MGT 201 / MKT 201: Integrated Management and Marketing Principles: Company and Industry Analysis

Industry overviews and analyses

IBIS World - comprehensive market research reports on more than 700 US industries, classified at the 5-digit NAICS (North American Industrial Classification System) level.  Additionally, more than 600 “super-niche” industries are covered.  Each report is presented in a standard format that includes an industry overview, competitive landscape, operating conditions, key statistics, and industry outlook. 

Plunkett Research Online - Offers business intelligence, industry trends, statistics, market research, sales leads & corporate profiles in a variety of formats. Plunkett also provides links to a comprehensive list of associations related to each industry that it covers.  Associations can be an excellent resource for authoritative industry information. [Also see: Encyclopedia of Associations]

ABI/Inform Global - In addition to articles on topics in business and management, this database includes company and industry reports.

• Change search interface from Basic to Advanced
• Search by industry name (e.g. "telecommunication"), then scroll down to specify Document type: Industry Report; or
• Search for keywords that describe your industry (or search for a specific company within an industry), then use suggested search terms (or subject terms from relevant results) to refine your search

Business Source Premier

• Change search interface from Basic Search to Advanced Search
• Search for an industry (e.g."pharmaceutical industry"), then scroll down to specify Document Type: Industry Overview; or
• To find industry reports from MarketLine, combine the phrase "industry profile" in one search box with a relevant word or phrase (e.g. "pharmaceutical") in the next search box. To find an industry report that mentions a specific company in the industry, combine "industry  profile" with the name of a company in the industry (e.g. "Merck") -- and change the accompanying search box to All Text
• Search for company names, keywords and phrases, then use Subject terms from relevant results to refine your search for an industry.

Company information: financials, company histories, SWOT analyses, human resources, etc.

Business Source Premier

To find SWOT analyses (to examine the competitive landscape) and full company reports (30+ pages) from Datamonitor / MarketLine (and from other sources):

• From the menu at the top of the page [above the search box], choose Company Profiles, then search or browse by company name (try both, the index is inexact)
• Or from the main menu, change search interface from Basic Search to Advanced Search
• Search for a company (e.g."samsung"), then specify Company Entity in the accompanying search box
• Add "SWOT" as a search term; or
• Scroll down to specify Document Type: Company report
• In addition to the search results displayed in the center of the page, look for the link to Company Profiles at the right side of the page.

• Search for company name, and add relevant keywords and phrases such as "strategic planning," or "competition," or "new product development" or "Human resources"
• Other relevant search terms include "marketing strategy", "trends", "sales forecast", "financial performance", etc. Note that some phrases used in your course or your assignment (such as "work design" or "management model") might not serve as useful search terms. In this case, think more broadly to come up with words that describe types of work designs -- or outcomes that might result from the application of certain management models -- and then try searching with some of those words.
• Use specific subject terms from relevant results to refine your search.

ABI/Inform Global - In addition to articles on general topics in business and management, this database includes company reports.

• Change search interface from Basic to Advanced
• Search by company name (e.g. "nokia"), then specify Company/Organization in the accompanying search box
• Search for keywords that describe your concept (such as "financial performance"), then use suggested search terms (or subject terms from relevant results) to refine your search
• Note that "investment policy," "corporate profiles," "equities and bonds," "market data" or "earnings per share" are all examples of viable search terms; other potentially relevant search terms include "forecast," "trends" and "case study"
• Combine the company name with the search phrase "fair disclosure wire" to find transcripts of conference calls

Mergent Online 

• Spreadsheet financials, including ratio analyses (up to 15 years or more) -- downloadable to Excel
• Create customized comparison reports (company-to-industry, etc.)
• Includes access to annual reports, 10-Ks, 10-Qs and other SEC filings (for executive compensation, look for the latest proxy statement: DEF 14A)

Hoover's Company Capsules & Profiles - results from company-name searches will include Hoover's reports for competitor companies.

Private company information

PrivCo - this database focuses exclusively on private (non-publicly-traded) companies. Includes profiles of more than 900,000 companies, as well as information about private company mergers and acquisitions; private equity deals; and venture-capital funding deals.

Free online sources

 Google Finance

• Search by company name
• From company results, you can also view news, financials, company summaries, etc.
• Scroll down to Sector Summary to choose a high-level industry sector (e.g. "Healthcare"); after choosing a major industry sector, browse the sub-categories (and sub-sub-categories) for the most relevant industry (e.g. "Biotechnology & Drugs")

 Yahoo! Finance

• Search by ticker or company name
• Links include SEC filings, industry reports, insider transactions, and an insider roster
• After looking up a specific company, from the left-side menu, select the "industry" tab to learn more about the industry; or follow this link to the Yahoo! Finance "Industries" section

 Market Data Center -- within WSJ.com

• After finding your company, select the "News," "Chart," or "Research & Ratings" tab for additional information
• Follow the 'Financials" tab for current financials and links to SEC filings
• For industry information, go directly to the industry group tracker

Company websites

• For current and historical financial news and filings.  Usually found under "Investor Relations", "For Investors" or "Corporate" section of site (sometimes this is buried at the bottom of the web page)
• Review SEC filings, press releases, "events" (including analyst conference calls), etc.

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) http://www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/webusers.htm

• Search the full text of SEC filings such as 10Ks and others from the mid-1990s forward.  You can search across multiple companies at once, or an individual company.
• A brief tutorial on how to search the EDGAR database is available here.
• A guide for investors is available here. This includes details on how to search for executive compensation.