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Business & Management

A research guide for topics in business and management.

APA Style for Business Resources

Overview

Business resources that are commonly used in assignments at CityU can be challenging to cite. APA is not designed for business resources, but there are rules that we can apply to make such citations consistent with APA style. Refer to the following table to see examples from each of our specialized business databases.  

Note: All academic articles covering business topics can be cited in APA style according to the Use APA Style LibGuide.

Examples

Please note: The in-text citation examples below are parenthetical. You can also use narrative in-text citations when writing, which is encouraged. You can read more about parenthetical vs. narrative in-text citations here:

Source Reference List In-Text
CIA World Factbook

Format:

Central Intelligence Agency. (year, month). Title. In The World Factbook. Retrieved date, from URL

Example:

Central Intelligence Agency. (2021, October 6). Afghanistan. In The World Factbook. Retrieved October 30, 2021, from https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/afghanistan/

Format:

(Author, year)

Example:

(Central Intelligence Agency, 2021)

EDGAR (SEC Filings)

Format: 

Company Name. (year, month date). Form Title. URL 

Example: 

Starbucks Corp. (2020, November 16). Form 10-K (Annual Report). 
https://www.sec.gov/edgar/search/#/q=starbucks 

Format:

(Company name, year)

Example:

(Starbucks Corp., 2020)

Hoover's Company Profiles

Format:

Author. (year, month date). Report title. [Report type]. Retrieved date, from homepage URL 

Example:

D&B Hoover’s. (2021, January 1). Nordstrom Inc. [Company Profile]. Retrieved June 5, 2021, from www.dnb.com 

Format:

(Author, year) 

Example:

(D&B Hoover's, 2021)

*See note

GlobalEDGE

Format:

Author. (year, month). Page title. Retrieved date, from homepage URL 

Example:

GlobalEDGE. (2021, August). Albania: Risk assessment. Retrieved August 13, 2021 from https://globaledge.msu.edu/ 

Format:

(Author, year)

Example:

(GlobalEDGE, 2021) 

IBISWorld

Format:

Author. (year, month). Title (Industry Report #). IBISWorld. Retrieved year, date, from homepage URL 

Example:

O’Connor, C. (2019, August). Family clothing stores in the US (Industry Report 44814). IBISWorld. Retrieved January 27, 2020, from https://www.ibisworld.com/ 

Format:

(Author, year)

Example:

(O'Connor, 2019)

MarketLine Company Report

Format:

Author. (year, month). Report title. [Report type]. homepage url

Example:

MarketLine. (2021, August). The Walt Disney Company. [Company report]. https://www.marketline.com/

Format:

(Author, year)

Example:

(MarketLine, 2021)

*See note

Mergent Online

Format:

Author. (year, month day - if available). Company name (Ticker Symbol). Retrieved date, year, from URL 

Example:

Mergent Online. (2021). Starbucks Corp. (NMS: SBUX). Retrieved June 15, 2021, from www.mergentonline.com 

Format:

(Author, year)

Example:

(Mergent Online, 2021)

*See note

Statista

Format (without an individual author): 

Author. (year). Title [Type of resource]. Retrieved date, from URL 

Example (without an individual author):

Statista. (2021). Coffee market in the U.S. [Dossier]. Retrieved June 15, 2021, www.statista.com 

Format (with an individual author);

Author. (year). Title [Type of resource]. Publisher. Retrieved date, from URL 

Example (with an individual author):

Conway, J. (2021, May 26). Sales of the leading ready-to-drink (RTD) cappuccino/iced coffee brands in the United States in 2020 (in million U.S. dollars) [Graph]. Statista. Retrieved June 15, 2021, from www.statista.com 

Format:

(Author, year)

Examples:

(Statista, 2021)

(Conway, 2021)

*See note

US Census Data

Please see: APA Style Blog: Data Sets

 

World Bank Group: Doing Business Report

Format:

World Bank Group. (year). Title. In Doing Business. homepage URL.

Example:

World Bank Group. (2020). Economy profile of Afghanistan. In Doing Business 2020. https://www.doingbusiness.org/en/doingbusiness 

Format:

(Author, year)

Example:

(World Bank Group, 2020)

*See note

*Note: If you have multiple stats or reports from the same year by the same author, you can differentiate by adding a letter after the year (a, b, c, d, etc.). This is true for any citation which shares an author and a date. You can read more about this here:

Static vs. Non-Static Reports

"Retrieved" Date Rules

As noted above, citing business resources in APA can be tricky. In general, we want our readers to be able to locate the information we cite. However, many business databases and reports change over time and are not archived.  

Items that are archived are “static,” meaning that they are cataloged and remain accessible in their current form. Items that are regularly updated and not archived are “non-static,” meaning that they change over time (and older versions cannot be accessed).  

For items that are static, no retrieved date is needed. 

Example: Starbucks. (2020, November 16). Form 10-Khttps://www.sec.gov/edgar/search/#/q=starbucks  

For items that are non-static, a retrieved date is required. The URL you will use in this instance is a generic homepage URL. 

Example: O’Connor, C. (2019, August). Family clothing stores in the US (Industry Report 44814). IBISWorld. Retrieved January 27, 2020, from https://www.ibisworld.com/ 

Please note: In APA 7, you should never use a CityU-specific database URL unless it is specifically requested by your instructor. This is why in the examples above, you see homepage URLs listed for items that can be found in the library collection.

For more information about URL rules in APA style, please visit: