Use the library databases and web resources below to find a wealth of data about a particular company, ranging from general company profiles to SWOT analyses to financial data including balance sheets, income statements, and financial ratios. The majority of companies with detailed information are publicly traded companies, although a few of the resources below include some data about private companies.
Industry Research Overview
Think broadly and creatively about where your product fits. Some industries are too new or too odd to fit into an established category, you may need to look at multiple industries.
Industry reports provide general information about the companies that sell the same product or service. Reports generally include information on the largest companies, suppliers, emerging trends, regulatory changes, performance benchmarks, and key business issues.
Think about the following questions:
Which industry is best suited for my product or service?
What are emerging trends in the industry?
Who are my competitors?
Industry Codes
An industry classification code can ensure relevant results since many databases allow you to use this code to search the contents. Two codes that are assigned to all US businesses are NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) and its precursor SIC (Standard Industrial Classification).
SIC and NAICS codes can be useful tools when doing research on an industry or looking into a company's competitors.They are American standard codes and they essentially classify the industry areas in which companies operate.
NAICS Example:
44 - Retail
448 - Clothing and Clothing Accessories Stores
4481 - Clothing Stores
448140 - Family Clothing Stores
NAICS: North American Industry Classification System
Market research contains industry information, demographic data, purchasing habits of potential customers, and an analysis of a market.
Essentially, market research helps you answer some of the following questions:
What is the size of my market?
Who are my competitors?
Which market is best suited for my product or service?
How much will customers pay for my product or service?
Off-campus library database access
When you access a library database off-campus (such as IBISWorld, Mergent, etc.), you will be prompted to enter a username and password. This tells our system that you are a member of the SSU community.
The user name and password are the same as those used to access Navigator, Canvas, email, etc.
This database contains company, industry, economic and geopolitical market research from three sources, including Hoover's Company Profiles, OxResearch from Oxford Analystica, and Snapshots.
Screen and find financial information on US and international companies including downloadable financials, equity & industry reports, annual reports, filings, current & historical bond/long term debt, etc. plus new Economic tab with 550 economic variables
Full-text database of thousands of magazine and newspaper articles, news wires, legal, and government sources. Dates of coverage and updates vary from title to title. Includes company and country profiles.
This is the database formerly called, Lexis Nexis Academic Universe.
Provides comprehensive access to trade,news, professional, and scholarly material from thousands of titles. This provides more full text coverage than Business Source Premier.
Environmental Studies and Policy Collection provides access to scholarly journals, magazines, and other reference sources covering environmental issues and policies. The database includes diverse perspectives from the scientific community, governmental policymakers, and corporate interests.
Environment Complete is a leading full-text database for environmental studies. It provides hundreds of top environment journals and monographs covering agriculture, ecosystem ecology, energy, public policy, sustainability and other related subjects. It also includes millions of records and an environmental thesaurus.
Provides full text coverage for over 60 US & international newspapers, as well as more than 300 regional US newspapers. Also offers television and radio news transcripts from major networks.
Full-text database of thousands of magazine and newspaper articles, news wires, legal, and government sources. Dates of coverage and updates vary from title to title. Includes company and country profiles.
This is the database formerly called, Lexis Nexis Academic Universe.
KBR provides 14 key business ratios covering all critical areas of business performance: solvency, efficiency and profitability. Ratios are broken down into median figures, with upper and lower quartiles. Ratios are arranged by Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) Codes which makes it possible to compare a business' operating results with those of specific competitors or the industry as a whole.
Screen and find financial information on US and international companies including downloadable financials, equity & industry reports, annual reports, filings, current & historical bond/long term debt, etc. plus new Economic tab with 550 economic variables
Data Planet provides annual measures dating back more than two decades. It features statistical data series created from more than 200,000 government and non-government datasets, covering popular topics of research interest for U.S. states, counties, cities, metropolitan areas, and ZIP codes.
Detailed profiles of over 13,000 US and international advertising agencies, including business classification, agency of record, specialization, breakdown of gross billings by media, contact information for agency personnel, and more.