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Gerstein Science Information Centre

Entrepreneurship

Recommended resources for research related to entrepreneurship, startups and commercialization: from science and technology literature to market research and patents.

Why cite?

Expectations for citation should adhere to convention based on their context. Anything submitted for a U of T assignment must adhere to academic integrity guidelines - in other words: cite your work.

In business, citing your research shows that you are transparent, trustworthy, and collaborative. You cite to show that you are basing your business decisions on good information.

The key in both situations is to make the information you use as easy to identify and retrieve as possible for your audience.

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Citing for a pitch deck
Citing for an assignment

Citing for a pitch deck

A pitch deck not intended for academic contexts has less stringent citation requirements.

This doesn't mean that you shouldn't cite your research! Just keep it simple. If you're citing something that's openly available online, include the name and link it. If a number is from a proprietary market research report, include the name of the publisher and the year of publication.

 

Example 1: Open source

Source: The Globe and Mail

 

Example 2: Proprietary source

Source: Forrester 2016

 

Want more guidance? Check out our page on Pitches and Decks.

Citing for an assignment

Market research falls under business research. However, there is no single standard citation style for business.

Outside of the "house styles" specific to the major business journals, APA Style is the most common citation style for business (Camacho 2013).

About APA Citation Style

APA style is the preferred citation format in business and management. 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:

  • In-text citations, used with paraphrases or quotes, which identify the sources for specific ideas that you use in your writing
  • Reference list (bibliography) which provides other readers with the citation information to find the sources for their own review

 

Example of in-text citation with paraphrase:

Camacho (2013) encourages citation in business writing for ethics, legality, and credibility reasons.

 

Example of in-text citation with quote:

“In business transactions and managerial decisions, where persuasion is so important, credibility becomes an important tool to motivate and lead others” (Camacho, 2013).

 

Example of academic article reference at end of document:

Camacho, L. (2013). Clarity and Chaos: Is There a Preferred Citation Style in Business Academic Literature? Journal of

Business & Finance Librarianship, 18:49–56.

APA Style guides and resources

Examples in APA style

Common formats

Three commonly cited formats in modern market research assignments are reports, websites, and slide presentations. Following are examples of APA citations for each of these formats. All of these are based on the APA Style Guide to Electronic References. For more resources, see Resources box above. 

Please refer to this page for instructions on citing data and statistics.

1. Reports

Market, industry and company reports fall under the category of gray literature: material that has not been published in book or journal form often produced by government departments, research firms, corporations, and other organizations (e.g., technical and research reports, annual reports, brochures and fact sheets, press releases, and white papers). It may include original research, but is not necessarily peer reviewed.

Gray literature should be cited like a book, with author (or organizational author), year of publication, title (in italics), and either publisher information (for printed documents) or ‘Retrieved from’ and URL (for online material).

Additionally, include when available:

  • Report number or series 
  • Description of form (for less typical types of resources (e.g., brochures, press releases, white papers, fact sheets). 

 

General Reference Format

 Author, A. A. (year). Title of work (Report No. xxx) [Description of form]. Retrieved from Agency Name

website: http://xxxxx

 

Example 1: Market report downloaded from business database

In-text paraphrase: (TechNavio, 2015)

In-text quotation: "truck routing software, in-cab scanning services, and freight tracking" (TechNavio, 2015, p. 27)

Reference:

   TechNavio. (2015). Global fleet management system market 2015- 2019(TechNavio Insights). Retrieved

           from Factiva database: Factiva.com

 

Example 2: Annual report downloaded from company website 

cover of PACCAR 2015 Annual Report (decorative image)In-text paraphrase: The GPS and cruise control integration aid with fuel economy (PACCAR Inc., 2015)

In-text quotation: "The new driver assist systems integrate cruise control with global positioning system data to anticipate road contours, enabling the PACCAR MX-13 engine to achieve outstanding fuel economy" (PACCAR Inc., 2015, p.26).

Reference:

PACCAR Inc. (2015). 2015 Annual Report. Retrieved from: http://www.paccar.com/media

/2486/paccar-ar-2015.pdf

 

2. Websites

Citing a website, blog, or social media network comprises four key elements: the author, the date, the title (with format), and the source URL. This should be the original URL whenever possible -- not from a Google search results page or a news aggregator.

Often when dealing with a website, some pieces of information needed for the citation are missing. Refer to Table 1 in the APA Style Guide to Electronic References for acceptable substitutions.

 

General Reference Format (website)

Author, A. A. (year). Title of document [Format]. Retrieved from http://xxxxx

 

General Reference Format (article on website)

Author, A. A. (year, month day). Title of article. Website name. Retrieved from http://xxxxx

 

Example 1: Tesla product information

In-text paraphrase: Tesla offers three options for charging its electric vehicles: in the home, along major highways, and at destinations such as hotels and resorts ("Charging," 2017)

In-text quote: "Superchargers are conveniently located along well traveled routes" ("Charging | Tesla Canada," 2017).

Reference: Tesla Canada. (2017). Charging [webpage]. Retrieved from https://www.tesla.com/en_CA/charging

 

Example 2: Article on website

In-text paraphrase: HeartID inventor Foteini Agrafioti is leading the new RBC-funded Research in Machine Learning initiative at the University of Toronto (Galang, 2016).

In-text quotation: "The RBC Research in Machine Learning team will collaborate with academics from the University of Toronto and other institutions, publishing new research in machine learning and artificial intelligence," (Galang, 2016).

Reference:

Galang, J. (2016, October 20). With Nymi co-founder at head, new RBC Lab working on machine learning at U of T.

Betakit. Retrieved from http://betakit.com/with-nymi-co-founder-at-head-new-u-of-t-lab-working-on-machine-

learning-with-rbc/

 

3. Online Slide Presentations

Slides posted online to courseware or sites such as Slideshare are considered unpublished or informally published works by APA. It can be posted on a personal or institutional website, but should be publicly accessible. Otherwise, please refer to the APA Manual for instructions on Personal Communications.

 

General Reference Format

Author, A. A. (year). Title of presentation [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from http://xxxxx

 

Example: LinkedIn slides

Hoffman, R. (2004). LinkedIn Series B [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from Slideshare. https://www.slideshare.net/webjoe/linkedin-

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