Researching issues in business ethics, corporate social responsibility and sustainability requires exploring the broad business literature but also being open to insights from other subject disciplines.
Academic books and articles are important but the views of stakeholders in a sector and society at large also inform our understanding of an issue.
Authoritative evidence-based resources will include statistics, reports and information found on government, research institute and advocacy organization websites. Newspaper articles and online media will help in identifying useful sites and reputable sources of information.
Finding credible and reputable sources means thinking about the range of players involved in the issue and what information they may 'publish'.
These could be:
companies, financial institutions
analysts – equity research
industry and trade associations, stakeholder and advocacy organizations
economists, think tanks, research institutes
governments – federal, provincial, municipal and international
NGO's and IGO's
public agencies - utilities, regulators, courts
media – newspapers, magazines, tv, social​​
academics in a variety of disciplines: philosophy, law, medicine, environmental science, business, sociology, politics, economics ...