MSc Research Databases: Business, news and markets
Management Librarians: Jane Hill and Helen Rhodes
This workshop will demonstrate how to use a selection of management databases to investigate a particular
company. Taking the US company Apple Inc. as an example, we will find financials, SWOT analysis, profiles,
news and relevant market research. We will also look at the countries of China and Croatia to demonstrate
additional databases.
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We will demonstrate:
A. How to find general and financial information on Apple Inc.
B. How to compare Apple with a company of your choice
C. How to find an objective profile of Apple, with expert analysis
D&E. How to find industry reports relevant to Apple Inc.
F. How to find news on Apple Inc.
G. How to find a country risk report
H. How to find country and lifestyle analysis.
All the databases referred to here can be found on the Resources for Management Library web pages listed
under the headings ‘company, financial and legal’ or ‘market research and country profiles’ http://www.bath.ac.uk/library/subjects/management/
A. How to find general and financial information on Apple Inc.
Listed companies are found on Hoover’s online a database of 88 million companies from more than 220
countries. It offers financial and executive details plus a description of activities and competitors of public,
private and government-run enterprises.
1/ Search for Apple in the main search
box and click the magnifying glass
button for search results.
2/ Select the correct company
from the results list by placing
cursor over each name for a
brief description. Click on your
chosen company name in the
list to bring up the company
overview report.
3/ This overview report provides a brief
company description and key
information.
The Company index provides links to
financial data and further company
information including main competitors.
4/ By clicking on Competition in the
Company Index you can find a list of
selected competitors plus analysis of the
competitive landscape by a named
analyst.
5/ From the Competitors list you
can select up to three companies
for financial comparison with
Apple by ticking the box next to
their name and clicking on the
button.
6/ Charts and data can be downloaded
by choosing the
option at the
top of the screen.
TIP: Use the icon ? to
access the help guide.
B. How to compare Apple with a company of your choice
1/Open Osiris and do a company name search for Apple as shown below and tick the box to select it from the
results list.
2/ Do a company name search e.g. Microsoft and at the message shown below, choose
search.
3/ In the results list, tick both Apple and Microsoft and select
choose
to add it to your
from right hand menu and then
4/ Choose the data you would like to compare e.g Total Assets and Net Income and click on ‘next.
5/ Then select the years you
want to compare e.g. 2010
and 2011 and click on ‘next’.
6/ Finally choose your
output e.g.Table or Bar
chart etc and click on
7/ If you choose Table you will see the following results. Note that you can opt to export this table if you wish.
Tip: If you need help
whilst you are using
OSIRIS, click on the
question mark icon (?) at
the top of the page to
access the product user
guide.
Please log out of OSIRIS when you have finished so that another user may log on.
C. How to find an objective profile of Apple, with expert analysis
Market research databases like Marketline and Passport provide company profiles and in-depth analysis.
1/ Use Marketline to find a profile for Apple Inc.
2/ A list of results is given beginning with
‘industries’, then ‘companies’, ‘case
studies’, ‘company news’, ‘financial
deals’ and ‘countries’.
3/ Scroll down the page to ‘companies’ and click on the link to Apple Inc. to open the report in HTML format.
4/ Select SWOT analysis from the menu on the right
Note that if you want to print the report in full you can choose the
Word or PDF options.
D. Find industry reports relevant to Apple Inc.: use Marketline
1/ Return to the results list for Apple (by using the back button on the browser) to see industry reports, case
studies and company news. Each section has further reports available by selecting the ‘view all’ button. In the
‘industry’ section see the report shown below for detailed analysis of the global computer retail market:
Search Tip: To find industry report about computer technology in general
(not exclusively Apple), choose
using the options on the right to narrow
from the menu bar and then refine
E. Find further industry reports: Keynote
Keynote is a market research and business intelligence database covering the UK.
1/ To find industry reports relevant to Apple in the UK, choose to expand ‘market research’ from the left hand
menu and then ‘market sectors’.
2/ Choose ‘Computing & IT’
from the list of reports to find
Computer Hardware, Computer
Services and Computer
Software reports.
F. How to find news on Apple Inc.
Comprehensive news coverage can be found on Nexis. This database covers over 1,700 news sources from
around the world.
1/ Put Apple in the first search box and
choose ‘company’ from the drop down
box.
2/Click on
3/ In the next search box enter keywords.
e.g. ‘product development*’ and select
‘major mentions’. This ensures that your
keywords are found either in the
headline, lead paragraph or indexing.
NB The asterisk *on development will
look for the plural.
3/ In sources, choose ‘major world
publications’.
4/ Specify date to previous 3 months.
5/ Click on
.
6/ The results are shown in a
list on the right of the screen
and grouped by type on the
left. Click on the blue text to
read the full news report.
G. How to find a country risk report
In order to fully understand a company and the market in which it operates, it can be useful to refer to the
country reports in our market research databases. Marketline provides detailed country profiles and PESTLE
reports and Passport provides additional detailed risk analysis.
1/ Select ‘countries
and consumers’ from
the top menu and
then ‘economy,
finance and trade’
2/ Under ‘analysis finder’
choose ‘country briefing’
and click on Go to bring up
a Results list.
3/ Filter results ‘by Geography’ to select the country of your choice e.g. ‘Croatia’. Click on chosen country
name to find the Risks and Vulnerabilities Report. Note that the report is spread over a number of pages.
H. How to find country and lifestyle analysis
In addition to the risk reports the consumer lifestyle profiles in Passport provide useful insights.
1/ In Passport select ‘countries and
consumers’ from the top menu and then
‘consumer trends and lifestyles’
2/ Under Analysis finder select
geography to choose the region or
country of interest e.g. Asia Pacific, then
China. Click on Go to bring up the report.
This session has introduced you to a selection of our databases. For a full list of management databases,
please see our website: http://www.bath.ac.uk/library/subjects/management
Contact details for your Management Librarians:
Jane Hill and Helen Rhodes. Location: Library level 5, room 5.04, Phone: 01225 385029 Email: lismanlibs@bath.ac.uk