CONTENT Modeled on CQ Researcher, SAGE Business Researcher offers in-depth reports on current topics in business research. Reports include an executive summary, an overview, a background, an examination of the current situation, a looking-ahead forecast, a chronology, and resources for further study.

These are accompanied by related short articles, data sets (downloadable as Excel files), and insights from experts recorded in question-and-answer format as transcribed interviews with pro and con statements. The product is targeted at undergraduate researchers, and at the time of this review there are 32 issues available, dating from January 12 through December 7, 2015.

usability The Business Researcher homepage opens on the most recent issue, displaying an executive summary of the topic, an option to read the full report, and links to other material in this issue, including short articles, data, and expert views.

A toolbar at the top of the screen features a drop-down menu of issues and content types, alongside a help section and a magnifying glass icon allowing users to gain access to a simple search box or the advanced search. (According to SAGE, the icon was used because the full-search bar doesn’t fit on mobile screens and the publisher’s goal was to be consistent across all devices.)

The latest issue at the time of this review was Social Entrepreneurship. After reading the executive summary, I opted to read the full report and was led to a page titled, “Can startups change the world?” and continued to read an overview about the start-up Exo, which produces cricket flour protein bars. The summary describes how the company began (two college roommates wanted to create a healthy, sustainable protein bar) and how it raised funds on Kickstarter to finance its first production run.

The report then segues from Exo to the larger topic of social entrepreneurship, noting, “Lewis and Sewitz [the roommates] see themselves as social entrepreneurs, part of a growing movement of individuals who seek to transform and build institutions, including businesses, to tackle pressing and intractable social problems, from poverty and illiteracy to environmental destruction and climate change.”

The rest of the overview discusses topics affecting start-ups, such as, “Does a social enterprise need to be self-sustaining?,” “Should investors and social entrepreneurs be allowed to profit from a social enterprise?” and “Can social enterprises stay true to their mission if they become large and successful?” The text is interspersed with charts, tables, and graphs (all with downloadable data via Excel) and is followed by footnotes, most of which are online-linked resources.

The background section of the report provides context for the subject, describing a variety of businesses and foundations involved in social entrepreneurial endeavors. Next, the current situation section explores “Corporate Structures for Social Enterprises,” while the looking-ahead forecast leads to resources such as one on the broad definition of social entrepreneurship as the field evolves.

These are followed by the report’s chronology, which begins in 1209, when “St. Francis of Assisi establishes the Franciscan order” and extends to 2015, in which “Etsy, the Web platform for makers and crafters and a certified B Corp, goes public. … [and] Crowdfunding giant Kickstarter, already certified as a B Corp, relaunches as a benefit corporation.” The chronology is followed by resources for further study, which includes a bibliography (containing books, articles, reports, and studies), a next-step section outlining possible trends, and a list of companies and funding agencies interested in the field.

Accompanying the Social Entrepreneur report are the short articles: “Class Opens Social Entrepreneurship to the World” and “How to Plan a Social Enterprise”; six data sets: “Most Impact Investment Occurs in Post-Venture Stages,” “Most Fellowship Applicants Aspire to Profits,” “Most Impact Investors Want Competitive Returns,” “Ashoka Funds Fellowships in Various Sectors,” “How Social Enterprises Make Money,” and “Profitability of U.K. Social Enterprises,” covering everything from postventure stages to competitive returns to how social enterprises make money, and an expert views Q&A with Catherine Clark on impact investing. (Clark is the founder and director of the i3 Initiative on Impact Investing at Duke University’s Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurs at the Fuqua School of Business.) That’s one report, in a nutshell.

Next I returned to the main screen’s top toolbar to examine how one might access the information in the file other than by reading the latest report. Selecting the issues section takes users to a list of all the Business Researcher subject areas (sortable by date and title) and a page on how to cite Business Researcher resources.

Meanwhile, the content type section allows for displaying all material types or viewing all reports, all short articles, all data, or all expert views. It’s not clear how accessible this makes the information. Would an undergraduate, or library patron, look at 179 data sets spread across 32 different subject areas?

A simple search for “carbon tax” found seven results, but after querying the results’ text for the phrase, only one was retrieved. (“carbon” was in the other six.) The publisher promises that “topical search functionality will be in place in early 2016,” which will address this issue. A simple search for “Chindia” found no results, but perhaps that is because the file is still comparatively small. An advanced search for “migrants European Union” yielded zero results, although a separate search for “migrants” received one result and another for “European Union” returned 26 results. As a cross-check, a search for “migrants and European Union” in Business Source Complete and prompted 863 results.

pricing SAGE Business Researcher is available by subscription or purchase. Academic library pricing is based on FTE and starts at $1,880 for a subscription and $3,570 for purchase. Special pricing is also available for public libraries, starting at $280 for subscription and $540 for purchase.

VERDICT Content found in Business Researcher is solid overall, and the CQ ­Researcher–type report format functions well; however, the searching functionality needs improvement. (SAGE is apparently addressing that early in 2016.) With more content, this file would become a valuable resource for educating and informing business and industry majors. Libraries serving these students should wait until topical search functionality has been added before acquiring.

Cheryl LaGuardia is a Research Librarian for the Widener Library at Harvard University and author of Becoming a Library Teacher (Neal-Schuman, 2000). Readers can contact her at claguard@fas.harvard.edu