Question

I am looking for scholarly websites and journals about Wal-Mart and its affect on Capitalism

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I am writing a paper on the love/hate relationship America has with Capitalism by way of Wal-Mart i.e. Low prices + low wages, most of items are made overseas, etc. Any help would be appreciated.

Answered By: Linda Kern
Last Updated: Sep 03, 2020     Views: 505

Hello,

If this assignment is for AS111, the assignment was clarified to ask for a reliable website, not a scholarly one. Scholarly and reliable are two different ideas. A reliable source may not be scholarly. A source that is scholarly will be reliable.

A source can be evaluated for its reliability using our sources at http://libguides.brenau.edu/webeval or http://www.screencast.com/t/SHVwurpjEnHR .

Scholarly sources are (as you know from our video at http://www.screencast.com/t/9F6j6Qv89e !) are evaluated based on the credentials of the author, the intended audience, the level of vocabulary used, the amount of background knowledge needed to understand the content, and the presence of references. Therefore a scholarly web site would be written by PhDs, Masters, or other researchers for PhDs, Masters, or other researchers, using a college level vocabulary. It would require an advanced understanding of the subject to comprehend the information, and it would include references. Scholarly web sites are relatively rare.

To find a reliable web site, I suggest you you use Google and limit your search by the kind of web site. For example, searching Wal-Mart capitalism site:.edu will yield web sites from educational institutions. Searching Wal-Mart capitalism site:.org will yield organization web sites. Be very careful to evaluate the web sites. The Wal-Mart debate is highly charged and you will find much bias throughout the results.

To find scholarly books and journals, begin at the Business LibGuide at http://libguides.brenau.edu/business .

First, click on the gold tab labeled Business-Books. In the search box, type Wal-Mart AND capitalism. The results include a mix of print books, electronic books, and articles from newspapers, magazines, and journals. The first result is a print book that looks ideal -  Wal-Mart : The Face of Twenty-First-Century Capitalism, by Nelson Lichtenstein. Offshore : The Dark Side of the Global Economy by William Brittain-Catlin might also be useful. Since you're not far, I'll hold these at the front desk in case you want to pick them up. In the summer we're open Monday-Thursday 8:00-8:00, Friday 8:00-12:00. If you want these or other books but don't want to pick them up, complete the form at http://library.brenau.edu/infodelivery-and-ill/request-an-item/ and we'll send them out by Priority Mail.

The search results also include articles, as I mentioned. Filter out the non-scholarly information by looking at the left-side tool bar and clicking Peer Reviewed. Look for View Now links for articles that are available in full text. These results seem to contain a lot of book reviews. It might be just as easy to find results in the databases.

Among the gold tabs on the LibGuide, you'll see one labeled Business-Articles. These are the premier business databases. I suggest you begin with ABI/Inform Complete. After logging in with your Brenau username and password search Wal-Mart. Click the boxes below the search box to limit the results to full text and scholarly journals. You should have 400+ results - too many to deal with. Look down the right side tool bar and limit the results to the last 5 years, reducing the number to 150+. Then look again to the right side toolbar and click on Subject, then choose More Options. Click the boxes to include the subjects that make the most sense for your paper, such as economic theory, competitive advantage, and/or business models. This will yield articles such as Carden, A., Courtemanche, C., & Meiners, J. (2009). Does Wal-Mart reduce social capital? Public Choice, 138(1-2), 109-136. doi:10.1007/s11127-008-9342-6 . By the way, the Wal-Mart AND capitalism search wasn't very effective here. Articles deal with more granular concepts such as marketing strategies, supply chains, and consumer behavior.

If you don't find all of the information you need in ABI/Inform, then try another database on the Articles tab of the LibGuide, Business Source Complete.

Let us know if you need more help!

 

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