Globalization & Economic Competitiveness

The information resources in this subject guide have been identified to assist with research on how companies, governments, and societies respond strategically to the competitive environment of a globalizing economy.  The fundamental mode of analysis of this research is typically through the delineation of supply chains or value chains within the structure of particular industries.  This guide is designed for use by students within the Markets & Management Studies program at Duke and by researchers in Duke's Center on Globalization, Governance & Competitiveness.  The Table of Contents to the left outlines the categories under which the substance of this research guide is organized. 

Getting Started

Become familiar with the Duke Libraries homepage (library.duke.edu) especially the tabs under "Search Our Resources". The Catalog (Beta) tab searches the online catalog for the holdings of all of the libraries at Duke through a versatile interface that is under development. After a search has been executed (e.g. automobile industry), note the useful faceting of the results by sub-topic and by geographical region. Use the Advanced Search option for additional functionality in combining terms or in limiting the scope of the search by date of publication, library, format or by language.  The Articles tab enables umbrella searches for journal and newspaper articles across a pre-selected set of databases. Use the Advanced Search under the Articles tab to target a search to a set of databases in broad subject areas like business or the social sciences. The E-Journals tab leads to the numerous periodicals (like the Economist or the Wall Street Journal) to which the Duke Libraries provide electronic access. The Databases tab directs the user to clickable links to the customized interfaces of specialized databases like Standard & Poor's or the Economist Intelligence Unit, many of which are not included in the cross-database searches under the Articles tab. A number of these databases are described on the topical pages of this subject guide indexed to the left.

Online Catalog: Consider whether book length works may have been published on your topic. Perkins Library and the Ford Library in the Fuqua School of Business will have many books on particular industries that can be discovered by using the online catalog. While the Beta Catalog is under development, there may be advantages to using the Classic Catalog link. The default in the classic catalog is to a keyword mode. A search like: globali* textile*, might get you started on finding books about globalization in the textile industry. The asterisk(*) truncates a word at that point, retrieving globalization, globalisation, globalizing, etc. As you review your results (which are displayed in reverse chronological order, most recent first), take note of the systematically assigned subject headings that seem relevant. There are many headings for specific industries such as "textile industry", "clothing trade", "computer industry", "automobile industry and trade" that can be used by selecting the Subject begins with search type in the classic catalog. The term "competition" is the subject heading that encompasses the concept of "competitiveness": e.g.Competition, International.  "Globalization" has been assigned as a subject heading since the late 1990's. Doing a Subject begins with search for "Globalization" will produce a very useful list of headings for books broken down geographically and by subheadings like "economic aspects" or "social aspects".  For example:
50+  Globalization -- Social aspects.
  3     Globalization -- Social aspects -- Africa.
  1     Globalization -- Social aspects -- Africa -- Congresses.
  1     Globalization -- Social aspects -- Africa, Sub-Saharan.
  1     Globalization -- Social aspects -- Amazon River Region.
  1     Globalization -- Social aspects -- America.
  1     Globalization -- Social aspects -- Andes Region -- Congresses.
  1     Globalization -- Social aspects -- Appalachian Region -- Case studies.
  2     Globalization -- Social aspects -- Arab countries.