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Business/SPEA Library
You can use Reference USA or Simply Analytics to get lists of companies by city or zipcode. Search by keyword, or by NAIC or SIC code for particular industries.
Detailed business and consumer data on businesses in both the U.S. and Canada. Includes directory information, health care, and residential listings. Search by company name, geographic area, business type, SIC code, yellow page listing, revenue, location, number of employees or any combination of the above. In addition to address and phone number, each entry includes officer names and titles, corporate affiliation, business type and size of yellow page advertising. Toll free and fax numbers are given for some companies.
Web-based mapping application that lets users create professional-quality thematic maps and reports using demographic, business, and marketing data. PLEASE NOTE: Users may "sign in as guest," or register for an individual account if they would like to save their work.
Allows users to:
-Access thousands of demographic, business, and marketing data variables.
-Develop interactive thematic maps and export high-resolution images to word processing or presentation software.
-Select, sort, and compare data across multiple locations and build custom reports that can be exported to a spreadsheet for additional functionality.
-Explore historical census data to understand how regions change over time and use estimates and projections to analyze current and future trends.
-Make informed personal and business-related decisions by asking questions like “what are the social and demographic characteristics of my neighborhood?” and “where should I locate my retail store?”
Who creates company information?
Company information is generated by a variety of entities and comes in different formats. The company itself is an obvious source of information (e.g., company website, SEC filings, press releases, etc.), but outside parties also gather and publish company information (e.g., newspaper and trade articles, analyst reports, etc.). Some company information cannot be obtained freely online (which is why we pay for company-focused databases). A lot of company information is proprietary (e.g., product level sales, manufacturing processes, etc.) and can not be found at all.
Public Companies:
A public company has sold a portion of the business to the public via an IPO (initial public offering) and offers securities (e.g., stocks, shares, bonds, loans, etc.) for sale to the general public, typically through a stock exchange or over-the-counter market.
Domestic, public companies must file financial statements with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and issue annual reports. A current annual reports can typically be found on a company's website. In addition, public companies tend to be written about more in the business and popular press. These factors lead to large amounts of company financial and business information being made available to the public and outside parties.
A ticker symbol (example: Apple Inc. = AAPL) is an abbreviation used to uniquely identify publicly traded shares of a particular stock on a stock exchange. A good way to find a ticker symbol is to use Google (search: Apple ticker). Many library databases can be searched by ticker symbol, which can lead to a more precise set of search results.
Private Companies:
Ownership of a private company is held by a handful of people, often the founder and a few others. Private companies typically do not file financial statements with the SEC or disclose a lot of information to avoid leaking secrets to competitors. For these reasons, researching a private company is more challenging. You usually will not find extensive financial information for private companies. A current, annual sales or sales volume figure is the statistic most often reported. You may need to accept a revenue range or estimate or even inferred revenue based on information known or presumed. Depending on size, there is usually less published about private companies. For smaller, private companies much of the information that can be found is produced by the company itself.
Research a private company by:
Subsidiaries:
A subsidiary is a company that is completely or partly owned and wholly controlled by another company. A parent company is a company that owns enough voting stock in another firm to control management and operations. Often financial data and other information for a subsidiary is limited and/or wrapped up with parent company information. You will want to look at both parent and subsidiary to obtain a complete picture. The Corporate Affiliations database linked below provides information on company hierarchies and some subsidiary data:
For company directories, profiles and analyses, you can start with these resources:
Original industry and company reports based on published research and primary and secondary data sources.
MarketLine offers a collection of company, industry, financial, product and country information, research and data extending over all major marketplaces and industries. A searchable online business information service using published desk research and secondary data sources to create three different types of profiles. Company profiles include company overviews, business descriptions, company history, executive listings, product listings, locations, news, and commentary. Industry profiles contain: 5-year historical and 5-year forecast market values and/or volumes; market segmentations; company and/or product market shares; explanatory text identifying major trends and significant growth points; and analysis of each market's competitive landscape, including main players, distribution channels, and regulatory issues. Each country profile includes a description of the country's economic performance and GDP, an assessment of its potential for development, and detailed market and industry analysis of the country's business environment. Profiles are supplemented by a "news & comment" section.
Access to U.S. Company Data and International Company Data. Allows users to access reports on companies based around the world, searching by company name or ticker symbol, or searching across all global boundaries to find companies that match specific financial and/or textual search criteria. Also includes detailed information, such as history, property, subsidiaries, officers and directors, long-term debt, and capital stock. Financial statements are presented in "as-reported" form and in native currencies.
Integrates business and financial information from data providers throughout the world.
Includes information on more than 170 million businesses, both public and private, around the world; including the UK, Europe, Asia Pacific and emerging markets.
Detailed business and consumer data on businesses in both the U.S. and Canada. Includes directory information, health care, and residential listings. Search by company name, geographic area, business type, SIC code, yellow page listing, revenue, location, number of employees or any combination of the above. In addition to address and phone number, each entry includes officer names and titles, corporate affiliation, business type and size of yellow page advertising. Toll free and fax numbers are given for some companies.
S & P Capital IQ is a web and Excel-based financial research application produced by Standard & Poor's. It organizes historical information on companies, markets, transactions, and people worldwide, provide clients with the data necessary to analyze company fundamentals, build financial models, screen for investment ideas, and execute other financial research tasks. Some user-friendly features are its chart builder, screening tools and Excel Plug-in modeling tools.
Available for IUB-affiliated users only. Requires individual registration for access. To sign up, select “New User?”. Questions related to registration should be directed to the Kelley School of Business.
For industry and market reports and analyses, use these resources:
Includes additional access to the following modules: US Industry Spotlights collection, Global Industry Reports United States: Industry Reports (NAICS) Industry State Reports (FL, MA, IL, NY, OH, CA, TX) Industry iExpert Summaries Specialized Industry Reports Specialized Industry iExpert Summaries Business Environment Profiles.
MarketLine offers a collection of company, industry, financial, product and country information, research and data extending over all major marketplaces and industries. A searchable online business information service using published desk research and secondary data sources to create three different types of profiles. Company profiles include company overviews, business descriptions, company history, executive listings, product listings, locations, news, and commentary. Industry profiles contain: 5-year historical and 5-year forecast market values and/or volumes; market segmentations; company and/or product market shares; explanatory text identifying major trends and significant growth points; and analysis of each market's competitive landscape, including main players, distribution channels, and regulatory issues. Each country profile includes a description of the country's economic performance and GDP, an assessment of its potential for development, and detailed market and industry analysis of the country's business environment. Profiles are supplemented by a "news & comment" section.
Full-text access to international industry-specific databases including healthcare, telecom, IT, transportation, electronics, and semiconductors.
Frost & Sullivan provides research and analysis in new market opportunities for corporate growth. Frost & Sullivan covers the following markets and sectors:
Aerospace & Defense
Automotive & Transportation
Chemicals, Materials & Food
Chemicals & Materials
Food & Beverages
Energy & Power Systems Energy & Power
Power Supplies & Batteries
Environmental & Building Technologies
Building Management Technologies
Environmental
Healthcare
Clinical Diagnostics
Drug Discovery Technologies
Healthcare & Life Sciences IT
Medical Devices
Medical Imaging
Patient Monitoring
Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology
Industrial Automation & Electronics
Automatic Identification & Security
Electronic Devices
Industrial Automation & Process Control
Power Transmission
Semiconductors
Sensors & Instrumentation
Surface Mount Technologies
Test & Measurement
Information & Communication Technologies
Communications Services
Conferencing & Collaboration
Contact Centers
Digital Media
Enterprise Communications
IP Communications
IT Services & Applications
Mobile & Wireless Communications
Network Security
Next Generation Carrier Infrastructure
Smart Cards
Space & Communications
Access to market research reports that cover life sciences, sensors, materials, environment and sustainability, commerce, and publishers. Provides the latest trends, opportunities, challenges, and innovations emerging within these landscapes.
For information on demographics, marketing strategy and market research, start with these resources:
Mintel Reports offers product and industry market research reports covering US and International marketplaces. Each report combines data and analysis of the competitive landscape, supply chain, market-share size and trends, and consumer profiles. Complex demographic issues are broken into easy-to-understand sections, explaining consumer behavior and demonstrating the structure of the market. Reports may be downloaded as RTF (rich-text format) files; tabular data may also be saved as CSV (comma-separated values) files.
Access and downloading instructions:
1. All users will have to agree to the Academic permissions and prohibitions, which prohibits systematic copying, use without attribution, use for commercial purposes, or distribution to non-IUB students and employees.
2. After accepting the above permissions and prohibitions, you must create an individual profile in order to download reports.
3. Select "Log into your profile..." to create a new (or log into an existing) Mintel profile.
4. After logging in, downloading is available by either using the direct download option for a report or by using the My Presentations feature which also offers the direct download option for the report.
Please note: Euromonitor allows access to IU faculty, staff, and students only. Authorized users may utilize the information obtained from this resource for academic, non-commercial purposes only, and only during the time of official affiliation with IU. Passport is a global market research database encompassing historical and forecasted statistics, reports & interactive tools on industries, economies and consumers in 210 different countries and territories. Passport also tracks the effects of COVID-19 for 50 different countries
Simmons Insights (formerly Simmons OneView, and prior to that Simmons Choices3) provides data on adult U.S. consumers based on national surveys. The data includes consumer demographics (age, gender, income ...), consumer psychographics (behavior, attitudes ...) and buying and media habits. The database can be used to create individualized reports for marketing strategies, advertising choices, and other business decisions.
Consolidates statistical data on over 80,000 topics from more than 18,000 sources. Includes market research, dossiers, industry reports, and digital market outlooks and forecasts.
Provides access to data from numerous institutes and sources. The portal offers four languages: English, German, French, and Spanish. The German platform focuses on content about DACH-countries; the international platform incorporates international data. The French and Spanish platforms provide country specific data in their respective languages.
To access news articles and trade publication for background information, trends and case studies, use these resources:
Comprised of ABI/INFORM Global, ABI/INFORM Trade & Industry, and ABI/INFORM Dateline. Notable periodicals include The Economist, Sloan Management Review, and the Wall Street Journal.
Provides access to peer-reviewed business journals, covering all disciplines of business, including marketing, management, accounting, banking, finance, and more. Indexing and abstracts and full text are available back as far as 1886.
Comprehensive coverage of news and current events, government, business, medical, and legal topics, as well as general reference information is included. Formats found in Nexis Uni are: international and domestic newspapers, magazines and trade journals, broadcast transcripts (NPR, ABC News, CBS News, and CNN), company financial information, industry and market news, federal and state case law, law reviews, medical news and abstracts, and state and country profiles. Includes business information on over 80 million U.S. and international companies and 75 million executives. Non-English language news sources are available in Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Dutch. Campus news from some 400 college/university papers and over 50 wire services are also available.
To access Nexis Dossier select "Business" (near the bottom of the Nexis Uni homepage). Then select "Create a Company List" in the Company Dossier box.
Citation involves properly crediting the authors of information sources used in a paper or presentation. You will need to cite if sources are directly quoted and/or paraphrased or if reading a source contributed to the ideas presented.
Always cite your sources.
Different disciplines use certain citation styles. Use these Quick Style Guides, the full citation manuals, or ask library staff for citation assistance.
Quick Style Guides
Full Style Manuals
Other Citation Resources: