Specialist sources of business information
Table of contents
P.1
The Web -using commercial search engines effectively/ Evaluating what you find/
Domain search/ Filetype search/ Google Scholar & the Swansea University linking device
p.3
Finding specialist reports (companies, industries, commodities, countries, market
research) – facts and figures
p.7
Zanran: a specialist search engine for numeric data.
p.8
Mintel Oxygen & Mintel Global Markets Navigator (market research)
p.11
FAME – financial company data for UK and Ireland
p.13
News – Global news from Nexis and from ProQuest (Economist and Financial Times)
The Web: Google
We all use Google to find what we’re looking for on the internet. The problem is it finds too
much, most of which you don’t need and it’s hard to pick through it all to find the stuff you
do want. In year one of your degree it’s probably okay to use Google to find some
information for your assignments. By year three you really should be using databases paid
for by the library for your dissertation. You need to do this to make sure you’re not missing
any important studies in the field you are researching. This is often called the ‘Hidden Web’;
yes, there is lots of good academic material that is hidden behind subscription charges and
intranets.
Don’t quote Wikipedia. It is not appropriate to quote Wikipedia at university. You can
however look at the list of references at the end of an entry which may provide a useful
resource which you can use. Remember to read and evaluate it first!
But for now, if you are going to use Google, get smart! Try these tricks to find scholarly
material and not just dubious websites.
Evaluate what you find...
Who?
Who wrote the information? Are they qualified to do so? (Check the About us links)
What?
What sort of content? Facts and figures? Pressure group? Opinion? Commercial?
Academic? Is it suitable for your dissertation? Is there bias?
When?
When was the information updated? Is it up to date?
Where?
Where is the information from – check the country domain or About Us or Contact
Us links.
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Google Scholar & how to install “iGetit @ Swansea” on your laptop or PC.
Use Google scholar (google ‘google scholar’ to find it) which searches for good scholarly
information.
Sometimes what you find is freely available, either as an Open Access Journal or a pdf
from another institution.
But if not, you can still check if Swansea has paid for you to use it by using the iGetIt at
Swansea button. First you need to install it, here’s how you do it:
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In Google Scholar click on ‘Settings’ at the top of the page.
Next, click ‘Library Links’ in the left hand menu
In the search box type ‘Swansea University’
Choose ‘Swansea University – iGetIt@SwanseaUniversity’
Now when you find something that isn’t open access, you can click on the
iGetIt@SwanseaUniversity’ button, which will check to see if we hold a subscription/pay
for whatever it is you found.
Use domain searching
If you know where you want to find your information (e.g. a UK government web site)
try a domain search.
 Type your search terms in the search box followed by site:gov.uk
 This search technique actually works better than using the site’s own search box!
Search by file type
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For example, if you’re looking for a pdf document, use your search terms followed by
filetype:pdf
To find data and statistics you could try filetype:xls, e.g “overseas aid” filetype:xls
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Finding specialist reports
Report literature is not usually scholarly but it can still be important and authoritative. It provides
useful data on countries, commodities, industries and markets for business students of business.
Reports are published by governments, international organisations , specialist companies who
gather business intelligence and by research institutes.
Publication type
Market research reports
Source (database)
Mintel Oxygen
Market research data
(only covers these markets:
Food; Drink; E-commerce;
Technology; Leisure)
Mintel Global Market Navigator
Company profiles
EBSCO Business Source Complete
ProQuest Business Collection
Annual company reports
Industry reports
ProQuest Business Collection
EBSCO Business Source Complete
and
ProQuest Business Collection
Commodity reports
ProQuest Business Collection
Country reports
EBSCO Business Source Complete
ProQuest Business Collection
Type of content
Consumer behaviour
Trends
Brands
Market leaders
Analysis
Data only
Market size
Market segmentation
Market share
Market forecasts
EBSCO: 1 million MarketLine
company profiles give an
independent overview of
companies covering: main
products, key personnel, history,
location, SWOT analysis, company
view and (occasionally) revenue
analysis.
ProQuest: Hoovers Company
Records series includes some
similar information.
7,000 annual reports
Value of an industry
Economic growth/decline
Market segmentation
Market forecasts
Market volume
Competition
Reports from the Economist
Intelligence Unit and also Oxford
Economics.
Includes: Price forecasts;
Demand & consumption;
World stock figures
1400 country profiles from the
Economist Intelligence Unit.
Also EIU country data.
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Company Profiles
A company profile will give you a useful overview of a company – its major products and services
and competitors.
EBSCO Business Source Complete
1. Access EBSCO Business Source Complete and login with your Athens username & password.
2. Click on More > Company Profiles at the top of the EBSCO screen, then search for a Company
profile by name of the company.
Each report should have sections on the history of the company, overview, location, key personnel,
SWOT analysis, company view, key competitors and revenue analysis.
ProQuest Business Collection
1. Access ProQuest Business Collection and login with your Athens username & password.
2. Click on Browse, then Company Reports, then Hoovers (for UK companies)
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Industries and markets: reports.
Using EBSCO Business Source Complete, click on New Search.
Search for an industry or market, e.g:
Scroll down the page to Sources Types – click on Show More. Select Industry Profiles and Market
Research to limit your search to independent reports full of facts and figures
Also limit by Date.
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Country reports
Country reports are useful to business leaders who wish to export to, or import from, specific
countries, or who wish to explore other markets.
EBSCO BUSINESS SOURCE COMPLETE
Search on a country, e.g. Bulgaria.
Limit your search to Country Reports, Full-Text and to recent years
Country reports include reports which give an overview of a country (Country Monitors) and also
more specific reports on political risk and on emerging markets.
PROQUEST BUSINESS COLLECTION
PROQUEST also supplies country reports: Finance and Forecast reports; Country Profiles and Country
Economic Forecasts.
1. Click on Browse
2. Select Country
Reports
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Commodity reports
Commodity reports are available from the ProQuest Business Collection.
Useful for forecasting prices, future consumption and supply of raw materials and food stuffs.
1. Access ProQuest Business Collection and login with your Athens username & password.
2. Click on Browse > Commodity Reports >
Zanran
Zanran.com is a specialist search engine for locating numeric data. The user can specify country or
web domain, date, or file type when searching.
The user can either:
1. Register for free with Zanran and directly access the data files on Zanran’s own server; OR
2. Just click on the URL to go to a website.
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Market Research Information From Mintel
i)
Mintel Oxygen market research reports include analysis, commentary and data.
NB: Swansea University subscribes to the following industry categories only: ecommerce; food; leisure; technology; drink.
ii)
Mintel Global Markets Navigator contains industry and country data containing
market size, market share and forecast data for thousands of consumer goods
categories worldwide.
Mintel Oxygen
Access Mintel Oxygen via iFind Research. You’ll need to accept the Terms & Conditions.
You can use the Search box (top right) to search for reports.
You can also browse the report categories listed under “Subscriptions” under “My Reports”.
Report home page
Resources on the right show summaries to download. You cannot download the entire
report - you can only download individual sections. “Executive Summary” will give an
overview or click on “Report Contents” to show the sections of the report.
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Within a section of a report you have the following options:
 Download as a document (Rich Text Format, suitable for Word)
 Print: you can only print individual sections of a Report
 Export to Basket: collect sections in your “Basket” (accessed via Tools / Export
Basket) and then download them as a single .rtf file.
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Mintel Global Market Navigator: Finding Data
Click on the Search option just below the Mintel logo. This displays options to construct a
set of data by Region and Country, then Industry and Market.
As you make selections, the display refreshes below to display the relevant reports
available.
Click on View results
Mintel Global Market Navigator: Using Data
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Select tabs displaying data (Market size, Market segmentations, Market shares,
CAGR, Socio-economic data) to view data tables.
There are options to download sections of data on the individual tabs or the entire
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report can be downloaded using your preferred file options:
Toggle between market/country, or jump to a different section.
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FAME (Financial Analysis Made Easy)
FAME provides financial data on all companies in the UK & Ireland.
The user can:
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Find the balance sheet and other financials for a single company;
Retrieve a list of companies within specific criteria (e.g all the engineering companies in
Swansea; all the FTSE companies in the UK);
View the peer group of a specific company, i.e the 9 companies with a similar annual
turnover, similar number of employees, and industry code, i.e. the competitors.
Output the data to Excel for further analysis.
Access via iFind Research with your SU username and password.
Finding a specific company report
Enter the name of the company, e.g. VAX. Click on
Results
The entry for VAX Ltd should be listed at the top of the list.
Click on the company name to view the report .
To view different types of report go to the menu on the right of the screen & select report format
Standard Report = covers 10 years, includes key financials, balance sheets, profit & loss and lots of
other sections.
Full Report = contains the same information as the standard report, plus extra sections on filings,
industry, brand names, plus lots of graphs & indices to show structure of balance sheet and profit &
loss.
TIP:
To start a brand new search, click on
the home page
Then Clear Search by clicking on
in the top left of screen to return to
to start afresh
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Finding companies matching two or more criteria (location & industry)
Research topic: Search for fish farms and hatcheries in the Edinburgh area.
Users can select one or more criteria to perform a more advanced search.
The grouped view categorises the criteria, to see a full listing of the criteria select alphabetical list
First criterion: Location
Select Postal Regions from the Location menu:
Expand Scotland by clicking on the +, then select Edinburgh (EH) & click on
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Second criterion: Industry
Select Industry > UK SIC code* > Select 03 Fishing & Aquaculture > Click on OK
*UK SIC stands for UK Standard Industrial Classification
At the bottom of the home page in the Search Strategy box the steps for the latest search
are listed and the number of companies which have been found at each step.
Click on View list of results.
Finding news
Economist and Financial Times on ProQuest Business Collection
These two key publications are available via ProQuest.
1. Access ProQuest Business Collection & login with your Athens username & password.
2. Click on Publications
3. Search for The Economist or Financial Times.
4. Whichever publication you choose, you can search within the publication by keyword or
browse by year/date.
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5. Click on Advanced search to carry out a more precise search.
Nexis
Useful for global news -100s of newspapers from around the world/many languages.
Use news for current affairs –very recent topics not covered by scholarly articles.
Do not use newspaper articles as a substitute for scholarly information. Just use for very
recent topical issues and events.
Access via iFindResearch.
Enter search
terms.
SOURCES:
Limit to
“broadsheets”
for quality
newspapers.
Limit by date
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