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Finding Company Information
Starting with Google or similar internet searches is not a bad way to identify companies of interest to research!
Identifying companies by type of product, service or industry area: NAICS codes
NAICS stands for North American Industry Classification System and consists of code numbers that are assigned to various industries, products and services and other business or non-profit activities.
You can search within many library databases, such as Business Source Ultimate, Mergent Intellect and others, by limiting to specific NAICS codes in order to find companies classified under those codes, as well as articles and reports about the overall industries and competitors within them.
For example 721110=Hotels, Lodges and Resorts industry.
Look up codes:
Census.gov NAICS
Below are some additional resources to help you first identify, then find background on companies / businesses.
Company Overviews and Financials
Below, Mergent Intellect and Orbis will both find company reports and financials on public as well as many private companies. PrivCo is a directory of private companies only, with more limited information per company.
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Mergent Intellect This link opens in a new windowMergent Intellect is a flexible web-based application that offers access to business data, industry news, facts and figures, executive contact information, and industry profiles for private and public U.S and international companies.
As of 2019 this product contains the content of Hoover's Online. -
Orbis This link opens in a new windowHas financials for 90 million public and private companies worldwide as well as in-depth industry overviews. Tip: Key resource for company financials.
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PrivCo This link opens in a new windowFor access users must register for personal account using Northwestern email address.
PrivCo provides financial and business data, news and media content on over 500,000 major private companies globally (generally defined as having at least $10 million in annual revenue, or with substantial institutional capital funding).
Non-profit entities
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Encyclopedia of AssociationsSearch this source by an industry keyword or name to find professional associations or trade organizations.
Industry Reports and Background
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IBISWorld This link opens in a new windowBusiness reports in five categories: industry market research, industry risk ratings, company research, global industry research, and economic and demographic data.
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Mergent Intellect This link opens in a new windowMergent Intellect is a flexible web-based application that offers access to business data, industry news, facts and figures, executive contact information, and industry profiles for private and public U.S and international companies.
As of 2019 this product contains the content of Hoover's Online. -
Gartner Intraweb This link opens in a new windowOnline service providing product and market research reports for the information technology (IT) industry as well as reports on technologies used within various spheres of business and electronic commerce.
Articles from trade journals, academic business journals, and news publications
Business Search Ultimate and Factiva include mostly business journals, trade journals and business news sources.
Regional Business News includes publications with regional information.
Access World News provides general news across the US and World, including national and some regional news.
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Business Source Ultimate This link opens in a new windowBusiness Source Ultimate offers a wealth of over 51,000 full-text journals and other resources that provide historical information and current trends in business. The database includes more than 27,000 videos from Harvard Business Publishing, IGI Global, Kiplinger Washington Editors, the Academy of Management and other top providers, as well as more than 75,000 videos from the Associated Press. The Company View feature allows users to view detailed company information on finances, subsidiaries, products, employees and industry specifics for more than 1.1 million of the world’s largest public and private companies. The Content in Context feature allows students to investigate a company through contextual access to related information including SWOT analyses, case studies, industry profiles, market research reports, and more.
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Factiva This link opens in a new windowFactiva provides access to over 6,000 US and foreign full-text news and business publications. Factiva also includes reports, financials, stock quotes and other investment data on public companies. Some titles listed are not available to academic library users. These titles cannot be blocked from the title list.
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Regional Business News This link opens in a new windowRegional Business News provides comprehensive full text for regional business publications (including titles from Crain Communications). This database has full text for more than 50 sources.
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Access World News This link opens in a new windowAccess World News is a comprehensive resource that includes a variety of news publications worldwide. These sources include major national and international newspapers, as well as local and regional titles as well as newswires, blogs, web-only content, videos, journals, magazines, transcripts and more. Access World News is updated daily. This database combines news articles from more than 12,000 sources and over 200 countries. Much of the material in non-English languages has been translated into English, but a significant amount of material is presented in the original language.
Market and consumer-focused research reports and data
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Mintel Reports This link opens in a new windowCovers US, European and some Asian markets in the following: automotive, consumer lifestyles, food, household, media, retail, beauty, health, drink and tobacco, leisure, technology, clothing, electrical goods, travel, life stages, personal finances, and miscellaneous. Access restricted to current NU faculty, students and staff.
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Marketresearch.com Academic This link opens in a new windowMarket research reports covering business services, consumer goods, food and beverages, demographics, heavy industry, life sciences and technology and media. Reports from within the last 12 months, called MarketLooks reports, are approximately 20-30 pages in length. More in-depth, full-length reports are included for the dates 1994 to 12 months ago. Sources for reports include Kalorama Information, Packaged Facts, and Specialists in Business Information (SBI).
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Forrester This link opens in a new windowAt log in page, enter your Northwestern email address in box "Business Email Address" and then select yellow "Log In" button."
Northwestern subscribes to partial full text services (no webinars). Limit search by selecting Only My Access.
Forrester's research publications analyze a broad range of technology areas such as new media, computing, software, networking, telecommunications and the Internet, and project how technology trends will affect businesses, consumers, and society. Forrester reports include up-to-date industry statistics, as well as illustrative graphs and charts.
Statistics
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Statista This link opens in a new windowStatista is currenting experiencing intermittent connection issues for some users. If you encounter this problem, connect to Northwestern GlobalProtect VPN and then access Statista through this URL (https://www.statista.com/).
Provides access to statistics and studies gathered by market researchers, trade organizations, scientific publications, and government sources on over 600 industries.
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Bureau of Economic Analysis: Industry TopicsThe Dept of Commerce BEA collects data on the US economy
Public vs. Private Companies
Public companies tend to be large and are traded on stock exchanges. They often are made up of corporate hierarchies with parent vs. child or subsidiary entities. It's easier to readily find financials, news, market and other details on public companies.
Private companies are often smaller, but some can be large. They are privately-owned so face fewer requirements, such as through the SEC, to be transparent about all their operations and financial details. Some library databases include some details for private companies. In addition, searching both business article databases and national and regional news article databases can retrieve information about these entities.