Research & Writing Tutors
Research Librarian
Key Databases for Management Studies
- Mergent Intellect This link opens in a new windowBasic company information for over 20 million North American and 70 million global companies (directory information from Hoovers and Dun and Bradstreet) as well as industry profiles. Also includes WhitePages data allowing for people and business search including reverse phone lookup. The Global Corporate Family Tree feature places companies into their full ownership context. Customized reports and lists can be downloaded to Excel, Word and PDF formats.
- Mergent Online This link opens in a new windowCorporate financial information for U.S. and international public companies. Includes annual reports, corporate history, ownership structure changes, subsidiaries, property holdings, annual and quarterly financial data (current and historical), 30 years of stock prices, current long term debt, balance sheets, income statements, cash flow, bonds, Moody's ratings, capital stock, and links to recent news reports. Also includes country profiles and time series economic data back to 1984. Create customized analyses and comparison reports for companies and their industries. Financials can be searched and downloaded into spreadsheet format.
- Mergent Archives This link opens in a new windowDigitized corporate and industry documents dating back to the early 1900s including annual reports, Moody's Municipal and Government Manuals back to 1909 (history of corporate America), Moody's Corporate Manuals back to 1918, Ford Equity Research Reports, and Mergent Industry Reports back to 2003, Dun & Bradstreet Country Reports and Country Insight Reports, 20 years of Hoover's business handbooks, D&B Million Dollar Directories back to 1959, CRB Commodity Yearbook back to 1939.
- Business Source Premier This link opens in a new windowJournal articles, plus full-text country economic reports from the EIU, market research reports, industry reports, SWOT analyses, and detailed company profiles for the world's 10,000 largest companies. Provides some full-text access to journal articles. Covers materials published 1965-present, with some coverage extending back to 1922.
- Regional Business News This link opens in a new windowFull-text regional US and Canadian business journals, newswires, and newspapers. Covers materials published 1990-present.
Some Definitions
Trade Journal - a publication that is published for those involved in a particular industry or trade. Some examples would be Billboard, Advertising Age, Accounting Today, or Restaurant Report.
Company Reports - usually a detailed report that provides the following information about a company: type of business, business address, phone, and web address, ticker (if a public company), products, subsidiaries, top executives, revenues, etc. Hoovers, a subsidiary of Dun & Bradstreet, is one of the primary companies that creates these reports.
Industry profiles - a report that summarizes the state of a particular industry. Typically these reports explain the current business climate for the particular industry, how it has performed and what to expect moving forward. It also names the top companies in the industry discussed and give very brief information about them. Quite often a SWOT analyses is also included.
SWOT Analysis - a brief description of the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats for a particular business or industry. Sometimes referred to as a SWOT Matrix.
Newswire - a grouping of editors and journalist who provide up to date news stories. Some examples would be The Associated Press or Reuters.
NAICS and SIC codes -- a system that categorizes business enterprises by including them in a hierarchical structure and assigning a unique number to each industry. Some databases may give the option of searching by NAICS or SIC codes. Most company reports include them so you can note which codes apply to the company you are researching, then search using the codes to find other businesses that fit the same industry category. NAICS stands for North American Industry Classification System; SIC stands for Standard Industrial Classification. Check this web site for more info: NAICS Lookup