Company and Industry Research
Beyond
Davida Scharf, SoM Librarian
Van Houten Library, NJIT
Last updated Fall 2011
http://library.njit.edu/researchhelpdesk/tutorials/
mgmt-company.ppt
Web Search Engines
Academic research today usually requires using
the library website AND the open web
Library
Web
Agenda
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Overview of company and industry research
NJIT Library and services
Business Planning requires research
1. Industry, Customer and Competitor Analysis
2. Company and Product Description
3. Marketing Plan
Where to begin?
Research means you have questions!
How are they doing? Any big news?
 big change in stock price?
 problem with products?
 major external events, technologies?
 bought or sold?
 government regulation change?
Company and Industry
Company
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Business description
Industry classification
Competitors and partners
Structure and ownership
Financial data (Historical,
current and forecasted)
Stock information
Intellectual property
Legal information
News
Industry
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Main players
Market size and share of
market (Historical and
forecasted)
SWOT analysis
Technology trends
Regulatory issues
Regional differences
Industry specific metrics
Company info
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Business description
Industry classification
Competitors and partners
Structure and ownership
Financial data (Historical,
current and forecasted)
Stock information
Intellectual property
Legal information
News
Where is it?
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Company website
Company Profiles
SWOT analysis
News
Trade Magazines
Company info
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Business description
Industry classification
Competitors and partners
Structure and ownership
Financial data (Historical,
current and forecasted)
Stock information
Intellectual property
Legal information
News (marketing,
advertising, operations,
strategy)
Where is it?
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Company website
Company Profiles
SWOT analysis
News
Trade Magazines
Govt / SEC, FDA, FCC
Investor resources
TIP: Who needs to
know this besides
you?
Sources of company information
Company website / For investors
Annual report and 10K
News articles
Specialized publications, collections, and search tools
The U.S. government (SEC, FDA, EPA, etc.)
A word about Corporate Websites
BE AWARE OF THE PURPOSE / AUDIENCE
A word about investment info
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Research Tools
Type of Info
Business Source Complete
Lexis-Nexis
USA.gov
Yahoo Finance, Investex
Mergent*
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Company website
Company Profiles
SWOT analysis
News
Trade Magazines
Govt / SEC, FDA, FCC
Investor resources
TIP: Which tool indexes which types of sources?
Where to get it?: Company
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Lexis Nexis – ownership, history, key competitors,
financial data back 5 years, limited analyst reports
Mergent* – ownership structure, competitors, history,
industry surveys, financial data back 15 years
Edgar http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml - SEC filings
Business Source Premier – Datamonitor company
reports and general business and trade publications
Investext* (Thomson) – analyst reports (forecasts)
Yahoo Finance or Reuters – stock prices
Company website/Industry Associations – could be
biased view
* Rutgers – no remote login – go to Dana Library
Use Search tools
Library portals to many databases
(books & articles)
Web
Portals
Online
Aggregators
catalog
Library
Databases
Scholarly
Trade
Journals Journals
Periodicals
TEXT
(articles, reports,
books, reviews, etc.)
Newspapers
Magazines
Directories
Get Help
Request materials
from other libraries
Databases (search
by company or
topic)
Search for books
Request materials
from other libraries
Accessing
LibraryLibrary
Databases
Accessing
Databases
Use pull down to access
frequently accessed
databases
Or use Databases A to Z
Databases by
Subject
Accessing Library Databases
Popular Business Databases
•Lexis Nexis
•Business Source Complete
•Academic Search Premier
•Frost & Sullivan
Lexis Nexis - Use “Company Dossier” link
for company profiles
To find a
company
profile use
‘Company
Dossier’
search
Parent and subsidiaries listed separately
-choose wisely
Tip: Often there is much less publicly available information for
private companies.
Securities and Exchange Commission Filings
In LEXIS-NEXIS
Securities and Exchange Commission Filings
http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml
Tips:
Explanations of
what is in the
various SEC
forms at EDGAR
Look for “material events” like ‘notifications’ 8K
Lexis Nexis: Full text
newspapers, magazines and reports
Environment: Country information
Mergent Online (at Rutgers only)
Industry classification
Business Source Premier: Company Profiles
(Datamonitor)
Company report by DATAMONITOR
Datamonitor: SWOT Analysis
Datamonitor: Market Forecasts
Source: Global Pharmaceuticals Market, Datamonitor, December
2007, accessed Via Business Source Premier,
Business Source Complete:
Company Search for news
Mouseover for abstract
Detailed record, full text, and citation
Automatic citation
Business Source Complete: Subject Thesaurus
Business Source Premier:
search for business concepts/functions
Sort
Get full text
Boolean Search Strategies
Video explanation at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tm-sDKCnO4
Comparing your company to peers
Financial data items (books, behind ResearchHelpDesk)
• Industry Norms and Key Business Ratios. D&B. 14 key
business ratios by industry
• Annual Statement Studies - Industry Default Probabilities
and Cash Flow Measures. RMA
• Almanac of Business and Industrial Financial Ratios.
Financial benchmarks by industry and size class
Benchmarking stock price against an index
• Yahoo Finance – components link lists indices that
include company or look up ticker for index
(Also: Compustat massages corp. data to benchmark
financials in an industry)
Industry info
Where is it?
Tip: Use many of the same tools
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Main players
Market size and share of
market (Historical and
forecasted)
SWOT analysis
Technology trends
Regulatory issues
Regional differences
Industry specific metrics
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Industry Association
Website
Industry Profiles
Market Research
Reports
Financial comparisons
SWOT analysis
News
Trade Magazines
Government data
Frost & Sullivan
On Frost.com you will find market and technical intelligence on specific
industries and consulting and training services.
The website www.frost.com/njit without PDF's for students
The website www.frost.com with PDF's for faculty, staff, and EDC with
assigned Frost passwords
Your professor may get you individual
access passwords
Frost & Sullivan: NJIT page
Frost & Sullivan: Research Finder
Frost & Sullivan: Browse industry categories
Frost & Sullivan: Record
U.S. Government Search Engine and Directory:
FedStats www.fedstats.gov (or usa.gov)
Country Specific Industry Profiles
General Tips for Business Research
Company
• Public vs Private – tickers
• Parent vs subsidiary – finding the right company
Industry
• Industry codes: SIC vs NAICS
http://www.census.gov/epcd/www/naics.html
• Geographies
• Defining/segmenting the market
• Meaningful metrics and measures vary by industry
Potential Pitfalls
Comparability/standardization of data is key
• Reporting standards
• Year ends
• Reporting currency
• Reporting frequency (annual vs. quarterly)
• Scale (thousands vs millions)
Or find specific periodicals by title
Business week
Electronic Journals
Multiple ways to access
Trade magazines: Library Archives of
Automotive News
Where to get it?: Industry Information
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Lexis Nexis – ownership, history, key competitors,
financial data back 5 years, limited analyst reports
Mergent* – ownership structure, competitors, history,
industry surveys, financial data back 15 years
S&P Industry Surveys (print) – good overview
Business Source Premier – Datamonitor company and
industry reports and business publications
Investext* (Thomson) – analyst reports (forecasts)
Yahoo Finance or Reuters – stock prices
Industry Associations – could be biased view
* Rutgers – no remote login – go to Dana Library
A word about Trade Association Websites
BE AWARE OF THE PURPOSE / AUDIENCE
Issues, but
consider bias
TIP: Use news or IPL to find trade associations:
http://www.ipl.org/div/subject/index.html
Investigating Global Markets
NJIT Library Resources
http://library.njit.edu
• Business Source Premier [Database]
• Lexis Nexis - News [Database]
• Global Competitiveness Report 07/08,
World Economic Forum [Book]
• World Development Indicators 2008,
World Bank [Book]
Commercial Vendors (with free data)
• Economist Country Briefings
http://www.economist.com/countries/
• Country Credit, Institutional Investor
http://www.iimagazine.com/Rankings/R
ankingsRankCCSeGlobal08.aspx
• Deutsche Bank Country Infobase
http://www.dbresearch.com/servlet/rew
eb2.ReWEB?rwsite=CIB_INTERNET_E
N-PROD
Governments & Organizations
• CIA World Factbook
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications
• World Bank: http://econ.worldbank.org/
& http://www.doingbusiness.org
• FedStats www.fedstats.gov
• OECD www.oecd.org
• IMF http://www.imf.org/external/
• United Nations http://data.un.org/
Other Libraries
• Harvard Library Country Guides
http://www.library.hbs.edu/guides/#
• Library of Congress
http://international.loc.gov
• Internet Public Library Newspapers
http://www.ipl.org/div/news/
Using Web Search Engines
But do you know…?
Subject directories
Engines
Meta Search
Business Research Map
http://library.njit.edu/
Company/Industry
Financial data
Benchmark data
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Lexis Nexis [DB]
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Lexis Nexis [DB]
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Business Source
Premier (including
Datamonitor) [DB]
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Mergent* [DB]
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Edgar [W]
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Yahoo Finance [W]
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Factiva* [DB]
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Investext* [DB]
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S&P Industry
Surveys [B]
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Investext* [DB]
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Company Website [W]
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Industry Norms and
Key Business Ratios.
Dun & Bradstreet [B]
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Annual Statement
Studies (RMA) [B]
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Almanac of Business
and Industrial
Financial Ratios [B]
Questions
Library Research Help Desk
(973) 596 3210
B=Book DB=Library database W=Web / *Rutgers – no remote login – go to Dana Library
Contact me: Davida Scharf
scharf@njit.edu
Cite your sources
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When you research a topic you may use information
from articles, books, or the Web to support your ideas.
However, you must credit the original authors of
these sources by citing them. To cite means that you
state where you found the information so that others
can find the exact item again.
Readers (including Professors!) should be able to
locate the source you used without undue burden
There are several systems or conventions for this.
Sample Citations
Books
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Catalog: Library website – Find books – Online catalog
Books can be circulating (stacks) or reserve status
Selection of useful reference books:
 Standard & Poor’s industry surveys
 International Directory of Company Histories
 Market Share Reporter
 D&B Industry Norms and Key Business Ratios
 Almanac of Business and Industrial Financial
Ratios
To find if NJIT Library owns a book - go to the Library
home page (library.njit.edu) and Click on Find Books
and More
Basic search
Quotations needed in ‘basic search” to search for phrases.
“human resources”
NJIT’s - Cite Your Sources - Page
Cite
NJIT’s Citation Page
NJIT’s Research Guides
researchguides.njit.edu
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