Business Research Guide: Companies & Industries
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Databases
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Business Insights: Global Detailed company and industry profiles including SWOT reports, market share reports, and financial reports; company histories; industry essays; case studies; scholarly journals; and business news
For more information, please view this video tutorial on Business Insights Global. -
Business Source Complete (Business Search Interface) Contains information for more than 1.1 million of the world’s largest public and private companies; data includes financials, subsidiaries, products, employees, industry information, and more. Also contains 3,700+ industry reports.
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Key Business Ratios (Dun & Bradstreet) Competitive benchmarking data, featuring key business ratios for public and private companies
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Hoover’s Company Profiles (Business Market Research Collection) Information about more than 40,000 global public and non-public companies, including location, financials, competitors, officers, and more.
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IBISWorld Reports covering the spectrum of established and emerging industries in the US, including competitive landscape, supply chains, life cycle analysis, markets, cost structure, and operating conditions
For more information, please see this brief tutorial on IBIS World -
Marketline Company, industry, and country information for every major industry in every major marketplace worldwide
Watch a short, helpful video tutorial on Marketline. -
Mergent Archives Global corporate data, equity research reports for US and Canadian companies, current and historical Annual Reports for companies across the globe, and detailed analyses and forecasts on major global industry sectors
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Mergent Intellect Private and public U.S and international business data, industry news, facts and figures, executive contact information, and industry profiles
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Mergent Online Descriptions, history, property, subsidiaries, officers and directors, financial statements, and annual reports for active and inactive U.S. and international companies
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ReferenceUSA Database containing information about 45 million businesses in the U.S. and 1.9 million businesses in Canada.
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Capital IQ NetAdvantage (S&P) Global financial intelligence for public and private companies, including performance, financial and qualitative data points, and industry-specific data with an array of tools for analysis, ideation, and efficiency
For more information, here is a video tutorial on S&P NetAdvantage. -
BizMiner Financial and market analytics, including industry and area-specific financial benchmarks and market statistics
Government/Organizations
Researching Companies & Industries
Company information is available in several of the databases listed above. A database may or may not cover a certain firm on account of its ownership (public vs. private), geographic location, operating status (active vs. extinct), and economic significance (major/global vs. minor/local). Databases also differ in the nature and amount of information that they maintain for each company.
Likewise, industry information can be found in more than one database, but not all databases provide similar coverage. Differences in coverage may be based on geographic perspective (U.S., other country, global), sector/organization (publicly traded vs. all private sector vs. nonprofit/government), and specialization (established vs. emerging industry). When presenting industry reports, some databases follow a standardized classification system. A list of common schemes is below.