Moore 6320 Unit 4 CS

Company and Industry Research (Webinar) Video Transcript

[0:00]

Hello, and welcome to our discussion of business resources for company and

industry research in the CSU Library! Today, I am going to introduce you to

the library resources that are good starting points when you are looking for

information on specific companies or industries. The CSU Library contains

four individual databases that are good starting points for company or

industry research: they are Mergent Online, IBISWorld, Business Source

Ultimate, and ABI/INFORM Collection.To access these databases from the

library homepage, click the Databases button and look for them in the A-Z

list that appears.

Let’s take a closer look at the specific features of each database that you

might find helpful. For company details and reports, Mergent Online is a

great database to choose! To start, type the name of a publicly-traded

company into the Company Search box here and click Go.

[1:00]

Then, select the one you are looking for from the company list that appears.

Let's try Apple. On the company page that opens up you will find a brief

overview of the company at large, including company location and contact

information, industry affiliation, and basic financial market details. Use the

section tabs and descriptors below to navigate through the different parts of

a company report.

This first page, for example, is a synopsis of the Company Details

page,which includes a list of key executives, up-to-date stock prices, and

recent financial figures. For more in-depth information, explore the section

tabs and their related subcategories. Under the Reports tab, for example,

you may find the most recent public annual reports that have been posted

publicly such as the latest 10-K, which is an annual report that gives a

comprehensive summary of a company’s financial performance.

[1:55]

The Competitors tab will allow you to quickly compare the basic information

of a company’s closest competitors as well as jump between individual

company reports. Using the Remove column and the add company box, you

can build your own custom report to compare a company with competitors

that you identify.

To search for information on private companies, return to the main database

search screen and make sure the private company check box is checked.

The information available for private companies may not be as extensive,

but it’s still worth a look. Remember that the company information available

even for public companies will differ from one profile to the next. In general,

though, the company profiles of major companies found in Mergent Online

are extremely detailed, and the only way to truly know what’s available is to

get into it and explore it widely!

Another database to try for company and industry information is the

IBISWorld database. Here, on the IBISWorld main search screen, start by

typing either a company name or a keyword related to the industry you want

to explore.

[3:00]

Let’s try Samsung, a popular brand for technology and electronics. That will

bring up a list of industry reports in which Samsung is featured, such as this

one: Audio & Video Equipment Manufacturing in the US. Click on the title of

a report to explore it further.

On the “About this Industry” page, you will find, among other things, an

industry definition, which provides a short, technical outline of an industry as

well as a short list of the products or services that are important to that

industry. The supply chain is a visual overview of the industry that includes

links to other reports of interest, such as those for upstream suppliers,

downstream buyers, and related industries. The key economic drivers for a

given industry are listed here as well.

Under Major Players, Samsung is listed, which is why a search for that

company triggered this report, but in this database, the focus is on the

industry at large instead of the individual company, which is why the main

activities and products of the industry and similar industries are highlighted

here instead of the company we started with.

[4:06]

In fact, the Similar Industries section can be used to identify potential

competitors or substitutes. IBISWorld is a great resource to use for the

bigger picture behind a company, so to speak.

Use the section tabs at the top to dive more deeply into any given industry.

The Industry at a Glance section provides a quick statistical overview of the

industry at present, its key influences, and its past and expected

performance. Below that section, the Industry Structure chart identifies key

industry trends and levels that are discussed throughout the report. And the

Executive Summary provides a brief explanation of significant trends and

issues, current performance over the past five years, and a forecast for the

next five years.

If you’re pressed for time, this section can also be used as a quick summary,

but deeper analysis of this section’s contents can be found in the other

sections of the report.

[5:00]

For more information on the future of an industry, check out the Industry

Outlook section, which provides information on an industry’s life cycle state

and forecasts the potential for growth or threat of shrinkage of the industry

in the future.

And the Major Companies section provides information on the top 2-4

companies within an industry, if any. Here, we can see that Samsung

qualifies as a major player due to its significant market share of the industry

at large, with its nearest competitor, Bose Corporation, trailing in the

distance.

The industry reports in IBISWorld, like the company reports in Mergent

Online, are quite detailed and demand careful exploration, but the

information that they can provide is generally worth the time it takes to go

through them. So to sum up, Mergent Online is a good database to search

for company information, and IBISWorld is better for finding information on

industry and market research.

[5:57]

The last two databases listed here, Business Source Ultimate and

ABI/INFORM Collection, are most often used for article searches, and we will

discuss how to find company-focused articles in just a moment. But what

most users often don’t know is that they, too, offer ways to pull up company

and industry details as well. Here is the main search screen of Business

Source Ultimate, one of our bigger business databases.

To find out information about a specific company, click the Company

Information link at the top of the main screen. On the company search

screen, you can search for information by specifying Company Name or

Ticker Symbol. If you need help choosing a public U.S. company to research,

look below and check the Public box under U.S. Company Type and then hit

search.

This will take you to a list of publicly-traded companies in the United States.

Click the name of a company to be redirected to a company overview page,

which contains contact information, revenue and financial data, and a list of

important executives.

[6:58]

Again, be aware that the amount or type of specific information varies widely

among companies listed. To use this database for industry research, go back

to the main search screen. Under search options, below the search boxes,

you can search by NAICS code if you know it; NAICS stands for North

American Industry Classification System. If you don’t have an NAICS code,

select industry profile under Publication Type; then type a broad keyword

into the search boxes above.

Let’s type in telecommunication and “United States” and hit search. The

results list now contains a variety of industry profiles and reports from the

telecommunications industry, including one entitled “United States

Telecommunications”. To access the report, click the PDF Full Text link here.

The company or industry reports in Business Source Ultimate aren’t always

as robust or easy to browse through as those found in Mergent Online or

IBISWorld.

[8:00]

But in this database, you can also try a targeted search for articles that

focus on a specific company. To do an article search that focuses on a

specific company, return to the main search screen and type a company

name into the top search box.

Again, let's try Apple. Then select Company Entity as your search field limit.

Add more keywords to the lower boxes as necessary and hit search. This

limiter is especially helpful if your chosen company has a name like Apple or

Target, which are also words that can be used in other contexts.

Our other big business database, ABI/INFORM Collection, is also a good

place to look for articles on specific companies. Although this database looks

a bit different than the one we were just in, the same strategies apply to

article searches.

Type a company name in the search box to start; then, on the right, use

your search field limiters to limit the search to Company/Organization--ORG.

Add more keywords to the lower boxes as necessary and hit search.

[9:02]

As in the other databases we have looked at so far, you can also look for

company or industry information here as well.

For industry and market research, go to the top of the main search screen

and click Browse. This will take you to a list of reports. Under Industry and

Market Research, click First Research to be redirected to a list of industry

reports or scroll down and explore some of the other types of reports

available in this database, including individual company reports as well as

reports on the economic conditions of specific countries.

As I mentioned earlier, be aware that the amount or type of specific

information presented may vary widely from one report to the next.

To sum up, the four main databases to use for company or industry research

are as follows: Mergent Online is best for company information, and

IBISWorld is a great starting point for industry overviews, and both Business

Source Ultimate and ABI/INFORM Collection are good databases in which to

find articles with a company focus.

[10:02]

If you don’t know which database to use, or if you’ve tried all of the search

tips we’ve discussed today with no success, please reach out to us and ASK

A LIBRARIAN.

I work with three other very knowledgeable librarians, and I’ve learned from

experience how bouncing ideas off another person can help tremendously. I

have spent many hours searching our library databases and I still ask my

fellow librarians for suggestions on search tips and keywords every single

day.

So definitely reach out to us; we are happy to help! We are available via

phone and email during CSU business hours, and chat is available at all

times. So do reach out to us if you have questions, and please let us know

how we can help make your library experience the best it can be!