Business Research
From CommWiki
The library has many resources for researching for-profit companies and industry. Many recommended resources and more are listed in the Company Information & Industry Information sections of the Biz Wiki. Another place listing a few more resources is the Business & Finance section of the library's InfoTree Directory (the Top Picks are a good place to begin).
Highly Recommended: starting with this Company Research Basics guide
Note: most business databases are licensed for Ohio University users only; from off campus, users will be instructed to authenticate with name/PID# or OAK ID/password.
Recommended Databases
Business databases usually include basic company info, financials and often key executives. For more recommendations and tips on researching for-profit companies, take a look at the Company Research Basics guide above.
- Business Source Complete Industry journals and trade publications. Search for a company name for articles about that company. Also click on types of reports at the top of the search results: Company Profiles, Industry Profiles, Market Research Reports, and SWOT Analysis (a company's Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunites, and Threats to further success)
- Mergent Online Industry and company reports -- search for a company name, then browse through the clickable tabs at the top (industry reports, competitors, subsidiaries, etc.)
- Hoover's Online a Hoover's report for a public company generally includes a Factsheet, Company Overview, History, People, Products/Operations, Competitors, Financials, News and SEC Filings. The reports for private companies will contain considerably less information, since information for private companies is not as readily available.
