Business Information
Module 2: Seeking for business information
– Web-based information resources
Part B: Company information
International Summer School on Information Literacy, funded by CEI,
10-14 September 2007, Fermo, Italy
Sabina Cisek, PhD
Associate Professor
Institute of Information and Library Science, Jagiellonian University
Krakow, Poland
isabina@inib.uj.edu.pl, sabina.cisek@gmail.com
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Company information
• Information about different types of organizations:
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publicly trade companies (listed on stock exchanges)
private companies
state-owned companies
not-for-profit organizations
government bodies
• Information about:
– Company background – name, address, website, contacts,
identification number; managers; line of business – products,
services; legal status and type of a company; size, number of
employees; corporate affiliations; basic financial data (income,
profit or loss, turnover)
– More in-depth information – company finances, competitors,
history, perspectives, policies (ecological, social, etc.)
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Company information sources
• Directories, yellow pages, databases
• National/official registries
• Business/industry/product classifications
• Lists/rankings
• Annual reports and other formal documents
• Stock exchanges’ websites and services
• Trade magazines, journals, news services
• Companies’ websites
• …
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Company directories, yellow pages, databases
• globalEdge – Company Directories:
http://globaledge.msu.edu/resourceDesk/companyDirectorie
s.asp
• Central & Eastern European Directory On-Line:
http://www.ceebd.co.uk/ceebd/industdi.htm
• Hoover’s: http://www.hoovers.com/free/
• Europages, the European Business Directory:
http://www.europages.com/ , http://www.europages.net/
• Kompass: http://www.kompass.com/
• Teleadreson [Poland]: http://www.teleadreson.pl/?lang=en
• ThomasNet [USA]: http://www.thomasnet.com/
• Short assignment: find on the Web the yellow pages /
business telephone book for your country and describe its
information content
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Company identification numbers – come from:
• official / governmental company registers (in most
countries companies and other organizations have to
be registered with a government agency or a court or a
statistical office – and get a national registration
number); examples –
• Company registration around the world [links to registers]
http://www.commercial-register.sg.ch/home/worldwide.html
• RBA – Official Company Registers
http://www.rba.co.uk/sources/registers.htm#general
• UK Companies House – Worldwide Registries
http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/links/introduction.shtml
#reg
• commercial information providers; the most important
is DUNS Number by Dun & Bradstreet
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Business/industry/product classifications
• List of NACE (Nomenclature Generale des
Activities Economiques) codes. NACE is a EU
industry standard classification system consisting of a
6 digit code:
http://ec.europa.eu/comm/competition/mergers/
cases/index/nace_all.html
• LogisticsWorld – NAICS / SIC Codes Lookup
and Conversion Table:
http://www.loglink.com/sic.asp
• The United Nations – List of international family
of economic and social classifications:
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/cr/family1.asp
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Global, international, local lists/rankings
of companies
• Gary Price's List of Lists
http://www.specialissues.com/lol/
• Forbes http://www.forbes.com/lists/ ;
http://www.forbes.com/2007/03/29/forbes-global-2000-biz07forbes2000-cz_sd_0329global_land.html
• Fortune http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/ ;
http://money.cnn.com/lists/index.html
• Assignment: What type of information can you get from
rankings? Check Forbes and/or Fortune lists and their
information content. Work in pairs.
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Annual reports and other formal documents
(compulsory prepared by „listed” companies, but
also – by other organizations)
• AnnualReports.com http://annualreports.com/
• CAROL – Company Annual Reports On-Line:
http://www.carol.co.uk/ [Europe, USA]
• IRIN – Annual Report Resource Center http://www.irin.com/cgibin/main.cgi?index=main
• NYSE Listed Company Directory
http://www.nyse.com/listed/listed.html
• Example of an annual report – European Patent Organisation
Annual report 2006 http://www.epo.org/about-us/office/annualreports/2006.html
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Annual reports and other formal documents
(compulsory prepared by „listed” companies, but
also – by other organizations)
• Assignment – work in small groups
– Look at two or three different annual reports.
What data and knowledge do they offer?
How in-depth and comprehensive is the
information? Describe information content
and potential uses of annual reports.
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