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Anything submitted for a U of T assignment must adhere to academic integrity guidelines which require you to cite your work. In business, citing your research indicates that you are basing your business decisions on quality, authoritative information. A citation lends credibility to your work - the reputation of the source(s) you cite transfers over to you! Citations also ensures you are giving credit where it is due - this creates transparency and trust with your audience. The key in both situations is to make the information you use as easy to identify and retrieve as possible for your audience. |
A pitch deck will typically have less stringent citation requirements than most assignments - but check with your professor if it is being submitted as an assignment to clarify their expectations.
However, even if you are allowed to abbreviate or simplify your citations, this doesn't mean they should be eliminated entirely.
If you're citing something that's openly available online, include the name and a URL that's been hyperlinked. If you are referencing a number from a proprietary report, dataset, or article (ie something that would normally appear behind a paywall to non-subscribers), include the name of the publisher and the year of publication.
Source: The Globe and Mail
Source: Forrester 2016
If you are using market research as part of an assignment, you should use a standard citation style.
If the instructor has not specified a particular citation style, APA Style is the most common citation style for business (Camacho 2013) and is recommended for most business research.
The guidelines on when and how to properly cite your sources in APA Style can be found in the American Psychological Association's Publication Manual.
APA style includes two key elements that you must include in your assignment:
Camacho (2013) encourages citation in business writing for ethics, legality, and credibility reasons.
Here's an example of in-text citation with a quote:
“In business transactions and managerial decisions, where persuasion is so important, credibility becomes an important tool to motivate and lead others” (Camacho, 2013).
Camacho, L. (2013). Clarity and Chaos: Is There a Preferred Citation Style in Business Academic Literature?
Journal of Business & Finance Librarianship, 18:49–56