Look for about us, information for investors, history. Publicly traded companies will often put a lot of their information on-line for their investors. If the company is not public, the website may provide names of executives or news/press releases with good keywords for tracking down information about the company in our licensed databases that have a business/economics focus.
Search for your company alphabetically. This site will provide basic company information. Hoover's, through Lexis-Nexis, provides more detailed information, but if you are looking for a quick snapshot and don't need all of the executives for your company, or, all of their competitors, this is a good option.
EBSCO includes a "company profile" search section. This will link to Datamonitor reports that supply detailed company histories, names of key executives, Strength Weakness Opportunity Threat (SWOT) analysis, and information about the company's competitors.
This database and Lexis-Nexis are particularly useful if you need to do some fishing for company information - particularly if the company being researched is privately held and their website does not lead to solid information.
A note about determining if a company is public or private, parent or subsidiary, and why it matters:
Check in Hoovers (through Lexis-Nexis). Hoover's will identify whether or not a company is public or private. It will also identify if the company is the parent or a subsidiary.
If the company is private, it will be more difficult to find information - especially financial information. Searching for articles about the company in Lexis and EBSCO will be the best bet for clues about the company.
If the company is a subsidiary of a publicly traded company, a search for SEC filings will not turn up your company. You need to know the parent company to find an SEC filing. SEC filings contain a company's financial information.
Notable Corporate Chronologies, McHenry Ref , HD 2721. N67 2001 - although dated, it will include histories and milestones in more well known companies.
D&B Million Dollar Directory: America's Leading Public and Private Companies, McHenry Ref, HF 5035.D82 (good source for private American-owned companies and private company information)
Directory of Corporate Affiliations, McHenry Ref Desk, HG 4057. A22 (for determining who owns whom)
Standard & Poor's Register of Corporations, Directors and Executives, McHenry Ref, HG4057.A43
Value Line Investment Surveys, McHenry Ref Desk, HG4501 .V26 (and online) - good for giving overview of past performance and potential future performance
I need to find information about how many companies are in the X industry.
EX: the cement industry
SIC & NAICS codes
What are they and why are they useful?
Data tracking system used by both government, business, and industry to collect and manage data about an industry, business or product
Provides more efficient means of tracking information – similar to using a subject heading or controlled vocabulary, with a few exceptions:
one type of company can be classified in more than one code ex: Data about WalMart can be found in NAICS for discount store, grocery store, department store, etc.
Some data is reported at the 2 or 3 digit level only, more detailed statistics are not available
Why are there two systems?
SIC is an older, outdated system, uses 2 to 4 digits. Not expandable to include newer products and manufacturing processes.
NAICS: newer and more flexible system and uses uses 3 to 7 digits
Why does the number of digits change?
The longer the number (more digits) the more specific it is - to the product level
Fewer digits means it’s a broader category or "product group"
NAICS: Click on 2002 NAICS codes, scroll through the list or use the keyword search to locate your term
SIC Link to correspondence tables which provide a "bridge" between both code systems. For a more definitive guide, refer to the manual in Gov Pubs Ref HF1042.A55 1972
Lexis Nexis Academic:Business, SIC only - Use Guided Search and look for pull-down menu options for Company Profiles, Company Financial, SEC Filings. Does NOT recognize keyword searches using SIC codes.
Gale Associations Unlimited: Use SIC codes only - Select Subject/Any Word then enter SIC code box marked “ Industry-Served SIC Code”
Vault.com Industry Overviews (free registration required) Their online site points to a lot of fee-based material, but there are some useful industry profiles and ranked lists and other resources here if you look carefully.
Internet Intelligence Index - by Fuld & Co., a competitive intelligence company which provides links to publicly available company and industry sites (some with fees, some without)
Bizstats - pulls business data from government and corporate sites, performs computations and conversions. It is privately maintained so reliability or currency may be an issue, however it is worth looking at for sources of information.
Start with a general source to familiarize yourself with the topic.
FirstGov.gov Business Information and Business.gov provide overview information and links to the many U.S. Government agencies responsible for maintaining services and compiling statistics (Commerce, Treasury, Labor, etc.)
FRASER (Federal Reserve Archival System for Economic Research)
FRASER database from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis provides historical economic data. Full-text versions of statistical publications such as Banking and Monetary Statistics and Economic Indicators are available. Historical productivity and costs numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics are also available.
Offers labor economics and statistical data including characteristics of the labor force (employment, unemployment, employee benefits, earnings, productivity, etc.).
US Dept. of Commerce. Provides trade data both at a basic and in-depth level. Includes imports, exports, state trade data, industry sector statistics and analysis, and industry information.
Purchasing Power Profiles and Workforce Density Data for all Census Tracts and zip codes: "Provides comparison data on purchasing power, business activity and workforce density for all census tracts, residential zips codes and the 100 largest metro areas in the U.S." Census tract codes may be found by using American Fact Finder.
