Company Research: Home

1. Identify the company's history, financials, ratios, competitors
2. Find stock information on the company
3. Find legal /consumer/product information on the company
4. Find corporate culture information
5. Find current news articles

Finding company information can be used in many different ways:

• Market research: finding our which companies are the key players in an industry can be the first step towards a more analytic industry research

• Consumer issues: finding company information about their products can help in collecting information about consumer behavior

• Competitive intelligence: finding information about who's doing well and what's been done in a business sector can help in doing marketing research.

• Job search and interview preparation: gathering information about companies who are hiring and active in sectors of interest can help put the finishing touches on interview preparation.

When researching for company information, the first step is to determine if you are investigating an American company or an international company.

For American companies, a key point to consider is whether the company being researched is private or public. This largely determines the amount of information available, i.e. public companies must make their financial information publicly available, while private companies do not.

You can use the library databases to find company reports and profiles:

Company research may also involve some industry research.

To fully understand a company, you must be familiar with the company's competitors and the industry it is a part of. Also, how you interpret a company's financial information, annual report, and key ratios may be substantially affected by which industry the company is in.

To find information about industries, look at the dedicated page: