection of historical maps alongside an interactive map of the Lake District that allows you to explore key areas in the region.  Literary Lives provides brief biographies of the important literary figures of the English Romantic period and in Further Resources you’ll find a timeline of the period as well as a small selection of essays on the theme.

My Archive

You can choose to register for a free My Archive account within the database, which enables you to save searches and build your own library of documents and images. A useful way to keep track of your research and the resources you’ve found.

If you’d like to know more, the Page by Page guide in the Help tab provides detailed guidance on using advanced search features, viewing your search results, using images in teaching and research, and building your collection in My Archive.

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Resource in Focus: International Encyclopedia of Human Geography

https://unsplash.com/photos/m6RCv8K0rTM?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditShareLink

We have online access to the International Encyclopedia of Human Geography. This reference collection gives you an authoritative and comprehensive source of information on the discipline of human geography and its constituent, and related, subject areas. The Encyclopedia includes over 1,000 detailed entries on philosophy and theory, key concepts, methods and practices, biographies of notable geographers, and geographical thought and praxis in different parts of the world.

This online copy of the Encyclopedia features extensive browsing, searching, and internal cross-referencing between articles in the work, plus dynamic linking to journal articles and abstract databases, making navigation flexible and easy.

To access the Encyclopedia, you can find it in Library Search or on our Geography Subject Guide. If you have any questions about this resource please contact your Liaison Team.

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A little conversation with Mintel

As a globally recognised market analyst, Mintel produces hundreds of reports into UK-specific consumer markets every year. Each report provides a unique overview of a market’s dynamics and prospects, giving you the knowledge to devise informed and profitable marketing strategy. Mintel is also one of the many Business specialist databases that we subscribe to here at Newcastle University, which you can access via Library Search, or along with many other of our resources via our Business Subject Guide.

Mintel also produce an excellent podcast, A Little Conversation Podcast, on YouTube which covers ideas and new perspectives on how we eat, drink, shop, groom and think – from the key issues impacting society to trends in food, beauty, tech and retail, they discuss what consumers want and why.

So if you are looking for an alternative resource in market research, have a look at these podcasts. You can subscribe to their podcast via their website or where you normally download your podcasts.

Here’s their latest podcast which is looking consumer behaviour of upcoming holiday shopping: